Multiplayer - with a number of your own characters is tremendous fun in ToB.
In BG2 there is plenty of NPC interaction which makes it much better to play as one generated character and have NPCs along for the story BUT BG2 has very little NPC-driven content and I have just got the hang of playing multiplayer on my own - it is not very clear and that had put me off a little.
to play multiplayer - obviously select it in the options then join game - you create a session name - then you 'create' a character - even though you want to import a character - then you import either a character file or a saved game and carry on for as many PCs as you wish - I used a mix of HL ones that had finished the game and newly generated. That way, found that level 40 at 8 illion points was the max for an assassin, for example.
when you have your PCs, you click on the ticks to include them and 'done' will appear. you can then start the game at the beginning of TOB. the first of the PCs will be the Bhaalspawn.
save the game and each time you load, you have to specify which PCs you want included and you can, if you wish, continue a saved game with different PCs than you saved it with! (apart from the Bhaalspawn)
you can even imort the PC as a clone of itself and could have 2 or more of the same character in the party.
anyhow - it is worth the effort in ToB and you can have your favourite PCs in one party.
My party is presently :
Bhaalspawn - newly generated cleric - level 25
saved FMT levels 12/12/14
saved dual-classed F-M levels 8-30
newly generated beserker - level 2?
(did have level 40 assassin, but sharing xp without gain so swapped out)
newly- generated Avenger (druid) - level 16
saved - swashbuckler-fighter (!seemed a good idea at the time!) 9-2?
It is fun to try out a couple of classes like the beserker and avenger, that I don't usually play. The high-level beserker who specialises in halberds and long-swords with +6 Ravager (?) & the silver sword (both vorpal weapons) and wears boots of speed cuts through packs of enemies like a hot knife through butter. he needs -16 to hit THAC0...and has 4 attacks per round.
Have fun!
Split Personality Fun
Split Personality Fun
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players"
Update
finished ToB in multiplayer - the new cleric finished at about level 31, the avenger managed a very creditable 20+ and the beserker got around the 30 mark. three new characters all fun to play - I armed the beserker with ravager +6 and with ***** in halberd and stars in double-handed weapons, those vorpal hits came fast and furious - 4 attacks per round and requiring very minus numbers THAC0. never done that before, but the character could go toe-to-toe with very powerful enemies. use a few HLAs and he was a real powerhouse.
the cleric was less unusual and the Avenger was also OK, but not exceptional.
I had my maxed-out level 40 assassin help out from time to time and brought up a mage to over 7,000,000 points which was in the level 30s. I dropped him from time to time rather than waste sharing the xp with characters that didn't need it.
I used 4 saved-game characters and 3 fresh ones. I think that I will go back to BG1 and play that with 2 created characters and play them through. I am tempted to do WK in BG1 and then when finished do it again by starting ToB as a new game, so that each can have the benefit of Lum's machine.
it's only the same effect as having imported post-Lum PCs into a multiplayer game.
as I posted - playing multiplayer with a selection of high characters was fun, even if the game became less challenging at times.
I seemed to lose containers from imported characters - jewel bags and potion cases - so watch out for that.
finished ToB in multiplayer - the new cleric finished at about level 31, the avenger managed a very creditable 20+ and the beserker got around the 30 mark. three new characters all fun to play - I armed the beserker with ravager +6 and with ***** in halberd and stars in double-handed weapons, those vorpal hits came fast and furious - 4 attacks per round and requiring very minus numbers THAC0. never done that before, but the character could go toe-to-toe with very powerful enemies. use a few HLAs and he was a real powerhouse.
the cleric was less unusual and the Avenger was also OK, but not exceptional.
I had my maxed-out level 40 assassin help out from time to time and brought up a mage to over 7,000,000 points which was in the level 30s. I dropped him from time to time rather than waste sharing the xp with characters that didn't need it.
I used 4 saved-game characters and 3 fresh ones. I think that I will go back to BG1 and play that with 2 created characters and play them through. I am tempted to do WK in BG1 and then when finished do it again by starting ToB as a new game, so that each can have the benefit of Lum's machine.
it's only the same effect as having imported post-Lum PCs into a multiplayer game.
as I posted - playing multiplayer with a selection of high characters was fun, even if the game became less challenging at times.
I seemed to lose containers from imported characters - jewel bags and potion cases - so watch out for that.
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players"