DavesGaming

No pun is too bad for me to avoid re-using it…

Another of my earlier posts getting re-imagined with AI art. Again, I don’t expect to to re-run this pair. But I will repost the entirety of the original post below with a few changes to account for the new artwork. Like many runs I’ve done over the years, the characters were first inspired by the portrait art. And the originals looked like some other gamer was playing with AI. But now I can do them tailored to my specific vision.

For the record, I understand AI art comes with a ton of controversy. My wife has a degree in Fine Arts, and we’ve had a few talks about what AI art is and what it means to actual human artists. But the thing is, I will never pay a human artist to support my gaming habit. And I don’t want to wait months to get one portrait (my wife is currently working on a horse that’s taken almost a year). Shoot, I build models that take weeks or months (that’s the whole subject matter of PlaneDave). That is another hobby that may go away thanks to computers (CG, AI and 3-D Printing have all rocked that particular hobby).
But the point is, I can spend a couple hours (or minutes!) writing out a text description and get a vivid representation of a scene from my imagination. And if that’s not quite right, I tweak the text and have the computer try again. We live in amazing times.

So here we go again…

*****

I’ll start with a couple disclaimers. One, I’m not a power gamer!  I don’t care if these characters aren’t “optimized”.  My interest is in making them feel real. Like actual people. 
Two, these characters should be mostly legal. Apart from noting I assigned their scores in EEKeeper and gave no thought at all to what I rolled.  They are designed characters, but not illegal (meaning, it might have taken me a long time to roll these two! But there’s no reason I couldn’t have eventually done so). Davis will start at 4^th level is the only “non-standard” issue I’m aware of.
Three, I do have tweaks mod, NPC Project, BG1 Unfinished Business, Skie: Cost of a Girl’s Soul, IWDification (just for the extra spells, no class tweaks) and a few other minor appearance/convenience related mods.

Carolyn has grown up as Gorion’s ward in Candlekeep.  She’s always been best friends with Imoen, for many years they were the only kids around and they made the most of it.  But she was more bookish than her buddy.  From a young age she loved all the books and reading about pretty much everything.  In her early teens she discovered a love for reading about the Gods, religion and all things metaphysical.  For some reason, that was never clear to her, Gorion seemed nervous about this area of study.  And make no mistake, you love the old man, the only parent you’ve ever known.  So you’ve tried to honor his sensitivity and make sure your studies involved all the things he was more comfortable with you studying; like pure academics, math, sciences, literature, magic, history.  With your own interests kept more on the DL.
About four years ago, a new Sergeant of the Watchers came to Candlekeep. His name is Davis and he seems young for his position.  He also seemed to be down all the time, so you and Imoen made it a mission to make him laugh and lighten up!  It seemed to work, and you’ve been friends for years now. 
About two years back Gorion decided you needed some sort of professional training so you could take care of yourself. You really want to be a cleric, but you knew Gorion would be upset with this choice so you decided you would be a Warrior!  Funny.  You’ve never been big, and you’d rather find a good book than work hard.  But you took to it pretty easily.  Gorion asked Davis to lead up your training. Which may have also helped your motivation, it turns out you really like having an excuse to spend more time with the young Paladin.  You’ve heard from all your trainers that you’re stronger than they expect, you’re quick and *surprisingly* hardy.  Your fighter training has gone well.  You did make a point of training on Warhammers; because you knew, one day, you would be a Cleric of Lathander.
Today, Gorion made a surprise announcement that the two of you would be leaving Candlekeep!  You don’t like this.  The idea of leaving Imoen and Davis (!) makes you short of breath.  This can’t be for long? What is going on, you’ve never left home before.

Carolyn is a Human Fighter, NG. 15/18/16/15/18/17.  99 total!  Yeah I just EEKeepered that. Carolyn will otherwise be completely legal and will dual to Cleric at 7^th level.

Davis has always wanted to be a Paladin. A champion of those who can’t defend themselves and defender of everything that is good.  Growing up in Waterdeep with two parents who were devoted to Torm this was easy decision.  Dad was a cleric and Mom a Paladin, they supported your choice completely.  You excelled at training and never had any doubts.  You participated in a couple of operations against bandits and slavers.  And you met Her.  She made your heart sing in a way it never had before, brought out the poet in you.  Then came a big mission against a really twisted up gang of old Bane worshippers. Almost 50 of you went up against them.  You won, but at a terrible cost. Only 20 of you came home. She wasn’t one of them. There wasn’t enough left of Her that could even be identified, never mind Raised.
You wasted a year drunk. You were removed from all responsibilities by the Temple.  About four years ago you started coming out of it, some.  You knew you didn’t want any more adventures, no more watching comrades fall.  You heard about a library, a monastery, that was looking for permanent guards. Especially wanted were those with experience for Sergeant positions. You traveled to Candlekeep and got one of those jobs. 
You’d heard of the place before, but it wasn’t what you expected.  The monastery was a full fortress. With a thriving if cloistered community. A perfect place to remove yourself from the world.  You threw yourself into routine, but safe duties.  It didn’t take long for you to make the acquaintance of Carolyn and Imoen. The two girls were the only children in residence at the time, and they seemed determined to make you laugh. You made it hard on them at first!  But their enthusiasm and love of life were infectious. You knew at first, that you were the new guy and likely drew their attention for exactly that reason. But you all really became good friends.  And over the next couple years it was hard for you not to notice Carolyn was growing into a beautiful young woman.  She could almost make you forget Her.
A couple years ago Gorion, Carolyn’s adoptive father (and Imoen’s? Strange that. You think Imoen’s mostly been raised by Winthrop. But there’s some complicated tight bonds there), asked you to train his daughter as a Warrior.  This surprised you a little, she was never one for hard work and was quick to decide she had studies whenever labor was threatened.  It surprised you even more when she took to it quite well.  She’s far stronger than her little 5’2” frame suggests, you tease she has “orc blood!”.  Not strong like many of the Watchers, but stronger than most adult men. She’s also agile and tough.  And you think the success at training has given her a big boost of confidence. She carries it well…
But today has been weird. Gorion asked you this morning to stick close to Imoen.  He had an errand to run with Carolyn and suspected Imoen would try to follow.  He didn’t ask you to prevent that (thank goodness! That wouldn’t have ended well), but to follow and keep an eye on her whatever happened. Some of your old anxieties are threatening to return.

Davis is a Human Cavalier, LG. 18-52/15/18/12/15/17. Total is only 95, again used EEKeeper.  I also assigned him a suit of Plate Mail (which he should have as a Watcher, but isn’t otherwise available to purchase in Candlekeep) and 12000 experience.  The experience is trivial in the big picture, but no doubt it will make the first couple chapters of the game more survivable.

My initial thoughts for this run, which may be subject to change…
Recruit Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira and Neera.  In Beregost, I think Khalid will be detached to run a permanent base of operations (I’m not inspired by a companion whose battle cry is “my heart’s really not in this”!). Then add Branwen.  Eventually (3^rd or 4^th level?) I’ll dual Imoen to mage, then boot Neera and recruit Alora (thanks to Tweaks she’s in Gullykin).  That should do for BG.  In SoD probably Corwin, Safana, Minsc and Dynaheir for a team? Still undecided on BG2 team.

Update 1

I’m a ways into BG now, about halfway through Cloakwood. A few thoughts…

I’d suggested I would dump Neera and keep Branwen. But since Carolyn will be dueling to cleric soon I decided Neera would be of more utility and I booted Branwen. I’m thinking Neera will be mostly a device and buffing mage (and Identify! She has no chance of failure on this). While Imoen is a combat caster.
When I booted Branwen I replaced her with Alora. I had forgotten I’d installed “Level 1 NPCs”, pleasant surprise to see I’d changed her to a fighter/thief short bow specialist. Dang, that little Halfling packs a punch!

Right now, at around 6th level, I’d say this isn’t a very strong party. But once Davis gets the “Strength Tome” and Carolyn unlocks her fighter class things may really change.

Update 2

As expected. the Strength Tome made a huge difference in Davis’ hitting power. Blew through Durlag’s Tower in record time. The next (last?) milestone for the party will be Carolyn hitting 8th level cleric (and unlocking her fighter levels) soon. Probably out on Werewolf Island.
I do use a exp cap remover, so hitting levels 8/7 for Carolyn and Jaheira making 9th level Druid are possibilities in this run.

I’m also going to try to (re)recruit Alora in SoD. I know that’s not strictly possible. But I’m thinking, if I go into EEKeeper and check the box to make her exportable; I could export her at the end of the opening dungeon. Then when I start putting my new team together just switch to multi-player and import her? Obviously she won’t have any quest/story material in the expansion but she should otherwise work like any other original character? I think. We’ll see…

Update 3

In to SoD now. Going well but two thoughts…

The scenario for Imoen’s dualling is a little more problematic in games where she’s already been dualled. So I have a bit of head canon: Imoen is extremely Intelligent, but basically self-taught as a mage (so far). So I’m thinking she was at a bit of a dead end as BG1 ends. Maybe its a “technique” thing? Or maybe she has a misunderstanding of certain Arcane particulars? Regardless, she is in need of some more formal teaching to further her understanding of how the Arcane works.

Update 4

I’m a ways into SoA now. Still have Carolyn and Davis leading the way. Currently I have Minsc, Aerie and Nalia. I just recruited Skie, but I recreated her as a fighter, bow specialist. I prefer this over Archer for her, that would require an alignment change and just doesn’t seem to fit her character at all. Plus, this way she’s a better rearguard; with mastery in Short Sword she’s plenty dangerous when threatened from behind.

I’m into the Shadow Thief story now. But I think I’ll go recruit Keldorn and replace Minsc with him before we head off to the graveyard. Keldorn is a pure upgrade over the hamster loving ranger… sadly. there will be less “butt kicking for goodness” going forward!

Update 5

Another Bhaalspawn epic has come to an end. The bards may tell their version of the story, but I wanted to leave an epilogue just to set the record straight.

Carolyn and Davis returned to their new home at the former De’Arnise Keep. Since their exploits there and all over the region, they’d been formally accepted as the new ruling nobles. But titles and such never interested them much. They did stand as a force of righteousness in the area, and kept the peace for all residents they were now responsible for. They kept their close ties to the Order of the Radiant Heart and Temple of Lathander in Athkatla as well.
Of course they’d come home with crazy wealth from their adventures, that was largely invested in their community and infrastructure. They had their first child less than a year after returning home, the first of an eventual five.

Nalia kept a residence at the Keep too. She’d officially transferred all claims and titles to Carolyn, but often served as the Steward when Carolyn and Davis were called off for one reason or another.

Imoen remained the official custodian of the Planar Sphere, but she was rarely there. She enjoyed the freedom to travel. And was a frequent long-term visitor to Carolyn and Davis.

Skie returned to Baldur’s Gate, she rejected her Father’s noble title but made herself available as needed to the Flaming Fist. And she visited the former De’Arnise Keep on many occasions too.

Aerie wandered and explored some. She was indeed known for a one person war against several known groups of slavers. But this never did completely consume her, she also made a point of paying frequent visits to her friends in Amn.

Jaheira watched over the Druid Grove near Trademeet for many years and was also no stranger.

Keldorn even visited on occasion, it seemed he often needed a visit “out to the country” with his wife and daughters.

Minsc was seen the least, his homeland was really quite some distance. He did visit on at least two occasions. But it was often not clear if he knew who he was visiting, at least until Boo set him straight.