Thought that was a bit silly too to be honest, which is why I have never played with him.

More of an issue throughout the series, at least BG2, but I don't like that virtually everybody you meet end up backstabbing you. They took that too far.

What's DnD without an epidemic of chronic backstabbing disorder? :P

Seriously though, I agree, they did take that too far. I get sick of this in other games as well because most of the time it's just to prove how "evil" a character is. :\

bad guys getting to be good in bioware games. Spoilers


Revan in kotor & Logain(?) in dragon age. And everyone in mass effect has a past. It's been fun thinking of all these patterns. I don't think I'm up to date on the newer bioware games. Are there still going to be more dragon age and mass effect or are there other franchises?

Oh, the Bioware formula... :D

Well, atm they are just DA and ME now :( (and swtor but that's an mmo)
I know it's not easy to just "start a new franchise", but I kinda wish they made something new. Despite all their flaws, I love their games....

Wasn't sure if there was something new in the works. I really liked Dragon age 1 but they didn't keep that formula. So now when I'm done with the older games I need to decide between PoE or Divinity because I read they are closest to the BG style.

PoE is closest to BG style, Divinity: OS places a lot more emphasis on (brilliant) combat and writing is a lot comedic in nature (and less significant for the game)

I want to try PoE but after i finish the NWN series I may want something more lighter and different combat. I kind of consider BG, especially BG2, especially ToB, to be on the comedic side. When I first played it years and years ago I wasn't familiar with games or D&D and thought it was trying to do a Gulliver's Travels thing with each chapter a weird race of people. Very different feeling than BG1.

Am I the only one who keeps reading PoE as Path of Exile?
If you want to try BG, you better start from BG1, or at the very least BG2. ToB = final chapters of the game.

All the acronyms start to pile up after a while and blur into each other, especially when they belong to games of the same genre.

Personally I don't like it because it lacks interesting side quests (other than Watcher's Keep all the side quests in non-EE ToB involve pretty petty work given your level) and instead throws trash mobs at you in order to lengthen the time it takes to beat it. It also seemed like its writing just ended up creating more inconsistencies, especially surrounding Gorion and your mother. Sarevok is probably one of the few interesting things present in the expansion and yet he is criminally underutilized in the base game.

On a more mechanical note I also don't think the higher level abilities and spells introduced by it were implemented well (there is too much disparity between how effective they are when compared to eachother). Spike Trap is extremely effective for instance compared to Set Exploding Trap. Improved Alacrity is likewise very effective and a much better choice than Comet (particularly given how many enemies are immune to fire damage). Some higher level abilities like War Cry, Alchemy, Magic Flute, and Scribe Scrolls are likewise very underpowered for their level.

About the only thing positive things I can say about it is the fact that it introduced wild mages and Watcher's Keep.

It was the sort of rushed expansion made before the last gasps and death of the company. It;s if you're a fan of the series. The dungeon crawl rush job. A shame as BG2 deserved more love and attention. I enjoyed the limited "add-in" content that gave some extra material for BG2 (especially as for current players it's basically "free" as they're no longer buying seperate boxed copies at retail price) and the ToB content was okay for a dungeon crawl or shorter and more straightforward combat quest. After BG2 proper though it was a disappointment. It had a lot to live up to and it wasn't just a side quest or an area to quest in for the expansion and then back to the original path, this was the extension and the actual conclusion of the story arc from where BG2 left off. A lot more to live up to.

The Icewind Dale series was an outright dungeon crawl designed game from the outset and it was generally liked more by the fandom, I think.

I read these things about ToB and/or BG2 being rushed all the time. And little articles about Black Isle or Interplay having financial problems. I don't understand how because shouldnt they have good amounts of money from all those successful IE games and Fallout?

Hey maybe beamdog will do an expansion to an expansion and add some more side quests to ToB if their new one is liked.

I sure hope not. Would be a disaster.

It wouldn't sell. :)

If "Siege of Dragonspear" sells well, they won't stop there. Whether that would mean more expansions to the existing Enhanced Editions or an attempt to make "Baldur's Gate 3," I don't know. Personally, I'm really looking forward to "Siege" and I would buy more expansions to the story if they do a good job with it. But, unlike most people here, I really like the Enhanced Editions.