Forsaken Lover
07-21-2016, 11:07 AM
Well in all my searches to find out how to do this, everyone was talking about all the great items you can steal from various people, including Drizzt.
But anyway, thank you.
http://i.imgur.com/71nXPuJ.png
(I used my real name because I don't know any real "setting appropriate" names.)
So, I recently completed Jade Empire and declared it one of BW's best games. It was then pointed out to me I still need to play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, the latter o fwhich is often heralded as their best title. Well, I've been meaning to play some old RPG s for a while but never got around to it.
I started with Planescape: Torment. Got up to just after Ravel. I kind of hate it. Bored out of my skull. I was told BG was a lot more fun to play so here I am.
So I was originally thinking I'd roll with a Cleric. I think gods being a real thing and "needing" people to venerate them is one of the more intriguing elements of fantasy settings like this. However, when I found that custom portrait you see there, I didn't think i tfit what I was going for. The expression is far too...gloomy to fit a crazy follower of whatever CE deity. No, I wanted something different. I really dig that expression is the thing. It's so...gloomy and I wanted to roll with something that fit that.
Then I found the Song and Silence Mod, adding new "Kits" for Bards. And after that I found Dirgesinger and all was decided from there.
I consulted heavily with Google and other forums on my stat build. Charisma isn't very important in this game but I still want it high for RP purposes. A Bard that isn't extremely alluring isn't doing their job.
Intelligence determines how many spells you can learn or something? Def need that. Also works well for RP purposes as I roll again with a High INT/Low WIS character. I'll get more into that in a bit.
Don't need Strength or much Constitution because this Bard is support/defense
For Weapon Proficiencies I wen twith Shortbow and Sling. I was kinda regretting this when Shank kept kicking my ass because I couldn' thit him most of the time and I only had a long-range weapon (but apparently this doesn' tmatter in this game, anyway) but once I get a real party going, I shouldn't worry about doing direct damage.
Now let's leave all that number-crunching behind and focus on what really matters. Roleplaying.
I was very happy to find that the game automatically supplies you a short biography based on what Class you chose. Things like Skyrim where they just dump you off with no explanation or backstory really irritate me. I have too much of an imagination to work with a completely blank canvass - I can never decide where to start. But here, the game gives me something to work with and I just molded my character around it
From a young age, you were..."different" from other children. You knew it and you had a feeling your foster father and the others knew it, too. What precisely was "different" about you was something you could never put your finger on but it caused you to act out for much of your youth. Reprimands and punishment seemed to do nothing to dissuade your rebellious nature. Then, suddenly, one day it all but immediately stopped. You have long been enraptured by your foster father's countless tales, though not so much for the content as for the art of the telling. Blessed by a world of books, you have surrounded yourself with the ancient legends and endless lore, and developed quite a skill for showmanship. One of the cooks has become quite fond of you and, between recitations of often bawdy poems and songs, has provided you with somewhat haphazard voice instruction. With an outlet for your creativity, and losing yourself in matters of the mind and distant dreams, you "calmed down." That is to say, the surface symptoms the others saw were at last put to rest. As long as you had your tales and your books and the refuge of your own head, you could forget this boring old dump full of people who were squandering away their precious days.
You know little about how you came to be a ward of Gorion's, but over the year's you have gleaned something of your mother's tale from the vague allusions and from the words he sometimes uttered in tear-filled sleep. She was a half-elf from the courts of Ashabenford and a friend of his for many seasons.As you have no memory of her, nor any keepsakes to remind you of her existence, you have come to believe that she died while giving birth to you. While you certainly love to keep your secrets, you resent how even this small bit about your mother was mostly kept from you. and that was to say nothing of how you were completely oblivious about your father. To not know something as vitally important as where you came from might have contributed to the way you are; to those feelings that the world is unstable and might swallow everyone up any moment.
Oh Pada, it was horrible! The man was smelly and he tried to kill me! Somebody call the Wahmbulance! I might have told him what happened but that dialogue option was just insulting and not how my Nikkolas would react at all.
Well that didn't take long. Bit anticlimactic, him dying so fast like that. Sorry foster pops.
Told this guy...Xzar or something to get stuffed when he offered healing potions. "Act of good will?" I was nearly just murdered! Shove your possible poison up your ass. Generally I'm playing a very "frazzled" PC at present. His whole world got turned up side down. I'm thinking of this as a "transitional" phase between the boy of the keep who kept to himself and said all the right things and the more extroverted fellow he is to become. Right now, he's overcome by a torrent of emotion - not so much for Gorion's death but for the death of "myself" and my old life. Despite my lamentations as a Dirgesinger, there will be precious little to miss about that humdrum existence.
So I got to the Friendly Arms Inn and am leaving with my two new, possibly temporary, party members. Nik is "cooling down" and adjusting it. This is something I want to get into with my alignment.
Chaotic Evil is NOT Stupid Evil. It is NOT The Joker. Both of those are ways to define CE but neither "are" CE. Chaotic means to oppose structure, order, regulation and promote freedom above all else. Evil in D&D means to champion the self above all else. Combine the two together and you get someone who believes they should be free to do whatever they please and everyone else be damned. But while people do so love to try and pretend evil has a big scary face and is self-destructive, it's not that simple. While it's true some CE people are shortsighted and barbaric, you can also take a more...philosophical, abstract approach to it. I can see a CE person working on a plan for years if it meant creating the ultimate bomb or weapon to utterly destabilize the world order. Similarly, you do not have to cackle madly and revel in the suffering you cause just because you are CE. I think the "Chaotic Evil Philosopher" as I would call them would approach things in a more subdued fashion. Look at my portrait and read the biography. I am not going to play "YES, YES, YES! PAIN, SUFFERING, BLOOD! YAY!" That's not something I could enjoy or wrap my mind around. No, what my PC is all about is a more nihilistic approach to things. So when my Dirgesinger comes and uses his power to "to teach folk the folly of love, the futility of hope, and the finality of the grave" (http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/classes/prestige/general/dirgesinger.shtml) it's less sadistic and more...preacher-like. He is bringing people the truth that they don't want to hear, awakenings feelings and thoughts they don't want to acknowledge.
So, for gameplay talk about the actual gameplay I did. I died to a couple wolves several times. 6 HP? Jesus Christ, I never played an RPG whee I started off that dinky. Then again, I guess HP doesn't get into teh tens of thousands like i tdoes in most JRPGs. And I can't even remember what my HP was in stuff like Dragon Age or KOTOR since I just looked at a bar there. Anyway, my only strategy for them was to run around in circles, try not to get hit, and let Imoen take them out. She seems to do a lot more damage than I do.
In any event, I got two new party members, am off to a mine, I told this old guy to piss off when he was probably the mysterious "E" who wrote the letter to my doomed foster father (I was still in the "shocked" state of mind) , some random fodder guy got killed by what I assume is the main villain Slovakia or whatever. I recall reading a conversation not too long ago about who was better between him and the guy from the next game. I would think it be the BG2 guy but some people were supporting this fellow as the better antagonist. I didn' tpay too much attention 'cuz spoilers. I know nothing about these games.
I am eager to see how this game goes and then to play Baldur's Gate II. This game, it's sort of like the Mass Effect 1 where the sequel was so huge and so popular nobody really talks about what came before. But I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. If BG2 is a true rival to Mass Effect 2 or Best BioWare game, I can't wait to get to tit.
In the meantime, dying to those wolves was more fun than all my time playing Planescape.
But anyway, thank you.
http://i.imgur.com/71nXPuJ.png
(I used my real name because I don't know any real "setting appropriate" names.)
So, I recently completed Jade Empire and declared it one of BW's best games. It was then pointed out to me I still need to play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, the latter o fwhich is often heralded as their best title. Well, I've been meaning to play some old RPG s for a while but never got around to it.
I started with Planescape: Torment. Got up to just after Ravel. I kind of hate it. Bored out of my skull. I was told BG was a lot more fun to play so here I am.
So I was originally thinking I'd roll with a Cleric. I think gods being a real thing and "needing" people to venerate them is one of the more intriguing elements of fantasy settings like this. However, when I found that custom portrait you see there, I didn't think i tfit what I was going for. The expression is far too...gloomy to fit a crazy follower of whatever CE deity. No, I wanted something different. I really dig that expression is the thing. It's so...gloomy and I wanted to roll with something that fit that.
Then I found the Song and Silence Mod, adding new "Kits" for Bards. And after that I found Dirgesinger and all was decided from there.
I consulted heavily with Google and other forums on my stat build. Charisma isn't very important in this game but I still want it high for RP purposes. A Bard that isn't extremely alluring isn't doing their job.
Intelligence determines how many spells you can learn or something? Def need that. Also works well for RP purposes as I roll again with a High INT/Low WIS character. I'll get more into that in a bit.
Don't need Strength or much Constitution because this Bard is support/defense
For Weapon Proficiencies I wen twith Shortbow and Sling. I was kinda regretting this when Shank kept kicking my ass because I couldn' thit him most of the time and I only had a long-range weapon (but apparently this doesn' tmatter in this game, anyway) but once I get a real party going, I shouldn't worry about doing direct damage.
Now let's leave all that number-crunching behind and focus on what really matters. Roleplaying.
I was very happy to find that the game automatically supplies you a short biography based on what Class you chose. Things like Skyrim where they just dump you off with no explanation or backstory really irritate me. I have too much of an imagination to work with a completely blank canvass - I can never decide where to start. But here, the game gives me something to work with and I just molded my character around it
From a young age, you were..."different" from other children. You knew it and you had a feeling your foster father and the others knew it, too. What precisely was "different" about you was something you could never put your finger on but it caused you to act out for much of your youth. Reprimands and punishment seemed to do nothing to dissuade your rebellious nature. Then, suddenly, one day it all but immediately stopped. You have long been enraptured by your foster father's countless tales, though not so much for the content as for the art of the telling. Blessed by a world of books, you have surrounded yourself with the ancient legends and endless lore, and developed quite a skill for showmanship. One of the cooks has become quite fond of you and, between recitations of often bawdy poems and songs, has provided you with somewhat haphazard voice instruction. With an outlet for your creativity, and losing yourself in matters of the mind and distant dreams, you "calmed down." That is to say, the surface symptoms the others saw were at last put to rest. As long as you had your tales and your books and the refuge of your own head, you could forget this boring old dump full of people who were squandering away their precious days.
You know little about how you came to be a ward of Gorion's, but over the year's you have gleaned something of your mother's tale from the vague allusions and from the words he sometimes uttered in tear-filled sleep. She was a half-elf from the courts of Ashabenford and a friend of his for many seasons.As you have no memory of her, nor any keepsakes to remind you of her existence, you have come to believe that she died while giving birth to you. While you certainly love to keep your secrets, you resent how even this small bit about your mother was mostly kept from you. and that was to say nothing of how you were completely oblivious about your father. To not know something as vitally important as where you came from might have contributed to the way you are; to those feelings that the world is unstable and might swallow everyone up any moment.
Oh Pada, it was horrible! The man was smelly and he tried to kill me! Somebody call the Wahmbulance! I might have told him what happened but that dialogue option was just insulting and not how my Nikkolas would react at all.
Well that didn't take long. Bit anticlimactic, him dying so fast like that. Sorry foster pops.
Told this guy...Xzar or something to get stuffed when he offered healing potions. "Act of good will?" I was nearly just murdered! Shove your possible poison up your ass. Generally I'm playing a very "frazzled" PC at present. His whole world got turned up side down. I'm thinking of this as a "transitional" phase between the boy of the keep who kept to himself and said all the right things and the more extroverted fellow he is to become. Right now, he's overcome by a torrent of emotion - not so much for Gorion's death but for the death of "myself" and my old life. Despite my lamentations as a Dirgesinger, there will be precious little to miss about that humdrum existence.
So I got to the Friendly Arms Inn and am leaving with my two new, possibly temporary, party members. Nik is "cooling down" and adjusting it. This is something I want to get into with my alignment.
Chaotic Evil is NOT Stupid Evil. It is NOT The Joker. Both of those are ways to define CE but neither "are" CE. Chaotic means to oppose structure, order, regulation and promote freedom above all else. Evil in D&D means to champion the self above all else. Combine the two together and you get someone who believes they should be free to do whatever they please and everyone else be damned. But while people do so love to try and pretend evil has a big scary face and is self-destructive, it's not that simple. While it's true some CE people are shortsighted and barbaric, you can also take a more...philosophical, abstract approach to it. I can see a CE person working on a plan for years if it meant creating the ultimate bomb or weapon to utterly destabilize the world order. Similarly, you do not have to cackle madly and revel in the suffering you cause just because you are CE. I think the "Chaotic Evil Philosopher" as I would call them would approach things in a more subdued fashion. Look at my portrait and read the biography. I am not going to play "YES, YES, YES! PAIN, SUFFERING, BLOOD! YAY!" That's not something I could enjoy or wrap my mind around. No, what my PC is all about is a more nihilistic approach to things. So when my Dirgesinger comes and uses his power to "to teach folk the folly of love, the futility of hope, and the finality of the grave" (http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/classes/prestige/general/dirgesinger.shtml) it's less sadistic and more...preacher-like. He is bringing people the truth that they don't want to hear, awakenings feelings and thoughts they don't want to acknowledge.
So, for gameplay talk about the actual gameplay I did. I died to a couple wolves several times. 6 HP? Jesus Christ, I never played an RPG whee I started off that dinky. Then again, I guess HP doesn't get into teh tens of thousands like i tdoes in most JRPGs. And I can't even remember what my HP was in stuff like Dragon Age or KOTOR since I just looked at a bar there. Anyway, my only strategy for them was to run around in circles, try not to get hit, and let Imoen take them out. She seems to do a lot more damage than I do.
In any event, I got two new party members, am off to a mine, I told this old guy to piss off when he was probably the mysterious "E" who wrote the letter to my doomed foster father (I was still in the "shocked" state of mind) , some random fodder guy got killed by what I assume is the main villain Slovakia or whatever. I recall reading a conversation not too long ago about who was better between him and the guy from the next game. I would think it be the BG2 guy but some people were supporting this fellow as the better antagonist. I didn' tpay too much attention 'cuz spoilers. I know nothing about these games.
I am eager to see how this game goes and then to play Baldur's Gate II. This game, it's sort of like the Mass Effect 1 where the sequel was so huge and so popular nobody really talks about what came before. But I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. If BG2 is a true rival to Mass Effect 2 or Best BioWare game, I can't wait to get to tit.
In the meantime, dying to those wolves was more fun than all my time playing Planescape.