Baldur's Gate/Characters/Main Party Members: Difference between revisions

 

Associated Tropes:

* [[A God Am I]] - You can choose to be this if you want in ToB.

* [[But Now I Must Go]] - If you accept godhood and are good, most of your party will wish you luck where they cannot follow. Minsc is especially distraught that his best friend in ass-kicking will be gone.

* [[Canon Name]] - Abdel Adrian.

* [[The Casanova]] - Potentially. A mod called [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Romantic Encounters]] allows the PC, female or male, to have flirtations/flings with dozens of different characters in BG2, including a giant red dragon, a guy called [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Renal Bloodscalp]], and the god of lies of and insanity.

* [[Chick Magnet]] - If male, and human, elf, or half-elf. In BG2 three of six joinable female characters will automatically start to fall for him, and a number of female NPCs will also proposition him over the course of the game. Averted if the PC is female - the only man who will show interest is Anomen.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]] - Moreso in BG1 than BG2, but some of your dialogue options are this.

** By Throne of Bhaal, even ''Elminster'' doesn't want to fight you. Yeah, you're that [[Badass]].

* [[Doom Magnet]] - Justified by the prophecy. "Chaos will be sown in [the Bhaalspawns'] passage." Plus, y'know, you're the son/daughter of MURDER.

** Well, he had to take on a physical form to... procreate.

* [[Happily Adopted]] - Until your foster father gets gibbed by your evil older half brother.

* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]

* [[Jerkass]] - In the novels. Or it might just be bad writing.

* [[The Hero]]

* [[Karma Meter]] - Via reputation.

* [[Multiple Endings]]

** [[A God Am I]] - {{spoiler|As noted above. You can be either a good or evil God, depending on your reputation, though most every Good-aligned character will try to sway you away from this path regardless.}}

* [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] - Though it's really not very powerful, and for non-warriors it's actually detrimental.

** And you lose alignment points for using it. And if you use it too much, it's game over for you.

*** And for cheesing your way past [[Bonus Boss|Kangaxx]], as it's completely immune to his big gun, Imprisonment.

*** With Ascension installed, the improved Ravager form makes you able to eat most things for breakfast. Even the improved Ascension TOB bosses go down like wimps to carefully executed Ravager onslaughts. Though it is still only good for fighter classes and multi-classes.

* [[BFS]] - Minsc's weapon of choice, to a point where you wonder why he's a ranger instead of a fighter. The answer, of course, being that Fighters don't get animal companions, and what is Minsc without his Boo?

* [[The Big Guy]]

* [[Breaking the Bonds]] - Whereas Jaheira needs a key to free her from her cage, Minsc will simply fly into a berserker rage and smash his cage open.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]] - One of the best examples in all of fiction. Minsc relies heavily on Boo, his miniature giant space hamster for advice. Boo's advice is actually very good, if you bother to listen.

* [[The Comically Serious]] - When it comes to certain subjects, in particular Boo or protecting his witch.

* [[I Want to Be a Real Man]] - The whole reason why he's on the journey.

* [[Justice Will Prevail]] - And in his ending, he forms a group of warriors named The Justice Fist. But first:

** ''"Aaah, we're all heroes... you and Boo and I... HAMSTERS AND RANGERS EVERYWHERE! '''REJOICE!!!'''"''

* [[Large Ham]] - Top tier. Constantly enthusiastically overacting, and voiced by a man who (barring [[Grey DeLisle]]) has done more voice jobs than most of the rest of the cast combined.

* [[Odd Friendship]] - Minsc and Keldorn. Despite being opposed on the Law/Chaos scale, Minsc will gladly fight beside anyone who ''buttkicks for goodness!''

* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]] - Every character delivers them from time to time, but Minsc moreso than most.

* [[Stuck Items]] - One of Minsc's few drawbacks as a frontline warrior is that one of his quick item slots is permanently occupied by Boo.

* [[Talking Animal]] - If you take Minsc's word for it, this is what Boo is.

* [[Talking Animal]] - If you take Minsc's word for it.

* [[Team Pet]]

 

:: '''Jaheira'''

* [[Secret Test of Character]] - Elminster shows up at the end of her main subplot to subject her to one.

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]] - If she's being romanced, she'll react this way when a merchant in the Docks District offers to sell the PC a lovers' locket inscribed to the two of them; it's fairly apparent however that [[Everyone Can See It|he's on to something]].

* [[Sugar and Ice Personality]] - A classic example.

* [[Team Mom]] - To almost everyone.

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]] - Tomboy to Aerie's girly girl.

* [[Turn in Your Badge]] - The Harpers may threaten to expel her from the organization in the second game for refusing to follow orders, depending on the player's actions.

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]] - With Aerie.

* [[Women Are Wiser]] - She thinks so, at least.

* [[Aerith and Bob]] - Edwin is a not-exactly-rare English name. [[Name's the Same|And the name of a character]] in [[How to Succeed In Evil]].

* [[Always a Bigger Fish]] - One of Edwin's idle chatter comments is how he's stronger than Elminster -- who, for the uninitiated, is basically the most powerful wizard in all of the [[Forgotten Realms]]. If he survives until the end of ''Throne of Bhaal'', it's revealed he was actually stupid enough to try and live up to this boast. Elminster transformed Edwin back into "Edwina", and is implied to strip him of his magical powers for good measure. Edwin spends the rest of his life as a "bitter, lonely" woman working in a tavern somewhere.

* [[Arch Enemy]] - To Minsc. In BG1 it's nearly impossible to recruit them into the same party without them coming to blows, but in BG2 they don't do much more than snipe at each other, though a fight still CAN break out.

** To recruit both in BG1, you have to complete Minsc's quest WITHOUT talking to Edwin until you recruit Dynaheir into the party. Then talk to Edwin, and he'll offer to join your party "to keep an eye on the witch". The method itself is pretty simple; it's just hard to figure out [[Guide Dang It|without reading a walkthrough]].

*** However, even if you do succeed in getting them both in your party in BG, a fight which kills one of them (probably [[Squishy Wizard|Edwin]]) ''will'' break out - in BG2, this is less likely, though as noted above still possible.

*** Minsc and Edwin will be guaranteed to not kill each other in the first game if Dynaheir leaves the party. But to keep Minsc while removing Dynaheir, you either have to get Dynaheir killed in battle, or use a cheesy exploit by sending Dynaheir alone to a house, shutting the door with her still in there, and then removing her from the party. Characters need to walk up to Charname in order to activate their exit dialogs, and it's Dynaheir's exit dialog which triggers the code for Minsc to leave with her...but since NPC's can't open doors without player direction, you'll be able to keep Minsc and Edwin peacefully in your party so long as you [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|keep Dynaheir trapped in that house for the rest of the game by never opening the door again]]...

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] - Edwin isn't quite as severe a nutcase as Minsc, and is both capable of functioning like a normal person and a skilled mage on top of it, but he constantly talks to himself loudly (about, say, a plot to fireball the entire party in their sleep later) and is completely taken by surprise when people can overhear him.

* [[Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive]] - His character portraits.

* [[Gender Bender]] - Edwin has a sidequest about this, and his ultimate ending is this.

* [[Large Ham]] - However different Edwin and Minsc may be, they have... certain similarities...

* [[Lzherusskie]] - Another way he and Minsc are [[Not So Different]].

* {{spoiler|[[Man, I Feel Like a Woman]] - He can't help but check himself out when he's turned into a woman.}}

* [[Manipulative Bastard]] - He tries to be, though he's not particularly good at it.

* [[Retcon]] - Sort of. In BG1 Edwin has a [[Beard of Evil|villainous goatee]], which was fine, but in the time between BG1 and the sequel, Red Wizards were declared by canon outside of the Baldur's Gate series to consider facial hair barbaric, making Edwin a bizarre and unique case of [[Retcon]], [[Characterization Marches On]] (but for his country, not for him), and [[Did Not Do the Research]], because Bioware could easily have just removed the goatee for the sequel.

* [[Sarcastic Devotee]] - He might snark at you and talk about fireballing his allies, but he's one of, if not the most, loyal [[NPC|NPCs]] you can get.

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]] - He likes using $10 words as a way to show that he's [[Insufferable Genius|smarter than everyone else]].

* [[Smug Snake]]

* [[Squishy Wizard]] - He's the game's best pure offensive magic-user. He's also by far its most fragile character. Furthermore, unlike most of the other magic-oriented characters (Imoen, Aerie, Nalia, Dynaheir, etc.) he doesn't have a high DEX or the ability to equip a shield to make up for his squishiness.

** To be more specific, for all his talk of performing treasonous behavior, Edwin is one of the most loyal NPCs you can recruit. You can basically be a paladin type character who does tons of good things, have a largely good aligned party, with a high reputation, and the most Edwin will do is make some snide remarks. Just don't get that reputation point to 19 or 20, because he'll REALLY leave.

* [[Token Evil Teammate]] - Since he's the only pure mage in the game in BG2, he often ends up being this in good-aligned parties.

 

* [[Heel Face Turn]] - {{spoiler|If the protagonist romances her, he can turn her from Neutral Evil to True Neutral.}}

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]] - Averted, even within the game. You probably wouldn't know unless you were told that Viconia shares a voice actress with Nalia. And Raelis Shai. And Illasera of the Five. Although you'd probably notice she sounds a lot like [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|Azula]]. [[Grey DeLisle]] is a ''really good'' voice actress.

* [[Jerkass]] - Viconia will insult other party members for no apparent reason beyond spite, mocking, for example, Jaheira for being half-elven, Valygar for being dirty, Minsc for being as thick as a brick sandwich, and Aerie for her religion.

** Averted in the first game. She will actually compliment Jaheira or Dynaheir if one or both are in your group. No, really.

* [[Love Redeems]] - Goes up there with [[Heel Face Turn]].

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]] - Kind of a subversion: most drow in these types of stories are [[Chaotic Good]] types rebelling against their horrible world, while Viconia simply doesn't enjoy it.

* [[Please Dump Me]] - She invokes this a few times during her [[Romance Sidequest]].

* [[Religion of Evil]] - She's a priestess in one of the setting's many [[Religion of Evil|Religions of Evil]], though it doesn't play any part in the plot.

* [[Sex God|Sex Goddess]] - If romanced, Viconia will boast more than once about her skills in the arts of pleasure.

* [[The Three Faces of Eve]] - The temptress, all the way.

* [[Tsundere]] To quote:

{{quote|Viconia: ''Bastard! Stubborn bastard! Why must I trust you?! WHY?! I will not be dominated! Stay away!''