Maybe Minor Spoilers
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Alright, im thinking about making an all evil party game and installing the Valen Mod. any comments on this mod? is it good, bad, just ok? is it worth downloading?

I heard she is realy weak in sunlight.. is that right?

any thoughts and opinions are welcome, thanks

Xero

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Oh yea, the Valen mod is awesome, especially when you get her up in the higher levels. Her claws become more powerful, as she goes up levels I think, and can drain up to 5 levels at a time off an enemy. She was one of my strongest characters, although there are some bad points to her. When she's in your party, you can't enter a non-evil church, or they'll jump you. This also goes for the Order of the Most Radiant Heart building. There are some cases when you try to resolve something calmly (if you feel like it) or try to gather allies, like with Drizzt, or Lonk the Sane and she'll attack them anyway you look at it.

Secondly, yes, Valen has a very bad time with sunlight. She may be able to wear that armor that shields her, but she'll be inflicted with a status effect in the daytime called Blighted by the Sun. This will drop her strength about 4-5 points, and blinds her, dropping her Dexterity to 1 point.

Hope this helps

[ 02-23-2003, 02:54 AM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

<font color=white> Possible Mod Spoilers:
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Weaknesses are just common for her race, with her armor she is protected from the sun that causes disintergration effects on vampire's, so she will not go up in flame's but will receive massive hits on her Strength and Dexterity.

She is evil, and it is recommended to only play with her when you are going to be evil, because she can screw up some of things by just attacking people (What Gangrell noted out, Drizzt, Lonk the shane ect.)

Vampire's are a powerfull, Valen is a Power-Npc... compared to other NPC's in the game she is superior when used correctly. </font> * </font>

[ 02-23-2003, 05:43 AM: Message edited by: Annatar ]

Valen is too powerful. She is so powerful that it is a cheese. Level draining is so cheesy...

Not cheesy, just a refreshing change on killing your enemies is all :D

Hmmm.. she sounds really good and all.. but like i dont like the idea of her having that much crappy strength and only 1 dex. isnt it true you cant use turn undead around her or she will die too?? is there any way to get around her crappy daylight strength and dex??

level draining insnt cheesy... its the vampires special ability. thats like saying mages using spells are cheesy...

She is quick, she is precise, and she drains many levels at once. Most anemies in SoA, (I don't know for ToB) are low level, high stats. That means that she kills almost anything in first two rounds. That is before other fighters get to the enemy. She does all the job, and you can hardly control her at any given time, especially when combat is ahead. She will even screw some encounters.

Yes, turn undead will turn her, cleric of about 15th level will turn her, I'm not sure what level cleric it takes to kill her.

<font color=white> Like I said, if you like Powerplaying (Uber-beings) you will like Valen, okay you can hardly call Valen an Uber being compared with Arkanis and Malchor but... she is far more powerfull then any other NPC in the game.. what Vedran has noted out... she can take on most of the opponents single-handedly... that make's her pretty powerfull . </font>

[ 02-23-2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Annatar ]

<font color="deepskyblue">Simple - only travel at night. Then the sun isn't an issue. AFA using Turn Undead, Viconia doesn't turn them...she "charms" or controls them. Don't know what effect that would have on Valen. I doubt it would harm her..but it might make her angry.

I have the Valen Mod but I haven't tried her for myself yet. From the sound of it though...she has a very short temper - even on a good day. So any cleric doing any kind of Turn Undead might be risking her wrath.

The best thing to do is to just try it and see. Let her join the party, then go into any of the tombs in the Graveyard and try to Turn Undead to see how she reacts. Test her reaction before getting into a serious battle.</font>

Hmm.. im thinking about downloading it.. but i really want rowan! does wynee still post on this forum?? which do all of you out there think is better, rowan (if its out yet) or valen (OR, any of the other npc mods out there).

the problem I found using valen was her script is a bit haywire, or was for me anyway. I think it was about EVERY second she would change modes, from stealth to searching for traps, to whatever else. She's got ants in her pants. you will probably have a lot of trouble controlling her and making her do what you want. I tried telling her to quit it, but it didnt really seem to work much. maybe there's a newer version out now, but mine isnt very old, or maybe mine was just clashing with some other mod. either way, I ended up deciding she was unusable as she just did her own thing to the exclusion of me playing the game. its a pity, it seemed like a good mod. one day I'll look at it and see if I can fix it

Yeah, she's designed to be very strong minded, and is scripted (even with AI off). She's scripted to hide in shadows whenever possible (ergo, adding points to this and move silently are good to keep her from driving you nuts popping in and out), and, when hidden, to search for traps. She'll attack without your command (you can call her off but have to keep doing so, alternatively, keeping her far away seems to negate this), and will make unpleasant comments that can often force you to take options in quests you don't want to take.

You can tell (force talk) her to be less aggresive.

Yea, just tell her to stop concealing herself, and she'll stop hiding in shadows. If you don't like her attacking anyone she likes, tell her to attack when told to, thought she won't like it but hey, it works.

Too fast, too fast! I gave Valen a try, but her rapid movement rate played havoc with my party organisation. Not for me, I think. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmmm, she sounds pretty good then. i think ill get her for my next game. ill prob just tell her to not be agressive and hide in shadows all the time or something. im to far in my current game now to get her, and i only play one game at a time [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Waaaaaait a minute - you can edit movement rate with Shadowkeeper! HMMMM - I wonder if I can give her some kind of innate fast-speed ability that can be turned on-off too...?

Ooo!

EDIT: Curses, Shadowkeeper only edits BASIC movement rate. For a vampire... very fast is still '0'. Dang!

[ 02-24-2003, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

Maybe you can make it -1, or just make her carry a lot and get emcumbured lol

No, alas, only positive integers allowed... but yes, encumber her and sh does walk at the same speed as everyone else. I wonder...

im sure it will work.. after all, during the day she has low strength.. just give her one heavy piece or armor or something and that will prob be all she needs.

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O, and one more question, how will bodhi react when you fight her after ch. 6 and have Valen with you??

During the night, though, it takes at least 3 suits of Full Plate to weigh her down... there's GOT to be an easier way. I'm aiming for getting her to walk gracefully and sedately when nothing's happening, and then exploding into a frenzy of action when needs be (except in sun... in which case, I think she should walk at normal pace anyway).

Wonder if I can change her class to something that would give that effect? Blade would be the obvious one, but then thats opening a WHOLE can of worms and comes close to making her quite lethal indeed...

[ 02-24-2003, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

Walking speed is determined by the avatar the creature uses--Vampires naturally move twice as fast as your average humanoid, because that's how fast their animation cells are calibrated to move. Take a normal Thief and use Shadowkeeper to give him the Shadow Thief avatar: Without any other changes, suddenly he's running circles around the rest of the party.

Out of curiosity, does Valen have the ability to Polymorph herself into a Bat?

No, no bat-ability. She does turn herself into mist when seriously wounded, though. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Time to mess about with avatar settings, methinks...

i think her mist only lasts for about 30 though. its just for her to reginerate during the day.

I haven't downloaded the Valen Mod yet... since I've yet to get ToB. But one question I've not seen answered yet is;

Does going underground or indoors durring the day negate her stat loss? Or as long as it's daylight out, she's weaker no matter where you are?

This sounds like an incredibly cool MOD, and it IS on my list of 'reasons I should buy ToB' already... so this thread is much appreciated

no, it doesnt. not for me anyway. I told her to stop, she keeps swapping between hide and searching... even if I want her to stay on one of those modes

IIRC Bodhi tells Valen that she should stay with your party and that she is useless. Valen still wants to be her pet but Bodhi won't allow it. This happens when you meet up in her "gauntlet" maze.

I didn't get to chime in on this post earlier but if you want my two cents I'd say get her. Who cares if she's too overpowered, it's something new if you haven't had her before. A lot of times I let her sit back at a safe distance if I don't need her and her disability in daylight makes up for her being so deadly at night. You also get a bonus battle.
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You may need TOB installed but I don't know- It was during my SOA trek but I was in the Watcher's Keep when some vampire slayers(Buffy, Faith and others) came looking for Valen. Excellent dialogue and nice humor with the slayer part. Whatever you decide, have fun.

With the most recent version of Valen you can ask her to stop detecting traps. Even if you don't do that, despite the fact that the status line says that she is leaving shadows ... she is not. However, some people find it cosmetically pleasant to have her not do it so that the text window doesn't scroll.

If you go inside during the day she recovers.

Most BG2 enemies are not protected from level drain. Valen ends up being strong but vulnerable. If she dies, she's gone (undead suffer the Final Death) and some spells (e.g., Sunray) can do serious damage to her. On higher difficulty levels she doesn't do the mistform healy-thingy. Despite this, she's still probably the most powerful NPC available.

Since Valen uses the normal player avatars you'll have to look at her armor if you want to edit out the vampire speed.

You have no idea. Visit the 2nd floor of the de'Arnise Keep for a... potent demonstration. ;) Thank you, Wes! :D

... only if you want her to be.

Valen's main source of this "cheese" is her Claws. When they become fully upgraded, they are a one-handed-Ravager-and-a-half. Not my cup of tea, too. So remove them.

*shock, gasp*

Yes, remove them. Use, say, Tor'Gal's Claw instead. You might say it's out-of-character. Believe me, it's not. With her AutoCharm and lovely dialogues, you'll get the feeling you're playing with a Vampire, rest assured. ;) Admittedly, she's still quite powerful -- her personal armor is amazing (but it keeps you from using JanserWear later!), she's fast as the wind (but you would've given her the Boots anyway, right?), and she'll charm your enemies left and right (but she won't charm the enemies you really want her to). Personally, i find her inferior to, say, rage_mod Edwin or Sola.

Perhaps i'm biased -- i always loved this sort of "genteel evil" -- but i find Valen to be the most enjoyable NPC to play with, second only to Edwin, perhaps. Try her. It's a refereshing change.

*breathes out* Aah, thank you, sir... much obliged. Well, time to get acquainted with Near Infinity, I suppose. Look out world. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Edit: Seems to have worked. Edited out the movement increases in her 4 armour-types, and she moves at normal rate... given her the innate ability Offensive Spin (for that cheerful blinding-vampiric-speed effect so beloved of modern day vampire films) and, to balance, added a % chance of level drain upon her lethal (LETHAL!) set of fingernails instead of an automatic drain. Thanks everyone - I'll see how this goes.

[ 02-25-2003, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

you dont need ToB to use this mod.

Alright, im convinced!! valen mod, here i come ;) ;) too bad i gotta wait till my next game though.. im waaaay to far to her now.. but luckily that means the game is almost over. if i did play every day i could have it done in maybe 2 or 3 school days, but i dont play that much [img]smile.gif[/img] got too much work.