Upon reaching Nashkel a drow mage joined with us with the name Edwin. (Used SK to do that) Just wondering what effect changing his name to a drow one would have. I am wanting a drow party of four and no drow mages either in the game or in mods as far as I know. 
Would it spoil the banter, or would the game just insert the new name where Edwin's had been?
Magicken the Human Illusionist - Update 4
Jaheira, level 5 fighter/level 6 druid, 45 HP, 158 kills, Greater Basilisk
Khalid, level 6 fighter, 57 HP, 212 kills, Revenant
Imoen, level 7 thief, 42 HP, 192 kills, Greater Basilisk
Magicken, level 6 mage, 35 HP, 131 kills, Battle Horror
The Story:
Magicken Journal - Day 83
The party has made tremendous progress since I last wrote. We have obtained so many upgrades for the team, I hardly even know where to begin. They haven't been without their hardships, mainly two Khalid deaths (and resurrections).
One major encounter was some Amazon assassins, who apparently were in the employ of the father's killer. We won this battle fairly cleanly, but Khalid got confused, held and poisoned (just wasn't his day). Jaheira and I weren't able to heal him in time...
A lot of good did some from this encounter though - I was able to purchase the best enchanted large shields that money can buy for Khalid and Jaheira. Out of deference to Jaheira, I had Khalid use his long bow for a while, so he wouldn't be dying. Another major encounter was against Sendai - I used lightning bolts on the archers, which gave us a clean victory. In the same area, there were some kind of dart bandits - their bracer will help Imoen a lot I'm sure. Speaking of bracers, we also got great bracers for Khalid from Melium. By this point, we could finally afford full plate for Khalid, using friends x3 spells. It only cost 4000 gold, what a deal. By this point, Khalid was ready to get into melee with his wife.
The party had excellent weapons and armor, as well as all of us are good at what we do - we investigated the Nashkel Mines next. Apparently some kobolds were infecting the ore and killing miners. We pressed into the lower levels and also had to deal with ghouls and some spiders. But the true master of this problem was a half-orc Cleric named Mulahey. The plan was for Jaheira to tank him using a potion of magic blocking, while Khalid threw darts of wounding, Imoen her best arrows and me blindness - everything worked - except Jaheira forgot to use the blocking potion and was confused!
She even attacked the prisoner, Xan - but she regained her senses and ceased her attack in time. Some letters we found indicated a contact at Feldeposte's Inn - we'll be sure to look that person up.
On the exit of the mine, we ran into a bad ambush - war dogs and two ankhegs! We never battled the ankhegs before, I wasn't sure how we would do. So we did the best damage we could, namely a call lightning by Jaheira and lightning bolt by me (being careful to not hit my party members). This carried the day.
This gave me hope we could survive the journey to Ulgoth's Beard - however I was wrong, Khalid got a bit unlucky and Ankhegs killed him.
Jaheira was upset of course, but she understood we had to clear the way, as Gorion's killer could very well be in Baldur's Gate.
The last encounter of note was yet another band of assassins lead by Molkar. Khalid was protected by a magic blocking potion, while Jaheira and I did entangle and web plus some damage spells, blindness - complete victory here as well.
On a non-quest note, every now and then, when Imoen thinks I am not looking, I notice her looking at me in a, well, non-friend way. But I am ignoring it for now - wouldn't want us to become something, just to die the next day. Perhaps when my quest is over, there will be opportunity for that.
Gorion's killer may be powerful, but after the hard work of the party, so are we. It shouldn't be too long to avenge you now, father - End Journal.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 64 - (update 3)
Possess, gnome cleric/thief (Grond0) & Weystead, dwarven defender (Gate70)
This pairing continued their promising start today.
Helping Joia took reputation to 20 and they headed north towards Ulgoth's Beard. On the way they stopped off at an ankheg nest to ransack that - though Weystead did take more damage than expected and took a number of potions to compensate.
After finishing shopping they went back south to the Nashkel mines. Mulahey was silenced there, which would have made him an easy victim of even before he was one-shotted by a backstab. Outside the mine the amazons were also silenced before being finished off with a first use of skeletons. Nimbul saved against a silence (though that didn't help him against a backstab), but Tranzig didn't.
At the bandit camp Weystead was well protected against missile attacks and received a remarkably effective helping hand from hold person against the Crush attackers. Using it there meant hold was not an option for Taugosz, but commands performed equally well. Possess sneaked inside the tent and summoned some skeletons before silencing all the occupants - effectively sealing their fate.
After strolling through the Cloakwood - disabling the web traps on the way, they arrived at the Cloakwood mine. Once more silence came up trumps by affecting Drasus and his gang and leaving them easy targets for a skeleton assault. Inside the mine the duo bypassed Hareishan on the way down to Daveorn. Possess disabled all 5 traps there - allowing Weystead to attack with the help of a potion of magic blocking. Possess had no spells left at that stage, but the potion blocked all Daveorn's spell attacks other than a hold person - which Weystead saved against - leaving him with the simple task of beating down Daveorn's defences.
The duo have just arrived at Baldur's Gate.
Stats:
Possess, cleric 6 / thief 6, 36 HPs, 79 kills
Weystead, dwarven defender 7, 62 HPs, 191 kills, 0 deaths
I led my companions back to the Temple of the Morning to finish up our effort to secure the area around the temple & Beregost from the east. After thoroughly combing the hills & terrain it’s likely there was no real threat out there, especially since I’m quite sure Kelddath Ormlyr & his attendant Sirines can bring it pretty good if the temple were attacked. There were a few bands of Hobgoblins including six Chill Hobgoblins w/Bastard Swords, six Hobgoblins from the Leg-Breaker tribe also armed w/Bastard Swords & seven Chill Hobgoblins w/Bastard Swords led by a Sergeant w/Studded Leather & Two-Handed Sword. (Note: Hobgoblin Sergeants aren't usually found w/less than 20 Hobgoblins. We’d killed six Chill earlier that the Sergeant may have sent on an errand. That means there should’ve been another five Chill & two of the Sergeants assistants somewhere but we didn’t find them. There’s no way the Leg-Breakers would've been under the Sergeants’ authority). There were wolves & dogs everywhere & we killed six aggressive Wild Dogs & a pair of mated two Dread Wolves & two mated wolves.
We were fortunate to find a woman who’d been petrified by a Basilisk as we were later to discover & she warned us of the Basilisks presence in or near that area so we made sure to acquire additional Stone to Flesh Scrolls & Dynahier’s made sure to pack her Protection from Petrification Scrolls in addition to Potions of Mirrored Eyes, one of which the woman gave us in thanks. We all forgot that we just needed to go to the temple to purchase one & none of is sure what we were thinking but it worked out b/c Minsc needed rest due to injuries he’d suffered in battle with…
Key Event(s): ...two Vampiric Wolves, two Dread Wolves & three Worgs. Worgs are the evil kin of the Dread Wolf & they are nasty but not so much as the powerful & evil Vampiric Wolves. I ordered the use of enchanted projectiles so both Jaheira & Dynahier used Bullets +1, Imoen Arrows +1 & Khalid, Arrows of Fire. As always in battles w/wild animals or humanoids, generally creatures we can easily overpower, the order to use ranged weapons means not to use our precious spells in case a more deadly foe should confront us later. In this case, the Vampiric Wolves went down easily (although Minsc was bitten three, maybe for times but I don’t know which ones). After the Vampiric Wolves were killed, I turned us on the Dread Wolves before finishing up the smaller, weaker Worgs.
EXTERMINATING THE WOLF PACK
Treasure of Note: (Purse = 15,299 gold) None to speak of, a few gems
Current Disposition: Beregost @ the Red Sheaf
Next Steps: I’m going to lead us over to High Hedge & try & build an alliance w/Thalantyr while clearing that area to protect Beregost from the east. Like the people of Nashkel in Amn, so the people of Beregost in the of Baldur’s Gate have been good to me. I choose no side in these tensions between Baldur’s Gate & Amn, especially since our adventures to the Nashkel Mines, the Bandit Camp & the Cloakwood Mines make it clear that the tensions are being ARTIFICIALLY engineered & aggravated by someone associated w/the Iron Throne…
Level Up: Khalid has advanced to Pathfinder (Ranger/Archer//7);
Current Party: (Reputation: 20 – Heroic)
· Gawain: Ftr/7; Full Plate w/Large Shield +1, Cloak of Protection +2, Helm of Defense, Boots of Grounding, Girdle of
Bluntness, Rings of Fire Resistance & Free Action; Bastard Sword +1/+3**** (SSS**) (Greater Doppelganger)
· Minsc: Barbarian/7 w/Splint Mai w/Boots of Avoidance, Girdle of Bluntness &Spiders Bane***, Flail +1/THWS**(Spellcaster Defend)(Davaeorn)
· Khalid: Ranger (Archer)/7 w/Studded Leather +1 w/Bracers of Archery & Boots of the North, Longbow****,
B/Sword* (TWS***)( Sword Spider) (Ranger Ranged)
· Jaheira: Priestess of Sylvanus/8 w/Leather +1 w/Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Sling*, Club +2 (Eye of the Storm)*, (Phase Spider)(Druid Summoning)
· Imoen: Thief (Charming Rogue)/8 w/Bracers of Defense AC6, Cloak of Non-Detection & Gandolar’s Lucky Ring w/Short Bow*, Short Sword +1* Dagger +1*, Necklace of Missiles, (Sword Spider)(Thief Def)
· Dynahier: Mage (Invoker)/6 w/Bracers of Defense AC6, Sling* & Q/Staff +1*, Ring of Energy, (Tuth)(Wizard Defensive)
Mods Used: HardTimes-v2; BG1UB_v12; bg1npc-v20; X0black101 (Blackguard); MegaModKits v1.01L; level1npcs-v1.9; bg2_tweaks-v14; Randomizer-v68; scs-v21 (- Tactical Challenges)
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)
* Name Levels are ancient, AD&D titles that used to represent each new level in a class
Magicken the human level 7 illusionist > level 6 fighter - Update 5
Khalid - level 7 fighter, 69 HP, 404 kills, Greater Basilisk
Magicken - level 7 illusionist (inactive) > level 6 fighter (note he has ***** in Two-hand sword and * in two handed weapon style), 40 HP, 317 kills, Battle Horror
Jaheira - level 6 fighter/level 7 druid, 56 HP, 309 kills, Shoal the Neriad
Imoen - level 9 thief, 52 HP, 308 kills, Greater Basilisk
Magicken Journal - Day 156
I've been so busy, haven't time to write in my journal. The party has made just tremendous progress since the last update, with many upgrades for the party. No deaths this go around, which is good. One very important event did occur, here is what happened:
We battled some spiders and ettercaps in the Cloakwood. We see this cave, and pause.
I make a face.
Jaheira says, "What is it Magicken? Are you sensing something?"
I say, "Yes, yes I am. I am sensing powerful magic, a weapon inside. Powerful enough it can slay my father's killer."
Khalid says, "The let's - let's get it!".
We go inside and battle some spiders and ettercaps some more, but quite a bit at a time. However I used my monster summoning wand to tip the tide of battle. Once the battle was over, I went to the treasure cache, and hefted a two-hand sword in my hands.
Khalid sighs, "I wouldn't be very good with that weapon."
Jaheira says, "Nor is it a weapon druids would use."
Imoen quips, "Well, that weapon is almost as big as me! No way for me either."
I say, in a clear voice, "Then I will become...a fighter."
Jaheira has concern in her eyes - "But then you wouldn't be able to use your mage skills for some time, are you certain?"
Looking Jaheira in the eyes, I say, "Yes. I've always wanted to be a fighter, and I can use my magic once I'm good enough fighter. Also, if magic was effective against Gorion's killer, Gorion would not have died. We don't have to have my magic, we have your druidic spells, potions. With potions, a fighter can take anything."
Khalid exclaimed, "But I don't know how to do that!"
I say, "But I do! I know being a fighter will work out in the end. I am becoming a fighter...now."
Jaheira looks what I pull out of my backpack - "Oh, is that why you didn't sell Khosann's full plate - you were going to wear it yourself?"
I say, "Precisely."
Journal,l I have to say, this decision is working out excellent. Jaheira gave her DEX bracers to khalid and Khalid has been using a shield, and with him and me in the front lines, the battles have been extremely smooth, even Cloakwood ambushes. Drassus and pals could not stand against it, nor any enemy in the mines below. Not even Davaeorn, though a buffed up Khalid did most of the work. I have done huge hits with the weapon (50 damage). We have arrived in the great City of Baldu'rs Gate - we are sure to delve deeper into this Iron Crisis mystery here.
@Grimwald, I have no idea what happens if you change NPCs' names. I think I wouldn't do it, simply to prevent possible problems or immersion-breaking inconsistencies.
@Corey, awesome stuff. Rock that Spiders' Bane!
@Blackraven: Thanks! It's working well so far. There are lot of good two-hand swords in BG 2/ToB so should serve him well. Sorry to hear about Victor. Durlag's Tower has claimed quite a few no-reloaders over the years, sorry to see Victor add his name to the list of casualties. Remember, if you are particularly fond of a character, you can make a starting save (e.g. right after character creation), and then reload that one to give 'em another chance, if they don't make it the first time.
Quad this morning.
Me running in nightshift worker sleep deprivation mode SES.
Bumbling about learning how to play a monk.
Tripping over Corey_Russell's Coretheif's corpse.
My biggest challenge...learning to play Lawful evil....after only playing chaotic evil....sigh....must resist picking up cursed items and placing them in my fellow quaders inventory to see if I can get them to use them...heh.
Magicken the human level 7 illusionist (inactive) > level 7 fighter FINAL BG 1 Update!
Khalid - level 8 fighter, 80 HP, 453 kills, Greater Basilisk
Magicken - level 7 illusionist (inactive) > level 7 fighter, 40 HP, 384 kills, Greater Basilisk
Jaheira - level 7 fighter/level 8 druid, 61 HP, 327 kills, Shoal the Neriad
Imoen - level 10 thief, 56 HP, 341 kills, Jolantha Mistmyr
Magicken Journal - Day 166
Well journal we did a few things in the Big City. We confronted Deserta and Vayya - this was fortunate, as they had a strength bracer which greatly helped Khalid. We retrieved a boy's body for a cleric of Tymora. We also pick-pocketed a cleric of Tymora, while Khalid and Jaheira weren't looking of course. There were other things, but the party is very strong.
We were asked by Duke Eltan to investigate the Iron Throne. At the top, Khalid had to battle a powerful party - however Khalid was protected by scroll of magic protection, as well as armed with exploding arrows - Khalid won the fight, though he did take some damage from his own arrows..
We were sent to Candlekeep, but got falsely accused of murdering Rieltar and his pals. Tethoril was nice enough to send us into the crypts, where thanks to Imoen, we found some nice tomes for me. Another powerful party encountered, but Khalid once again took them down with the last of our exploding arrows. Last obstacle was some basilisks, but Khalid and I took them down easily with help of mirror eyes potions.
We had to return to the big city, being careful to navigate via the sewers much as possible. There was an assassin named Slythe - he was killed very quick. We also thwarted Sarevok's attempt to murder the dukes (well both of them anyways - Liia died). Sarevok tried to get us in revenge, but quickly was forced to flee.
We had to navigate a thieve's maze, but with Imoen's trap work was no problem. We bypassed a potentially dangerous party by walking around them. The final battle then awaited!
Final Battle
While we did extensive preparations, it nearly wasn't enough. Imoen tried to pull Sarevok by himself, but that didn't work. Part of the problem was I was forced to retreat early to heal my wounds (I went invisible via potion). However once Angelo's exploding arrows entered the picture things were looking bad.
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Khalid fell shortly thereafter, but I was still licking my wounds. Jaheira had pumped a lot of bullets into Sarevok and got him injured, but still a lot to go. Imoen was trying to take out Semaj without success.
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Angelo's arrows were still hurting hard. Jaheira bravely attacked Sarevok with her +2 scimitar. Imoen moved toward to dais, partly so that Angelo's arrows don't catch both Jaheira and her. I am still licking my wounds...Jaheira stood her ground, despite her buffs being dispelled, but was slain. Imoen tried hard to kill Semaj but Angelo killed her - I am alone! My only chance is to ignore the fry and go for Sarevok, so while still invisible, I did what buffs I could and prepared to attack. Imoen may have saved my life, as Tazok and Semaj were no where near me. Attack!
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I am hitting Sarevok hard, so is he, so I gulp a blue potion and press my attack - the Spider's Bane DOES kill Sarevok just as I predicted! .My poor friends did not die in vain...his acolytes decided they could not stand against me and fled the scene...
I pick up what equipment I can and make the journey back to Baldur's Gate to resurrect my friends - Gorion is now avenged. Rest in peace, father.
Excellent work Corey! Congrats 
And thanks for your tip. I exported Victor after character creation, so I could import him again. Rolled a Cleric/Thief and a Bard as well though, and I still have an old Cleric/Mage playthrough I once hoped to novelize and might soon continue... Decisions, decisions...
Anyway good luck in Amn!
@Blackraven: Thank you! I was uncertain the dual would work, since I won't see the full potential until BG 2. The low HP is a concern, but if I get lucky, levels 8 and 9 may shore that up a bit - the arcane defense of course will also be quite relevant. It was a fun run, I greatly enjoy 4 man parties - the leveling of a 6 man party is so slow...even so, Imoen didn't reach her level cap until the thieves maze.
Good stuff Corey - keep that sword swinging in BG2.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 64 - (4th and final update)
Possess, gnome cleric/thief (Grond0) & Weystead, dwarven defender (Gate70)
After cruising through most of BG1 this pairing added to the pile of bodies in the catacombs beneath Candlekeep.
I think both of us were rather tired, so it probably wasn't a great decision to play. We had already had problems in the session earlier with Larze the ogre - Weystead attacked him while using his special ability and then couldn't run as he was being beaten down. Possess was then surprised by the ogre investigating nearby rooms and taken down to 3 HPs before a potion of invisibility saved him. After a trip to the temple Weystead had another go, but died again. However, Larze was virtually dead by then himself, which meant that the critical backstab Possess produced to revenge him was rather wasted.
Weystead was also confused by Marek just before the latter died, but some skeletons surrounding him were able to protect the tavern patrons.
In the catacombs Possess started off by disarming the traps and looting the first 2 tombs. For the spiders she intended to leave things to Weystead and was waiting some way off in a tunnel. I had already been surprised that on several occasions spiders had teleported to her (that occasionally happens in BGT, but not often). However, they are normally easy to dodge and I didn't take the danger too seriously. When another spider arrived though Possess moved away from it, then as it teleported she moved back to where she had just come from to ensure that if that spider teleported to her again it would be safely distant. Regrettably that spider went back to Weystead, but another arrived at almost the same time - into the location Possess had just returned to! She was just too slow in reversing course again and was poisoned. Her attempted slow poison failed and her body slumped down to provide the spiders with a good meal.
Well done, Corey, even if Magicken stayed alone in the end! This is his fate from now on, I presume. Hope, his friends didn't died in vain and wish him safe travels in Amn!.
@Blackraven, Grond0 & Gate: feel sad of your losses, friends. Better luck and concentration next time.
Quad multiplayer attempt 2 - (update 2)
Grond0, Dogdancing, corey_russell, Gate70
The session started with the group hovering over Shoal's dead body. There were immediate problems when Static took the short route back to the edge of the map and found a group of wolves had regenerated at the encounter spot there. Corthief tried to tank them, forgetting for a moment he was only level 1, and 2 rapid bites put him down before the others ran for safety leaving Carthus to use his speed to circle round the wolves and collect Corthief's equipment.
A few tasks were done in Beregost on the way to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armour and a scroll of protection from petrification. With that to hand they moved on to the basilisk area where Carthus led the attack on the monsters. While finishing the last of them off Mutamin caught a glimpse of Wewa and dashed towards the party. He managed to catch up with Static, but only after the latter had concluded a conversation with Korax and Mutamin immediately got stuck in place.
Moving down to Kirian's group, Korax managed to paralyse her, but then died soon after. Baerin was shot down though and Peter used his spells to no effect so things seemed promising - except that we had forgotten to finish off Kirian. After she recovered she saw Corthief running Lindin round and a lightning bolt sent him crashing to the floor again. Lindin and Peter were run round until they could be finished off by missiles. While that was happening Carthus noticed that Kirian's mirrors had expired and sneaked in to stun her - this time she was not given the chance to move again.
After reviving Corthief the party did a few more tasks in Beregost before making their way through the Cloudpeaks - picking up some bracers for Static on the way. By this stage Corthief was clearly acting as the party's tank; Static mainly used his bow, but put in the odd backstab to keep in practice; Carthus primarily used his fists, but picked on enemies that were concentrating on someone else; Wewa (with the fewest HPs of the group and no headgear) normally used missiles.
Back in civilised territory Greywolf realised too late he should have got a new job. Carthus activated his stunning blow at the start of the contest, but it was not until Greywolf was already nearly dead that it took effect - providing Corthief with a nicely improved weapon.
A quick tour round resulted in further reputation boosts up to 19. Talking to Bjornin will provide an opportunity to maximise reputation next time and buy Corthief some coveted full plate armour.
Stats:
Grond0 - Static, fighter 4 / thief 4, 40 HPs, 87 kills
Dogdancing - Wewa, monk 5, 30 HPs, 21 kills, 0 deaths
corey_russell - Corthief, fighter 4 / thief 4, 36 HPs, 37 kills, 2 deaths
Gate70 - Carthus, monk 5, 32 HPs, 37 kills, 1 death
Well done, Corey, even if Magicken stayed alone in the end! This is his fate from now on, I presume. Hope, his friends didn't died in vain and wish him safe travels in Amn!.
@Blackraven, Grond0 & Gate: feel sad of your losses, friends. Better luck and concentration next time.
Well that was the initial plan. However, there are two traps in Candlekeep Irenicus' dungeon that easily could take out his whole 40 HP, and he won't have arcane defense to counter-act that. So he won't be QUITE solo, but close. Instead, he will only take the characters that were with him in BG 1 (provided they don't get chunked). E.g., in the dungeon, will just be Magicken, Jaheira and Imoen, but for Chapter Two will only be Magicken and Jaheira. Once at spellhold the trio will be re-united. If no chunkings, then just them onto Melissan.
@Grond0, Gate70: Sorry to hear of your MP demise - your duo sounded promising, maybe you should try them again.
@Grimwald, I have no idea what happens if you change NPCs' names. I think I wouldn't do it, simply to prevent possible problems or immersion-breaking inconsistencies.
Thanks for the advice. Having thought about it, I have decided to drop Edwin and use Xzar instead.
The reason for this is that the conversations about him being a wizard of Thay make it difficult to think of him as a drow.
On the other hand I think that Xzar's behaviour and conversations ARE in keeping with a drow. I won't know until I try it as I haven't tried evil mages before.
It is a pity that there are no evil elf or drow mages either in-game or as mods. I have SKd Xzar into a drow necromancer, with the usual penalties and advantages of him being a drow: +1 Int, +1 Cha -20% Exp, Sun-blindness when fighting by day +2 to saves against magic etc. etc,
Since:
(1) my novelization attempt, while enjoyable, means all work and no play,
(2) I really liked my moderately roleplayed run with Victor the Mage-turned-Fighter,
(3) other current roleplayed playthroughs are inspiring, and
(4) I promised CKT a Mythical/Historical Hero, I couldn't resist the urge to roll a new Charname.
Not surprisingly, Tell is an Archer, specialized in Crossbows, who will work toward grandmastery in that weapon. I had to pick two melee weapons and decided to go with Daggers and Axes as those fit the image I have of him. Other weapons that come to mind are Clubs, Halberds and Spears.
I consider creating a special weapon for him in BG2, an echanted Axe that gives an extra APR. That way he won't ever have to use blades (Scimitars or Short Swords) for extra APR.
Although I don't want to run a completely min-maxed character, most stats needed to be fairly to very high to properly represent William Tell's ability. I adjusted a 94 roll as follows:
STR 18/94 -> as described above, Tell was known as a 'strong man', and while captured he was unbound in the boat to steer 'with all his famed strength';
DEX 17 -> to offset his extraordinary STR, I gave Tell 'only' 17 DEX, still very good of course but surely 1 or 2 points less than the average Archer that most players will roll;
CON 14 -> I've found no details indicating an appropriate CON score, so I settled for a score that does give a bonus to hit points (after the CON tome has been consumed), but not the full bonus;
INT 15 -> this is a roleplayed playthrough, and I want my hero to be intelligent, and Tell did seem to know reasonably well what he was doing;
WIS 14 -> I think that Tell's refusal to bow before the pole can be seen as an unwise decision that could have cost him dearly, and the same goes for telling the mayor he would have killed him had the bolt hit his son instead of the apple - so a score of 14, the minimum for Rangers, seemed appropriate;
CHA 16 -> as he got to play a leading part in a rebellion, a good CHA score within the 15-17 range seemed fitting.
This gives Tell the same physical stats as Kivan though with a higher exceptional STR modifier, and one more physical point than Minsc and Khalid, rather than 6-7 points more than those NPCs if I'd given Tell three 18s. I'll allow myself to lower the difficulty setting at leveling up for maximum hit points increase as I've never been a big fan of the randomness of that aspect of the game. Tell with the CON tome will gain 11 hitpoints/level, which is what a 19 CON warrior with no HP maximization would gain on average at leveling up (between 6 and 15 HP = 10.5 HP, rounded up to 11 by the game.).
CKT provided the following rules:
- Try to find a good likeness of your PC for your Medium and Small Images & try to align your colors accordingly.
Most representations portray Tell as a blue eyed, bearded man with curly/wavy hair of medium length. I chose to use the portrait that@Isandir made of me.
- Play the persona of the character as best you can in dialogue & combat choices.
I made Tell LG, as he seemed to be good man with a strong sense of justice, anchored in his own moral code rather than the laws of the land (which laws have meaning to Tell only if they are just). Will play him true to his alignment, and as an almost brutally honest man.
- Make sure you complete everything, (e.g. Durlag's Tower & the Isle of Balduran) not just the basic run.
I'll probably justify the TotSC content by having Tell choose to lay low after he escapes from Candlekeep and finds the authorities of Baldur's Gate are after him.
- Keep going, if you choose into SoA/ToB & keep sharing your progress.
That's definitely the idea.
Now that everything has to be completed, I'll play a full party for most of the game (as trying as that may be to me). Enough XP for all... The NPCs I'm using for BG1 are Ajantis, Rasaad, Neera, Branwen and Imoen. Four of those will only play a small part if any, in the novelization I'm slowly working on, so this experience with Tell is guaranteed a very distinct one for me.
I'll generally try to make this as realistic as possible and somewhat challenging. To me this means no short duration pre-buffs unless dangers have been properly scouted, no wand recharging, no use of NPCs as meat shields (will flip a coin after each NPC's death to decide whether or not their CON is to be lowered by 1), roleplayed justifications for exploring certain areas, no use of metagamke knowledge as the location of certain items etc. No-reload is very hard for me to let go of, but who knows, maybe it will turn into minimal reload at one point.
Edit: changed name into William Tell, and replaced screenshot to reflect that change.
Good luck with Tell, Blackraven. Sounds like you've got a good back story basis to keep your interest with him going.
Best of luck with your new RPed' run Blackraven. One comment though - I don't know why you would find wands recharging unrealistic. In order to make a wand in the first place, someone must do a technique to put the charges in them. Thus, if you do the same technique when charges get low, you recharge them. What your comment implies is when you run out of ammo for a crossbow, you throw it away and get a new crossbow with ammo, rather than just "recharge" the crossbow with more ammunition. A wand is the same principle, just magical ammo instead of physical.
Regardless if that's the restriction you wish to play with, best of luck. Note I'm not disputing your self-restriction, only the rationale for such (it's "unrealistic").
Best of luck with your new RPed' run Blackraven. One comment though - I don't know why you would find wands recharging unrealistic. In order to make a wand in the first place, someone must do a technique to put the charges in them. Thus, if you do the same technique when charges get low, you recharge them. What your comment implies is when you run out of ammo for a crossbow, you throw it away and get a new crossbow with ammo, rather than just "recharge" the crossbow with more ammunition. A wand is the same principle, just magical ammo instead of physical.
Regardless if that's the restriction you wish to play with, best of luck. Note I'm not disputing your self-restriction, only the rationale for such (it's "unrealistic").
I don't think we disagree necessarily. I wrote that I wanted to make the playthrough as realistic as possible and somewhat challenging. The no recharging restriction is part of that challenge rather than inspired by realism. I find it unrealistic to attribute the ability to recharge to every merchant in the game because I don't see the wand charges as tangible commodities, but I have no issues, from a realism POV, with a rule that allows qualified sellers, i.e. wizards, to recharge. In BG1 this means Thalantyr and Halbazzar. In SoA/ToB the lady in the Adventurer Mart, maybe one of the Drow merchants, and Lazarus could qualify for that.
Anyway, many thanks for the luck you wish me Grond0 and Corey. Knowing myself, I'll need it 
I don't think we disagree necessarily. I wrote that I wanted to make the playthrough as realistic as possible and somewhat challenging. The no recharging restriction is part of that challenge rather than inspired by realism. I find it unrealistic to attribute the ability to recharge to every merchant in the game because I don't see the wand charges as tangible commodities, but I have no issues, from a realism POV, with a rule that allows qualified sellers, i.e. wizards, to recharge. In BG1 this means Thalantyr and Halbazzar. In SoA/ToB the lady in the Adventurer Mart, maybe one of the Drow merchants, and Lazarus could qualify for that.
Anyway, many thanks for the luck you wish me Grond0 and Corey. Knowing myself, I'll need it
I see. I understand you intended now. Incidentally, in my game not all merchants can recharge wands - before chapter 5, I think it's only Ulgoth's Beard, Durlag's, Thalantyr and FAI merchant. Note Of the 4, only Durlag's and Ulgoth's don't appear to be wizards, though the game doesn't give us any info to be certain on that point. If you attack the FAI innkeeper, he will quite clearly show himself to be a wizard (Dogdancing and I have done that one run).
Ah yes, Bentley is also a Mage of course. (He sometimes casts Detect Invisibility if my rogues sneak around in his inn.) He would qualify as well.
The thing here is that my current run is going to be in the Enhanced Edition (mainly to use some of the new NPCs), just like my run with Victor. In the latter playthrough I found that wands were relatively cheap and both those found and those bought came with lots of charges (10-20). Besides I think that all merchants are willing to buy/recharge wands. I want wands to remain somewhat special, hence my restrictions.
All the best and safe travels for Tell, Blackraven! Pretty much like your approach and looking forward to enjoy the novelization.
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