I also noticed that it is either Latin or some perversion thereof. In listening to the Irenicus "Redeem This Mix" literally over 1000 times, I definitely heard one of the spell school spells sound like "omni potentus.. hah!" The hah part I probably misheard, but omni potentus definitely sounds like something they would use for a spell, since omni means all and potentus means power or powerful. I think this is the invocation spell school but I could be wrong.

It's not the Edwin romance. I stopped playing my ToB game partially because this banter just would not stop. Every 5 minutes they would have it again... Which got really annoying because it kept occuring during the part of WK where you control the ghost, so I would lose control of him and have to reload every single time.

How about a game like Morrowind that is so open-ended that the main storyline is optional.

Gag.

I know how you feel. But if you put certain restrictions on what you do in Morrowind it becomes an incredible game (soo lacking in balance). If these restrictions existed in the game itself it would be so unbelievably popular right now that all RPGs would be modeled after it, and with good reason =P.

Invasion of extra-planars. That's never been done before =P.

How about a game like Morrowind that is so open-ended that the main storyline is optional. Then it could be very fun, take advantage of an already well-defined world, and no one has to worry about coming up with some elaborate story to fit it in with the other games. Being called "Baldur's Gate 3" means it can either deal with the storyline from the first two games or the world, not necessarily one or the other (even if it doesn't make sense). I'd love a game with total freedom and fun quests more than a linear game with a great main quest like the BG games have been moving toward. BG1 is so great because it's so open, you can explore or do the main quest or whatever. BG2 was open ended for sections at a time, but the whole thing had a main path to it. ToB is the most linear at all. I'd like to see the prequel go in the other direction =).

But yeah, back to the topic: I don't think you should meet any ancestor to any character. If some of the characters were alive when the prequel is set, by all means, let's meet them, but no ancestors or parents. Please?

Why?

Because, ancestors are implemented to somehow give us a "fake" version of the NPC, because, for some reason, it wouldn't be realistic that the NPC him/herself was there.

But it's just never the same, and it always ends up with a failed attempt at a remake of the real charachter.

AND if they end up deciding that for realism, the ancestor shouldn't have at all anything in common with his child (i.e. Minsc) then there's no reason to bring him in.

I just don't like the idea that a well made and loved NPC could be abused and turned into something horrible.

I agree, though potentially an ancestor could be completely different from their descendent but the connection is just there to be cool. Like there could be Boo's ancestor, an actual Giant Miniature Space hamster =). He could be a boss or something. But seriously... it wouldn't hurt to have one of Valygar's ancestors since magic is in their genes, so it wouldn't help much either. Though I've seen some movies where the ancestor thing has actually been done well because you realize that was a good thing that someone lived even if they are evil, or something like that, because their descendent will help save the day.

I think it would be interesting if they somehow found a way to center the story around Irenicus' corruption and first attempt to drain the tree.  I can't see how it could be as opened-ended as the other BG games without a bunch of meaningless sidequests that don't really fit, but I'd really like to see some more of Irenicus.

I'd much rather it didn't have villainous characters who are plot-guaranteed to not die.

Same, but Irenicus is so cool...  Maybe you could be the child of charname or something and Irenicus finds a way to escape the abyss by traveling back in time, and you have to go back to stop him.  That wouldn't be at all like Terminator =P.  There's always a way, I'm just too lazy to think of one.  I wonder if they are reading this thread right now to steal our ideas because they are even lazier.

I think it would be interesting if they somehow found a way to center the story around Irenicus' corruption and first attempt to drain the tree.  I can't see how it could be as opened-ended as the other BG games without a bunch of meaningless sidequests that don't really fit, but I'd really like to see some more of Irenicus.

Hmm.  Sounds like a game to play when I'm really really bored.  Thanks for the answer.  Back to topic! =P

Eh?  Is Planescape: Torment worth buying?

Only if you value roleplaying.  I've never heard anyone praise it for its fascinating and difficult combats, and trying to have an optimized character will give you an aneurysm.

Because there are so many character possibilities or what?  I've started over in BG hundreds of times trying to get the perfect character...

Gah.

I can't say I've played Bloodlines; I can say I've seen a lot of the dialogue from it, and it's godawful--much worse than NWN could ever be.

The voice acting, imo is fantastic and more than makes up for any bad dialogue (eg the conversation with gary looks terrible on paper but the voice actor makes it truly memorable) . In NWN I cringed every time I heard a voice as the voice acting imo was sub-par but in VTMB I couldn't wait for the next conversation with some of the npcs. Some of the dialogue choices were horrible ("if im not back in 10 minutes call the president") but on a whole the conversations with the npcs were quite well done.

The biggest issue with bloodlines imo was it was riddled with bugs and it needed a powerful computer to run it well

For me, Planescape: Torment defined voice acting. Yes, it was sparse, but when it showed up, IT SHOWED UP!

Eh?  Is Planescape: Torment worth buying?  The preview movie that came with BG1 was awful.  But the voice acting is what makes me love BG2 so much.

Lol...  Staying on topic is for order freaks =P.  Anyway, it is conceivable that a good player would haul around Edwin and an evil player would have Minsc and Jaheria.  If this were real life, you wouldn't be able to look at Edwin's character sheet and shout AH HE'S CHAOTIC EVIL KILL HIM KILL HIM!

Except, in BG1, Edwin introduces himself by offering to hire you to murder an innocent. And--more importantly--the only way he actually promises you a year of service is if you do kill Dynaheir for him.

Ok bad example. But sometimes I'd be adventuring with an NPC and go to his character sheet to level him and find out he was evil when I thought he was good or good when I thought he was evil. Or more commonly, neutral when I expected good or evil. But even if it was apparent to a good person that someone is evil, they still might drag them along to help them out if they need it, if they both have something to gain from it. Wow that was a lot of ambiguous pronouns.

Lol... Staying on topic is for order freaks =P. Anyway, it is conceivable that a good player would haul around Edwin and an evil player would have Minsc and Jaheria. If this were real life, you wouldn't be able to look at Edwin's character sheet and shout AH HE'S CHAOTIC EVIL KILL HIM KILL HIM! If you needed his talent, you could use him for the greater good. And he would stick around for the loot (I think either he or Korgan even says that's the only reason he's helping you).

Who should decide whether Charname chose the mortal life or chose to become god? That's why only prequels can be made.

BG2's backstory is built upon assumptions about the player's actions in BG, with only a few weak attempts to account for the player having different story paths. (Why would an evil player wake up with Minsc and Jaheira? Why does Edwin owe me a year of service? How do I know Neb?) I really don't see anything that would prevent the same methodology from BG2 > BG3.

Neb was part of the main storyline in BG1; you had to answer his riddle to get out of the Flaming Fist Headquarters.

And @ Tom, lol

Userunfriendly, you need to teach me how to do that =P.  Using Shadowkeeper you can only set one kit per character.  Did you use Near Infinity or what?  I never learned to use that =(.  I've been wanting to solo a kensai/swashbuckler/wild mage.

quite simple...a kensai is just 27 lines in the affects tab, and the innate to max damage per strike...(kai)

now the elegant way is to create a kensai, figure out the lines, and copy them into a character...13 lines to increase damage, 13 lines to increase thac0, and one line to set ac...

copy them into any character, and you've got a kensai...(if you copy to cleric, you don't need kai, cause righteous magic is the same thing, but better)

or you can just turn an npc into a kensai, level up using clua console, (to get to the kensai level you want) then turn them back into original class...

you inherit all the kensai attack ability...

for example, jaheira is a simple shapeshifter/fighter multiclass, with 27 lines added, and righteous magic added..

yeah...i should really write it up, one of these days...

i mean, i even created custom spells, to chain contingency implosion...

and made her immune to timestop, gave her perminet greater acuity, death bringer assault, summon marith...oy...

I don't even know what these lines are you're talking about *_*. I know a lot about BG, but when it comes to anything beyond the game itself I'm still pretty much a newbie. What I want is a 3 class character that will level in all three kits instead of just a character that levels in all 3 classes and has some starting abilities from the kits. Would the easiest way to do that to just find out what each level up does for each kit and add the kit-specific effects in shadowkeeper everytime I level up? And yeah, you should write it all up =P. A lot of players I'm sure would be eternally grateful. Too bad that doesn't do you any good. Immunity to Time Stop should have been in the original game for charname, since he IS a Bhaalspawn.

I bought Bloodlines.  I played it for about 2 hours and decided it was a huge waste of money and haven't played it since.  

And there are only 7 books in the Death Gate Cycle...  Unless they wrote 7 more within like the last 3 years or something, which I really doubt.  There was one book per world (kinda, they broke that rule later on jumping around).  But if there are more I really want to know because I've reread them so many times because they were sooo great.

I loved Mincs, then hated him, now I love him again. You will return to us =). And about taking a break from BG, I'm doing the same thing right now, I just enjoy talking about it more than playing it. Too bad my internet connection here stinks so bad that I can't play online games.

Grunker, somehow I just knew you were about to say the Death Gate Cycle when you said "For anyone who would like to read amazing fantasy books I can recommend" =).  That series was amazing.  My favorite fantasy series by far.  I bought all seven of the books and would keep them next to my bed so I could read like 10 random pages before going to bed just to remind me that there is some beauty in the world =).  Now that I think about it Haplo isn't all that different from Irenicus...

There sure are. Any party with Minsc =P. I totally hated him for trying to kill me so many times when I killed innocents that I gave up on him, and then a couple months back I picked him up for just a couple minutes and that was long enough to decide never to have a party without him again. Boo rocks!.

Userunfriendly, you need to teach me how to do that =P. Using Shadowkeeper you can only set one kit per character. Did you use Near Infinity or what? I never learned to use that =(. I've been wanting to solo a kensai/swashbuckler/wild mage.

Actually my dad found it. Now my computer is like 20 times faster. I'm so happy.

Thanks to creators of this mod, so far it's working great and is making the game a whole lot more interesting =).

Edit: Forgot to ask, does BP include Tactics? Someone said that it does, and if that's the case does it include all the components? I hate the smarter mages and liches but I sure want the new enemies to fight.

Fixed!!!! My comp had sucked up tons of dust that somehow slowed it down. Yay!

I just tried that, and it sure helped me.

It was defragmented about a week ago, so it shouldn't be too bad. I just installed everything again, and I think I MAY have missed the step of copying the dialog.tlk before. Also, isn't there a patch for BP? The installation instructions don't say anything about installing patches for BP itself so I didn't even think of that until now. By the way, when I reinstalled the game it worked fine before installing BP, I have yet to try it again afterwards.

Edit: I installed the patch. It is super laggy again =(. I'm about ready to give up on BP.

Edit again: I turned off Norton AntiVirus and my Anti Spyware program and now it runs way better. Not as good as without BP, but almost bearable.

I've done a search for the stutter bug in the past and read every post online that I could find on it. Somehow I learned absolutely nothing. Should I just reinstall everything? My dad turned on the 3d accelerator option to try to fix it and it runs better but not perfect as it used to a month ago =(.

I'm installing it all over again. Should I install Baldurdash beforehand or are all the fixes included in BP?

I've started over over 100 times. Now multiply the number of overs in the last sentence by the 100, then take that to the number of overs' power, and plug it into some formula that makes it way bigger and maybe it will approach the amount of times I've started over. I play mods to delay actually playing the game because then I'll have to start it over again because of my perfectionism. Or is it perfectionistism. Perfectism. Perfecticism. *Self destructs*