Do NPCs carry over from BGI to BGII?

[p3ibol]

I'm starting to play BGI, and I want to project my team building and leveling up also around how it would affect BGII... So when I finish BGI and I start BGII importing from my previous game, would only the main character stay the same, or other NPCs like Imoen or Jaheira too?

So for example, if I chose to Dual class Imoen at level 6, will she stay like that in BGII? Or if I choose different proficiencies than what they have in a new BGII game, would they carry over?

Thank you!

[fauxpas]

No, NPCs don't carry over, although you can use Keeper to make the changes you want.

[p3ibol]

Good to know, thanks!

[Mentos]

For the sake of maintaining some semblence of logic from BG1 to 2 I actually recommend staying away from any characters you might be using in 2 or noteworthy ones. Character death is noteworthy here. Because while you can raise a dead npc, it's actually immersion breaking to have done so once you get to Bg2. Imoen is a bhaalspawn, cannot be ressurected. Minsc doesn't want to carry Dynaheir's meat popsicle out of the dungeon to raise her. Jaheira refused to attempt to bring Khalid back to life because it isn't natural Character development does not carry over either.

While it's nice to go through some horrible things with your canonical party and experience that element of loss that Bg2 forces you through, I feel like you are forced into playing Bg1 a specific way and reload the game whenever certain people get killed, rather than accepting their death or even raising them because it breaks the immersion or directly conflicts with the characters backround ( specifically Imoen ).

[jle30303]

In the original Baldurs Gate 2, the fact that Imoen is a Bhaalspawn has no impact on the ability to raise her or otherwise - indeed, in TOB, a conversation between her and Sarevok hints that she has in fact "died" and been raised several times. Of course, as Bhaalspawns go, she is only a very weak one, and develops no Bhaal powers until very, very late in TOB.

Also, there is no question of Minsc carrying Dynaheir's body out of the Irenicus Prison, because it is never THERE in the first place: Dynaheir is assumed to have died offstage, and her body been presumably left at the site of the initial ambush. Khalid was captured alive, but later died, and his body (alive or dead) used for enough experiments that it's now in an unresurrectable state even if Jaheira had wanted to, or had the power to. I can't say what it's like in the Expanded Edition, which I haven't played yet.

The biggest issue with carrying over, in fact, is if the player chose to keep Imoen as a thief during BG1 - or, conversely, dual-classed her to mage at a lower level than 7: BG2 assumes (because it was what the actual majority of players reported doing, in the game's initial forums) that Imoen was dual-classed to mage at thief level 7, which is the highest thief level that it's possible to actually overtake as a mage and get to mage level 8.

(Another popular tactic was to get her to thief level 6, which still allowed room to get her to mage level 9 - which was the highest level attainable even by a single-class mage, thanks to the mechanics of dual-classing - and thus, to use 5th-level spells: but this didn't really quite leave enough thieving skill points for her to be truly useful as a thief in the late game when she got her thief powers back, so dual-classing at level 7 and going for mage level 8 was more popular even though it meant missing out on the few available 5th-level spells.)

Oddly enough, Siege of Dragonspear - written later - implies that Imoen *did* stay a thief all the way through BG1 (which would have taken her to level 10, given the XP cap) and only dual-classed to mage later afterwards, studying under Duke Liia Jannath: so logically, BG2:EE should start with Imoen being a level 10 thief / 11 mage if she's to be a dual-class who is actually capable of both magery and thievery. But that's not possible since you, and the rest of the party, start BG2:EE with 161000 XP - even if you played SOD and went up to 500000 XP: in fact I believe the player will themselves lose much of the experience gained during Siege of Dragonspear, when transitioning to BG2. Although I believe I have read that some of the equipment you gained in SOD may transition over and be findable in BG2:EE, if you can get to the correct places to find it (obviously it doesn't go with you directly.)

But because of the plot of BG2, Imoen is required to be both a thief AND a mage, from the start of BG2: which by the AD&D-2nd-Edition rules of dual-classing for humans, requires her to have at least one more level in her second class (mage) than her first (thief).

[jle30303]

In short: Some NPCs appear in both games, but neither their level nor their gear will transition over. And if they died in BG1 and were not resurrected - even if it was you that killed them - the ones who still appear in BG2 will still appear in BG2. They will start at 161000 XP if you meet them right from the start (this is true of Minsc, Jaheira and Imoen, who you meet in the first room of BG2) , or slightly higher level if you first take them into your party when you're a significantly higher level (Edwin and Viconia - and the new ones introduced in BG:EE, namely Neera, Rasaad and Dorn).. A few other BG1 NPs appear in BG2, but are not recruitable. (Coran and Safana have a small cameo. Garrick has a brief appearance in an easily missable series of encounters. Quayle appears in a sidequest, Tiax in a main-quest location: Xzar also appears, and Montaron's death is reported. It is possible to discover the unfortunate fate of Ajantis in one sidequest, and kill Faldorn who is the villain of another. We also learn that Dynaheir and Khalid are dead. Nothing is ever seen of Shar-Teel, Yeslick, Alora, Kagain, Kivan, Xan, Branwen and Eldoth. Nor was anything further seen of Skie in the original version of BG2: however, the later-written Siege of Dragonspear explains why this may be the case. Baeloth, also newly added by BG:EE and present in BG:SoD, is missing from BG2:EE, although this may be because he was a late addition even to BG:EE, and they haven't found a way to insert him into BG2:EE yet.)

And... there are other plot things that happen with Imoen too.

But, as originally designed: Baldurs Gate 2 begins with the assumption that, as "canon", you travelled with a party consisting of Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir - and that Imoen was dual-classed at level 7 from thief to mage: even if you didn't actually do this, the game of BG2 begins in a situation as if you had done this - the only one to transfer over fully is your main character. If you even read the books which give permanent stat increases on some of the characters that carry over, BG2 will not remember this for any character except your main character. But some changes HAVE happened: Minsc will have gained 1 point each in Dex and Con, from 15 to 16, while both Jaheira and Viconia will have gained 3 Wisdom, raising from 14 and 15 to 17 and 18 respectively. Imoen, of course, has no change to her stats, but has her assumption of dual-classing: and Edwin's non-removable Amulet which gives him +1 extra spell of each level in vanilla BG1, is improved to +2 extra spells of each level - I think it is +2 spells of each level in BG:EE anyway. Also, their weapon proficiencies are set at whatever the game decides, rather than whatever you decided in BG1.

[p3ibol]

wow guys thanks a lot for all the answers. I avoided looking into the spoilers too, but it is good to know all the info. Thanks!!!