Tarlonniel

You guys are all wrong. What's really happening is a total redesign of all the character sprites - into muppets. It's a terrible thing when the game director goes mad with power.

Darn it. Well, plenty of time to finish my fanfic and get a few more save files ready for import.

You and me both. There are some spoilers I prefer to have going into a new game, but in this case, I'm not willing to wait around until they become available. It's all ahead flank come April 3rd!

Major quest: Saving (or not) Redcliffe in DA:O. On my first playthrough, I had my PC turn around and leave town as soon as the guy ran up to warn him about the undead invasion. I figured I'd go check out the mage tower first and come back later - no big deal, since the invasion would just wait around for me to get back, right? Nope. Bye bye Redcliffe. I was shocked, appalled and very, very impressed. I thought the rest of that chain was excellent too, right up to choosing Connor's fate and Alistair's reaction afterwards. Side quest: the Cult of the Eyeless in BG2. First you're chasing down some weird cultists, then there's this ancient temple, then a town of undead, then a beholder lair, and throughout the whole thing you're interacting with interesting people and learning about the lore of this world. Plus there's some good loot. I love it. Minor quest: Playing through Redcliffe again, this time in DA:I, you can get 'Flowers for Senna.' It's very simple - talk to a widower, go put some flowers on his wife's shrine, come back - but I thought it was all beautifully written, including a little poem on Senna's grave. If you're playing a Dalish Inquisitor you even get some special dialogue. I'm a sucker for quests like this one.

I dislike player-sexual companions for many reasons, but, since I'm a freak who creates each new protagonist with a definite idea of how I want their story to go, there's one major advantage to the system I can't ignore: all options are open. I'm not restricted to creating X if I want them to romance Y. On the other hand, such restrictions usually serve to make the story/characters better, not worse, so... arrgh.

That's good news; I like monkeying around with dialogue files if they're in plain text. And I hope someone figures out how to make custom sidekicks. With the BG2 voice sets. Return of Minsc!

Valygar and Haer'Dalis are two more of my favorites, but I haven't played without mods for them in a loooong time so they may be less interesting in the base game than I remember. I would definitely go for twenty or thirty fully fleshed out, interactive, reactive companions, but that ain't never gonna happen; more likely our choices come down to "(X) fully developed companions" or "(X-1) fully developed companions and four less developed ones," in which case I'm happy to take the latter.

Xan is amazing. I'd be very, very happy if they managed to create a sidekick on the level of a Mazzy or an Edwin. Heck, I'd even be happy with a new Cernd. A few characterization hints go a long way.

Very true. She's the only one who actually does something if you sacrifice Vela; yes, all she does is leave, but it's something. I appreciated that.

I definitely do; I feel like I'm wasting my time otherwise. However, I also want to play the game as soon as it's released, so.... no romance on my first playthrough! Serious rogue-god-related business only. No, Aloth, you're still never leaving the party, romanceable or no. Get back in line or I'll draw smiley faces on your grimoire.

For my very first playthrough I picked cypher, just because it sounded cool and unique to the Pillars universe and I like caster-types. After I got to know the world better, I picked classes purely for roleplaying reasons - whatever I thought would best fit my next character concept, which, in turn, was influenced by the kind of story I was looking to create on my next playthrough.

I love the idea of sidekicks. BG2 nostalgia is part of it, but it's also that I like having so many awesome personalities around that I can't fit them all in the same party; it doesn't matter if they're not all equally fleshed out. It helps replayability immensely. At this point, prepping for Deadfire, I keep running through the first game with the same folks over and over (Aloth, Pallegina, Sagani, Kana) because everyone else has finally gotten on my last nerve, and hired adventurers are deadly boring. Sidekicks - especially if people can mod in their own! - sound perfect.

I'd prefer not to touch Durance with a ten foot pole, but I have a completionist streak in me, so I have to take everyone along at least once. "White March" is a pretty good ride - have fun!

I've taken all the options on different characters, but Hylea is my "canon" and most of the characters I import to PoEII will have gone that route.

There is - you can check it out here if you don't mind spoilers. Did you get two "visions" involving Durance after resting, and did you do Galawain's quest, then talk to Galawain afterwards with Durance in the party?