Again, I'm liking all the party members but it's essential that we have more good companions and that alignment is properly implemented. Protection from evil should work against any evil doers, not just devils and the like.

And yes, Viconia was my favorite romance -- I liked the redemption theme and I think Shadowheart is on the same path.

Unlike others I'm kinda lukewarm on Gale:

1) Like the DOS2 origin characters, he steals the spotlight from my wizard and my cleric of Mystra.

He was once a chosen of Mystra putting him on par with Elminster, the Kelben Blackstaff etc. My custom character's story doesn't really compare. He mansplains history to both my toons. "Look, I just told you I know who Karsus is -- I have a history proficiency and a background as an acolyte so I should be the one lecturing. "Sit down, Gale because I'm going to tell you what happened."


2) I think he 'negged' my toon. "Go to hell" Yeah, same to you Gale and don't try and tell me that you were musing on an everyday expression. You were using pick up artist techniques and it's not working. Astarian also starts harsh with a knife to my throat but at the time he thought I was in working for the mind flayers. Gale is just being a jerk to someone who helped him.

I'm glad they started with the custom characters -- one thing they need to do is to make the custom backgrounds count more. If I have a background as a sage I should be acting like a sage, urchins need to have a store of stories about how they became streetwise etc. Keep "tell my story" but also give me options like "there was this time in chapel when we were supposed to be entirely silent . . ."