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Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate companion illustrations from James Ohlen's Heroes of Baldur's Gate tabletop adventure

Nano

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Disagree. BG2 portraits were, in general, atrocious and clearly done by someone who had near zero knowledge of the game or AD&D.
It could've been even worse. Here are some portraits from the BG2 demo:

Y0FGJgo.png
b87gKFq.png
g8bLFO4.png
vrQLMyC.png


The person who drew these apparently just couldn't into proportions.
 
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Joseph Stalin

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Lacrymas

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This is exactly what I thought when I saw that art, that she's a white woman painted black.
 
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Joseph Stalin

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This is exactly what I thought when I saw that art, that she's a white woman painted black.

I forgot the name, but I swear there's an African tribe/nation where a lot of women have what would be considered "white" features, whilst being black as coal.
 

luj1

You're all shills
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https://thetrove.net/Books/Dungeons & Dragons/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/ DMsGuild/Arcanum Worlds - Heroes of Baldurs Gate v1.pdf

How in the Nine Hells did I miss this? By the way, the best portraits of the Baldur's Gate companions - ever - can be found within. Stalin approves.

EDIT: What the fuck? Xzar was also a Bhaalspawn?

EDIT 2: It's a fucking proper sequel to the events of Baldur's Gate, set between the first and second game.

This book is written with the assumption that it takes place one year after Sarevok and the Iron Throne were defeated (1369 Dale Reckoning).

Sick illustrations mate. Real quality is hard to come by nowadays, everyone seems to go for naivete bullshit or some stylized crap. World is full of talentless hipsters. Speaking as a fellow illustrator who is neglecting his talent.
 

ScrotumBroth

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Original portraits are perfection.

These illustration are shit, kinda like those shitty inaccurate "gaming rooms from the 90s" illustrations hipsters post on Reddit.
 
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Joseph Stalin

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Original portraits are perfection.

These illustration are shit, kinda like those shitty inaccurate "gaming rooms from the 90s" illustrations hipsters post on Reddit.

The original "portraits" aren't even portraits. They're traced over photographs, if you hadn't realised this before. That's why everyone has human proportions, even dwarves and halflings.
 
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Joseph Stalin

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The original "portraits" aren't even portraits. They're traced over photographs, if you hadn't realised this before. That's why everyone has human proportions, even dwarves and halflings.
So? They're still better.

Nostalgia has clouded your judgement, comrade. Xzar is the best example, ironically - people here have been complaining that the new portrait has clown tattoos, even though the original has more of them, and more pronounced. The affinity they hold for the game made them blind to something so obvious.
 

Lacrymas

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Who has ever said they never noticed Xzar's tattoos?
 
Last edited:

Nano

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Not me. Xzar's tattoos aren't actually clownish--what clown looks like that, anyway? The circus theme in his new portrait is clownish.
 

Flying Dutchman

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Didn't even know the characters had come from a tabletop game.

Maybe it explains why they're so weird on one hand (Minsc, space hamster) but also fleshed out more than normal in some of their relationships and interactions.
 

Flying Dutchman

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I just checked - and didn't the actual BG characters come from a tabletop game? (Not this one, but Bioware dev tabletop game before they were even doing BG.)
 

NJClaw

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I just checked - and didn't the actual BG characters come from a tabletop game? (Not this one, but Bioware dev tabletop game before they were even doing BG.)
Yeah, and the story behind Minsc and Boo is that Minsc used to go down during every single encounter, so the player needed something to do while his character was out of the game. And, apparently, he was fine with roleplaying a hamster.


In that campaign, Sarevok was Minsc's brother. Edwin, Xan, and Jon Icarus (the guy who cursed the fat spider lady in BG1) were also in the same party.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
I just checked - and didn't the actual BG characters come from a tabletop game? (Not this one, but Bioware dev tabletop game before they were even doing BG.)
Yeah, and the story behind Minsc and Boo is that Minsc used to go down during every single encounter, so the player needed something to do while his character was out of the game. And, apparently, he was fine with roleplaying a hamster.


In that campaign, Sarevok was Minsc's brother. Edwin, Xan, and Jon Icarus (the guy who cursed the fat spider lady in BG1) were also in the same party.
Jon Icarus was an alias of Jon Irenicus, thus tying the game to Baldur's Gate 2. You only get the full story if you charm the spider lady before the fight using Charm Person (which is next to impossible because the fight starts as soon as you enter; you have to manually enter pause before the fight/dialogue triggers and hit a charm person on her)
 

NJClaw

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Jon Icarus was an alias of Jon Irenicus, thus tying the game to Baldur's Gate 2. You only get the full story if you charm the spider lady before the fight using Charm Person (which is next to impossible because the fight starts as soon as you enter; you have to manually enter pause before the fight/dialogue triggers and hit a charm person on her)
Yeah, I remember reading somewhere that they changed the name during the development of BG2 because it sounded too Greek, but I can't really find any reliable reference.
 
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Joseph Stalin

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Jon Icarus was an alias of Jon Irenicus, thus tying the game to Baldur's Gate 2. You only get the full story if you charm the spider lady before the fight using Charm Person (which is next to impossible because the fight starts as soon as you enter; you have to manually enter pause before the fight/dialogue triggers and hit a charm person on her)
Yeah, I remember reading somewhere that they changed the name during the development of BG2 because it sounded too Greek, but I can't really find any reliable reference.

They changed it due to some copyright reasons. The EE flat out changes the name to "Jon Irenicus," since it's supposed to be him. Also, I don't have this 100% confirmed, but there was supposed to be some connection between Xan (who's from Evereska), and Ellisime (who travelled there) - one of the many cut content from the sequel.
 

Desiderius

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Jon Icarus was an alias of Jon Irenicus, thus tying the game to Baldur's Gate 2. You only get the full story if you charm the spider lady before the fight using Charm Person (which is next to impossible because the fight starts as soon as you enter; you have to manually enter pause before the fight/dialogue triggers and hit a charm person on her)
Yeah, I remember reading somewhere that they changed the name during the development of BG2 because it sounded too Greek, but I can't really find any reliable reference.

Not too Greek, too on the nose.
 

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