History Headscratchers / BaldursGate

*** Well yeah, of course they wouldn't give you a flying party member. But that's purely gameplay. Looking only from a plot perspective I can't really think of a reason for Aerie to refuse the Bhaalspawn's offer to give her new wings. Especially if the Bhaalspawn romanced her as much as possible. Admittedly I haven't played [=BG2:ToB=] in a while so I might have forgotten something.

*** Baldur's Gate was not cribbing much at all from 3e, as 3e was not out yet when the mechanics of BGII were put into place. They knew some things were coming, like sorcerers, so they added them, but nitty gritty rules were a no-go. Also, Later Self in 2e does not equal alter self in 3e.

*** I'm not sure why this is even a Headscratcher, really. You can only get bandit scalps from bandits. Slaughtering the citizens in towns won't help you, they usually don't have any items on them and there's no "scalping" function that allows you to take the scalps of anyone you kill. If you're asking why the other [=NPCs=] are written to assume that you're only turning in bandit scalps, apparently the game is skewed in favor of the good side and the development team didn't think of a PC who went around murdering random souls for their scalps. I don't think this game was meant to be a wide open sandbox where you could do anything you wanted to.

*** It's approximately 5 months between the ending of BG1 and beginning of [=BG2=], and you've only been captured for around a month or so roughly. Also keep in mind. Minsc and Dynaheir had time to learn of your disappearance and then manage to track you to Athkatla in order to be captured (A lot of people forget that Minsc/Dynahier explicitly were NOT captured at the same time as you, Imeon, Jaheria, and Khalid, but instead were captured after they began poking around Amn to find you).
*** I think you guys missed the point. Ulgoth's Beard, Durlag's Tower, Ice Island, and the Island of Balderan have to be done BEFORE you go after Sarevok, otherwise the game ends after you beat him and you're locked out of doing the side quests entirely. So this means that you decide to leave him alone while you go off to the Island of Balderan for a couple of months, then come back and kick his tail. The problem is that the main part of the game doesn't mention any of these places ahead of time aside from Marl in Beregost mentioning Ulgoth's Beard, since they're all in the expansion pack, and the only way to access them is to go to Ulgoth's Beard first and then go to the extra questing areas. It makes it jarring story-wise when playing the game the first time with the expansion pack, and the difficulty of the TotSC quests means that most people will leave the expansion pack for last as well. There is nothing in either game that states that the expansion pack quests are quests that you're doing in the five months between games, and since you can't do them after Sarevok's death at all, there's no reason to assume this, either.

** All of the Evil ones have [[FridgeBrilliance good reasons]], at least in BGII:

*** It's very poorly done. Keep in mind. Sarevok = Chaotic Evil. Well respected and popular upcoming candidate for a seat as a Duke of Baldur's Gate, and the heir to a large and well connected merchant company. Edwin and Viconia both come from societies that expect you to present a popular and upstanding front, while seeking your own benefits in the background discreetly, where as unsanctioned overt evil is frowned upon and usually leapt on by others who are craving advancement. Neither would have any issue at all having a sterling reputation and in fact BOTH would prefer it, since laws and juries tend to favor people with good publicity, and as long as the PC is one dictating the actions taken, they can simply sit back and profit by association. As long as they're receiving the power or respect they desire, they don't care where it comes from or what people think their goals are. Korgan is mostly about the money, and as long as heaps of gold are rolling in, he largely doesn't care where it came from, though he does get irritated if he isn't pointed at something to kill on a reasonably regular schedule.
*** It seems to have been altered for Enhanced Edition, at least in the first game. I ran a good-aligned, Reputation 20 party for the vast majority of BG:EE, and Jaheria (the only neutral member) only ever used her positive comment on the party's reputation. I remember finding her insufferable in the original release of the game because in the same circumstances, she would only use her "mildly annoyed" comment. The one that insinuated that she would be a better leader than CHARNAME.

* In BGII, when you first encounter Imoen in Spellhold, she's a psychotic wreck and an EmptyShell. After you lose your soul, she suddenly regains her sanity and can jump right back into your party. Headcanon is that my group happened to have a Heal spell on hand, but does game itself give any explanation for this?

*** It's approximately 5 months between the ending of BG1 and beginning of BG2, and you've only been captured for around a month or so roughly. Also keep in mind. Minsc and Dynaheir had time to learn of your disappearance and then manage to track you to Athkatla in order to be captured (A lot of people forget that Minsc/Dynahier explicitly were NOT captured at the same time as you, Imeon, Jaheria, and Khalid, but instead were captured after they began poking around Amn to find you).

** After giving up her godly powers, 20+ years of living peacefully and birthing 7 kids. CHARNAME's fighting abilities are not going to be what they used to be, especially if they're Human or Half-Orc. What I want to know is why despite giving all the Bhaal essence, the kids are implied to have it.

** After 20+ years of living peacefully, birthing 7 kids and giving up her godly powers. CHARNAME's fighting abilities are not going to be what they used to be, especially if they're Human or Half-Orc.

** After 20+ years of living peacefully, birthing 7 kids and giving up their godly powers. CHARNAME's fighting abilities are not going to be what they used to be, especially if they're Human or Half-Orc.

*** Along that same line, maybe s/he would be something like {{Discworld}}'s [[AC:Death]], a benevolent, DontFearTheReaper type who 'takes over where life left off.' Somebody like that would be a close ally of deities such as Ilmater (because s/he would give final relief for the suffering) and Kelemvor (s/he sees souls safely off to the afterlife).

** I only mentioned romance because you don't really get that many dialogues with most NPCs outside of the romances (and because I've seen it asserted elsewhere that she doesn't talk about her wings outside of the romance dialogue, which is factually untrue). And yes, most banters in the game are about the recipient of the banter, not the initiator of the banter. That doesn't make Aerie unique. What does, however, is the way she interjects her complaining in to the banter anyways. She'll talk to Minsc about Rashemen, sure, but whines about how she was taken from her home in the process. She can even whine about her wings while she's still an ogre. As for real life - well, in the real world I'd tell anyone like Aerie to find professional help. This isn't some macho InternetToughGuy garbage - it's because in the real world, depression and PTSD are serious diseases that don't get solved by meeting a kind stranger who offers up some encouraging words and the idea that they do is an all-too-prevalent one that hurts actual people who really exist. But that's RealLife. In the real world, I'd also want to talk about, say, having my parents killed by monsters and an evil slaver and smuggler trying to force me to marry him against my will, or having my lover/husband killed, or especially, being brutally tortured and then having my soul sucked out. And yet, everyone but poor little Aerie manages not to whine about it, and in fact rarely ever mention their issues at all outside of their designated questlines or romances, even though she's had the most time to get over her issues and actually has someone she's close to outside of the party to try and work this out with.

*** I'm not sure why this is even a Headscratcher, really. You can only get bandit scalps from bandits. Slaughtering the citizens in towns won't help you, they usually don't have any items on them and there's no "scalping" function that allows you to take the scalps of anyone you kill. If you're asking why the other NPCs are written to assume that you're only turning in bandit scalps, apparently the game is skewed in favor of the good side and the development team didn't think of a PC who went around murdering random souls for their scalps. I don't think this game was meant to be a wide open sandbox where you could do anything you wanted to.
*** Also, attacking NPCs in towns nets you a -5 to reputation and other NPCs turn hostile. Get your reputation low enough and every time you enter a town, you will have a Flaming Fist force on your heels, attempting to capture you. NPCs outside of towns may carry items, but never bandit scalps if they aren't bandits.