What's your usual approach to Baldur's Gate?

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Hello everyone,

I subscribed to the forum only a few days ago and I'd like to know what you guys and gals think about this topic since I recently had conversation about it with a friend.

This applies to the first Baldurs Gate as well but since I am playing BG2EE at this moment, I thought I'd ask here.

The question being, how do you choose your NPCs behaviour?
1) Roleplay it strictly, which means every decision you make in regards to dialogue, quest resolutions and such must be in line with your chosen alignment and the backstory you might have invented for your PC.
2) Roleplay to an extend, which means the same basic approach as 1) but allowing for exceptions in specific cases where you just want this one item or this one NPC do die/survive and to accomplish this you have to go against your alignment.
3) No adherence to alignments and such.
4) Pick whatever is best for your party without any regard for morals or decency. The difference to 3) being that this would also mean killing certain NPCs that are not supposed to be killed (Elminster and Drizzt are the ones I am thinking of).

I mostly gravitate towards 3) but I usually give my PC some Chaotic alignment so it doesn't totally break character.
To give an example, in my current trilogy run I was an total ass in the first BG and killed some NPCs solely because they gave XP/loot (I did not kill Elminster or Drizzt). Overall I probably did more good than bad for the Swordcoast but it was not a display of great honor.
In BG2 I started to be a nicer person while inventing some headcanon that the unpleasant experiences in Irenicus dungeon somewhat tempered my PC by giving her the perspective of a victim.The PC is also kind of a victim in the first part of BG1 but I'd argue being tortured is different than being hunted (while killing all your hunters).

So, what is your perspective on this?


I'm not creating a poll since I am more interested in your individual thoughts than a quick overview of what the majority does.

 

RP my alignment to a T.

 

I usually go for 2, since alignment is not a straitjacket, but often wind up doing 3. I tend to go overall for Good or Neutral choices, but my in-game kleptomania also tends to show up (I was trained by old-school RPGs that actually encouraged it on the NES, Game Boy, and Apple II).

 

I don’t like to gather all items/complete all quests. That’s what replays are for. Though I admit when I have other games in my queue that I want to play I might deviate a little from said path….

 

I once took a self-imposed challenge of getting every unique magical item possible. Of course it took two playthroughs (one siding with Bodhi and one with Aran). The biggest challenge was cleaning out the Adventurer's Mart because you can't steal from there.
I did however have a thief (or maybe a bard) get high {stats} on potions of insight/perception/master thievery and loot every other merchant in Athkala before they wore off, and then did the same thing in Trademeet.
I abused the "bottomless bags of holding", but still had to use a container in the Promenade to store stuff until after I could acquire it since the Adventurer's Mart changes inventory while you are gone.

 

I usually try to do as many quests as possible but since I don't know the game THAT well I am sure I always miss some. Also, I am rather adept at always screwing up a few and noticing it way too late.

 

I do too, as I find the final quest very difficult if I don't have my characters around level 17 or higher with good equipment.
The real question is do I do the quests before or after rescuing Imoen. I usually try to clean out what I want from the Adventurer's Mart, then rescue Imoen ASAP since the Adventurer's Mart gets new stuff after you come back.
As for RP, I'd like to have a kleptomaniac thief that loots every store you can pickpocket from to the ground, but the only NPCs are Yoshimo, Jan and Imoen and neither strike me as the type.
Part of the reason for my thread a while back of A few good thieves that nobody really suggested any mods for (and I wouldn't mind a necro with some suggestions).
So I break character and like to loot everything, especially potions of thievery enhancement, magic projectiles, and invisibility potions.

 

BG2 Thief NPN mods….
The Beaurin Legacy includes an evil Enchanter/Thief

Adrian (has several class options, try making him a M/T) is a Zhentarim NE NPC - quite enjoyable

There are mods for Coran, Tiax, Alora and even Xan who has class options in BG2 but they may kill immersion if you give a crap out that type of thing

Qulaye is an evil Drow option as well

 

Alignment is a meaningless abstraction that hinders roleplay far more than it facilitates it. Unless you're playing a monk, paladin, or a cleric, you shouldn't use it as any more than a very broad guideline of how a character should act. Even if you are playing one of those classes, the code you follow is that of your god or your order and not necessarily some sense of morality.

 

I usually try to complete all content the games have to offer while not worrying about alignment too much though will usually stick to options and outcomes that match with my major alignment (i.e. good/evil).
There's not a lot of room to be really evil in baldur's gate though and even where you can you will usually take a hit in rewards, which is a bit regrettable.

Besides, an evil character acting out their intentions in broad daylight just sounds stupid as heck to me - there's no reason why a villainous character can't act out the role of being good if they stand to gain more benefits, while performing their actual plans on the down-low.

 

Yeah, I think i mentioned this years ago, but I recall once I had an argument with my DM.
I used to play 2nd edition, and I had a character that had a certain personality of a bard. That personality had elements of both lawful good and chaotic good.
He was rather whimsical and at times a bit chaotic and random, often flipping a coin to make a decision, or would play pranks and start trouble with evil characters or stuffy nobles in meetings because he was bored, but he also had a strong moral code and was brutally honest all the time with little tolerance for b.s. (which taken to this extreme was somewhat chaotic, you'd be surprised at the number of white lies you tell in the day out of politeness) as well as having certain lines you did not cross such as killing children.
I listed him as neutral good because he had no commitment on the law/chaos axis and elements of both to his personality, but the DM complained that I was flip-flopping between lawful and chaotic and wanted to put penalties on me unless I chose one.

The point of this was that the character did not fit into the regular alignments, and alignment was interfering with my character, although he was consistent, and was a caricature of a real person with certain personality traits exaggerated or taken to an extreme.