80 replies to this topic

[Shaitan]

Sarevok. He should have stayed dead and gone (from bg2) imo.

[Cykuta]

I find Viconia to be by far the worst written character in the game.

She is supposed to be an evil drow priestess, while at the same time being a persecuted beauty. "I did no harm to any of you rivvin, i just wish to be left in peace!". That's an Aerie-line if i ever saw one. Then she acts like she was still an arch-matron-something in the underdark and doesn't seem to realize she simply isn't, gong on how she despises the surfacers she's just begged for mercy. She's absolutely in love with the underdark society that banished her, and the player doesn't even get the possibility to remind her that the rules have changed. Indeed, she can get away with being intolerably rude to the pc without anything to justify that. We never get a "mind your language while talking to me, coalface cutie. you may have been someone in that stinking cave of yours, but I'm the boss around here" line. Why? Wouldn't it earn us her respect?
In her dialogue, she's always right: it makes me livid the way Anomen, in spellhold, advices us to go after Irenicus right away while we have the element of suprise - a perfectly logical advice for his character, but it makes him come out as an idiot, since if you do it, you die instantly. But Viccie would never dream of saying we're powerful enough to defeat one lowly stinking male rivvin mage, what with having a drow (!), a red wizard, Valen and a powerfull bhaalspawn with us. Why, she could have been wrong! Oh noes!

Not to mention there is virtually no roleplay-reason why a female pc should want her in the party. Or even a male pc who doesn't want to sleep with her. But hey, we all know they don't exist.

[Aeryn]

I went with Mazzy. I can't name anything specific about her, but her personality just grates on my nerves to the point where I want to stab her a little. Nalia is a very close second. Perhaps it's that I get the feeling that they don't grow at all during the course of the game. Even Aerie, who I detest in the beginning, grows into herself over time and becomes stronger.

Cernd and Valygar are two of my favorite characters, but they were done a huge disservice by being left hollow. With the right fleshing out, I think they'd both get a lot more recognition and be much more enjoyable NPCs.

[berelinde]

Yeah, I never got why people are so in love with Vicconia, either. My male PCs sometimes keep her around because they're perverts who aren't attracted to childlike waifs or mother figures, but my female PCs don't have much use for her.

[Galsic]

In terms of character, I'd say Valygar, Cernd, Keldorn, and Mazzy got the smallest reaction out of me. At the very least, though, the former three are in some way useful to me. I have the hardest time fitting into my party a fighter built primarily for ranged attacking :/ .

[Grayana]

I'm sorry, but I've always hated Imoen, even more so in SoA. Perhaps I wouldn't hate her so much, if she didn't appear on all the dreams and EVERYWHERE. Now it has escalated to the point that I always turn her away from my party at the Chateau Irenicus, and again when I save her from the Spellhold. (Of course, other NPCs will then think that I'm a nasty, evil person for not wanting her with me!) I even tell everyone that I'm hunting Irenicus instead of "I'm off to save my sister, blah blah"

Another one I don't really like is Nalia. So naive and useless as a thief. Also, she just got worse in ToB. Why, why are all the thief characters either multi-classed and useless, plain annoying or backstab you and disappear?

I actually like Valygar very much. I admit he's not the best fighter, but if I can, I keep him around. Something about brooding dark heroes...

[Luridel]

After some deliberation, I voted for Korgan. Never saw the appeal in his character. After years of playing mainly good PCs, I finally ended up with a CN one who was Not Nice enough to take him around in the party for a time... he was just unappealing and his voice bothered me. Other NPCs I don't really care much for are Haer'Dalis and Viconia, neither of which I've ever really understood the appeal of. Viconia feels too self-contradictory for my tastes, and Haer'Dalis just never really caught my interest.

[xdeathplanetx]

if it could be a my pg choise i would have let Imoen killed by Irenucus... she is totaly useless! more useless in BG2 then in BG my pg is already a mage a need a thief!

[HighTimeRodeo]

I voted for Anomen because... Well, it's Anomen. He's tempermental, childish, he looks down on other characters, you have to constantly stroke his ego... No, he's not one of my favorites.

I gotta say I was suprised to see votes for Minsc, but then I'm biased.

Aerie can be tiresome and Cernd too unless you're a fan of Jason Marsden. And Nalia too for that matter. Whiny is not a favorable character trait.

[Cal Jones]

You know, I'm just playing now, because I wanted to try out the Sarevok romance. I decided to pick up characters who had additional dialogue with him, so have ended up with Aerie and H'D in party. I've usually avoided Aerie because she's such a whinger, but actually, when you play a female PC she really isn't that bad. I hated having her along with a male PC because she never shuts up about her wings, or her constant sniping at Jaheira, but in my current party I find her bearable. I've not seen the Aerie-H'D romance before either, so that's nice for a change.

[Solstice]

Edwin. He's like Anomen, only switching depth of character for sarcasm. Not a good trade. And he tries way too hard to come across as evil and fails completely.

[Zukn]

Sarevok. WTF? NO. I'm guessing they included him to balance the "Nice"characters in the start of BG2 and couldn't find a good way to introduce a new character.

[Cal Jones]

Ooh you're going to get chased by a whole load of angry women wielding torches for that comment!

It's interesting, though, how some people's favourites are other people's most hated characters. It's the mark of a good character, if he or she can arouse strong feelings in the player, be they love or hate.

[Solstice]

Ooh you're going to get chased by a whole load of angry women wielding torches for that comment!

If you were addressing that to me, I'm a woman.

I can accept Edwin as comic relief, but not as anything more. Like Minsc, he was colorful but still fairly grounded in BG1 and could be taken seriously-Minsc was a cheerfully righteous guy with a hamster and enough ham to make William Shatner proud. Like Minsc, Edwin went off the deep end in BG2.

Honestly, Edwin tried way too hard to be evil, and failed completely. He's like Tsujatha, Bishop, and Diriel of the IWD2 Project. How any woman could like them is beyond me.

[Kuugen]

I hate Jan with a passion. Mazzy too.
But maybe thats just because i'm a horrible racist towards gnomes and halfings. ( god are they annoying. especially the jansen family. )

[Cal Jones]

Heh Solstice, no, I was addressing Zukn. (I just know how many women, self included, were deliriously happy when Aeryn finished her Sarvok romance )

I do like Eddie, actually, but he is comic relief. He's the Edmund Blackadder of BGII - the nefarious guy for whom all his carefully wrough schemes blow up in his face. The Edwin romance is pretty fun.

Korgan, on the other hand - well I just can't like him at all. I know some think he's great, and yes, he is a handy fighter, but he just irritates me. I have him in my current game, for once, and I still don't care for him.

Minsc really gets on my nerves, so I'll agree with you there. I liked him in BGI, but I can't be doing with his constant yelling in BGII. I hardly ever take him now.

Diriel - well yes, I did try his romance as there was a lot of talk about it, but I can't see the attraction either. He's a well written character but I can't see why anyone in their right minds would romance him!

[Guardian]

I personally, have no problems with Aerie. My biggest gripers are Anomen. What a pompous ass he is BEFORE passing his test...then when he becomes a knight, he's even worse! And if he fails, he gains the "does not play nice with others" tag.

A very close second (and it could go either way) is Cernd. I find no appeal druids...and his manner of speech just makes me want to beat him until he just talks like a normal person. And his kit...not that great I feel.

Third would go to Valygar. I've done four or five playthroughs with him and I see no redeeming quality to him. Yes, I realize he's a Fighter with backstab. But in my main "good" party, backstab is irrelevant. The last slot I gave to Mazzy, simply by default since I didn't see any other "good" or great NPC that could fill that last slot.

You probably don't want to know who four and five are on my list. It'd probably make a lot of people look at me strangely

[Leila]

I voted for Minsc, but really, it's a tie between Viconia, Cernd, Haer'Dalis, and him. All of my reasons for Viconia-hate have been listed. Haer'Dalis' character I'm fascinated with, but as a person I just can't stand him. He was pretty useful against ilithids, though. And Minsc was really cute at first, just like Jan was, and then I got very bored and now I never have him in my party. Cernd is a terrible person, although I do find his manner of speech amusing.

I actually am not fond of many vanilla characters at all. I'm quite grateful for all the terrific modders out there, and even more so because of the crossmod banter pack. Now that most of my favourite mods are on there, I no longer have to have only one mod NPC at a time due to the lack of dialogue.

[Bardess]

I had to pick Mazzy, but it was a tough choice. I've yet to get to know that halfling, but from what I remember, she was a bigger hussy than Aerie. At least Cernd doesn't play holier-than-thou. ^.^

I can accept Edwin as comic relief, but not as anything more. Like Minsc, he was colorful but still fairly grounded in BG1 and could be taken seriously-Minsc was a cheerfully righteous guy with a hamster and enough ham to make William Shatner proud. Like Minsc, Edwin went off the deep end in BG2.

Honestly, Edwin tried way too hard to be evil, and failed completely. He's like Tsujatha, Bishop, and Diriel of the IWD2 Project. How any woman could like them is beyond me.

Funny post. Edwin is probably my favorite original BG2 character, but they kind of killed off his genius with that "now I'm gonna become powerful and own you all" *poof* gender change. As fun as it is, I don't agree with all the humor. And I gotta admit, though his romance mod was well worth playing and funny to tears, I expected something more serious. The part of Edwin that I do agree with is his intellectual snobbism. Call me a geek-o-philiac.

I think people mostly don't like Bishop because he reminds us of real war criminals that we hear about on the news. When you hear someone burned down a village of civilians... disgusting. The more I think about it, the less I like him. But this is in a fantasy world where even good people are technically murderers. The fact that some women dislike him and others adore him shows that he isn't a bad character, but it's impossible to please everybody.

When we've had the luck to not face much evil in real life, we think bad guys are awesome.

I liked Diriel, though he reminds me of Xan and someone else. But I didn't go very far in IWD2. I'm having problems with holding onto the same game for long.

And Tsujatha... I failed to see his evilness. I think the alignment is just there to show us he's cool. It isn't right to compare him to Bishie.

Edited by Bardess, 15 August 2009 - 05:25 PM.