<span style="color: lightblue">One or two people already know, I`m in the process of making a mod which will tweak some of the existing Bio NPCs to either:
a) Make them more useful, without clashing with their personalities.
b) Make them more in line with their personalities.
or
c) Both.

What I want to know is, what do people want to see in the NPCs ??

I'd wait for the new Baldurdash to come out. It should change some things at this field.

<span style="color: lightblue">But probably won`t change any to make them more useful... that isn`t what bugfixes are about. ;)
Just for the record, I *will* break some of the rules put on the PC if it makes sense for that character... but the one thing I will *not* do is to make Mazzy a Paladin. She has too many dialogues about it that would need to be shut off... and that would remove half of her personality...
I am already thinking of making Aerie a Sorceress who gains some special abilities at key points of her romance, as she becomes more sure of herself, that would fit in better than Priest spells with "Quayle taught me to use my magic, and to heal myself"... I hope. ;)

Well, make Nalia a singleclass thief!

<span style="color: lightblue">I`ll make her a Swashbuckler so it doesn`t clash with her personality. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Someone who "helps the needy" as much as her will *not* backstab...

Gee, I "help the needy" (especially my party [img]smile.gif[/img] ) all the time, and I love to backstab. [img]smile.gif[/img] Of course, my alignment is Neutral Greedy...

You're right, though, Nalia would be 'way too honorable to do something like that.

-- Mal

Actually I see Imoen as a swashbuckler/mage and Minsc as a Beast Master, although this would prevent him from using his favorite two-handed sword. Give Anomen the proper number of weapon proficiencies. Give Viconia some special abilities to reflect her devotion to Shar (or better yet, create a "Priest of Shar" kit and give it to her). Jaheira would make a good fighter/avenger - she alwys seemed to me to be especially militant.

Make Minsc a Beast Master who is allowed to use swords. (Because he keeps talking about them!) Er um, or would Minsc be better suited to the special class Boo Master?

Make Valygar a Kensai. And do some improvements on his Family Blade over time. Those who know the origin and history of the Kensai in PnP will understand why.

Make Nalia a Mage turned Thief. Level 4 mage and unlimited advancement as a thief. She could use scrolls, cast some spells, wands, still be useful in the magic department and make a much better thief. By her own words, she is susposed to be an impressive thief who only studied a little bit of magery.

Redo Jaheira's weapon choices. Narrow them down a bit. Starting out, they are so spread out and only getting two stars in SoA does little to fix things.

Make Anomen a Berserker Cleric. That poor chap suffers from some of the worst temper tantrums.

Make Korgan a Chaotic Neutral Barbarian rather then a Chaotic Evil Berserker. This would actually fit his personality better.

Turn Edwin into a toad and have him dropped down the privvy. We are talking a vast game balancing sanity restoring improvement here.

Give Viccy a shot at redemption and alignment change while in SoA. Make it happen in the Drow city. When she sees how truly wicked her people are compared to the PC, make her Lawful Neutral and have her become a Cleric of Ilmater. It would make plenty of sense with her story line.

A little spoily:

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


When you go upstairs in the Tavern in Ust Natha, you get to witness a cutscene of the final destruction of the "supposed" last of House DeVir, Viconia's family. This would be a great point in which to do a plot twist such as you are referring to.

I would, however, think Ilmater (Lawful Good) to be too much of a shift to realistically expect of Viconia. Perhaps someone more neutral. Helm is too much of a warrior (she's not really a fighter). Ideally, Lady Ellistrae (sp?) Silverhair would be who she would become a follower of.

-Sazerac

I could have swore that Ilmater was Lawful Neutral and and took those in who had suffered greatly and sought redemption or great change in their lives. Most Monks in the Forgotten Realms follow Imater and have a LN alignment.

Goodness knows Viccy has suffered enough, and, will continue to suffer as long as she is on the surface because she is Drow. She could suffer and weep like few others, something that would really fit in with the Ilmater worship.

I would ask that if you do decide to do that, make it an optional component or have it possible to not have her change alignments (i.e. through dialogue options).
I like Viconia evil [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think its a good idea to chance Nalia and Minsc, Nalia needs to me a mage dualled to some kind of thief, swashy fits good, and i never saw Minsc as a ranger.. i saw him as a beserker or a beast master.

Actually, you could make Minsc the barbarian (if you read up on Rasheman in Forgotten Realms, that is what he is supposed to be anyway). They didn't have Barbarians in BG1, so they made him a ranger; then, they didn't fix him when they added Barbarians in the game. You can always give him a special ability to charm animals, if need be (like once a day or something).

Nalia must either have more levels in thief (to make her of use while Imoen is gone), or just scrap the thief levels entirely and make her a mage. Some people like an all-good party (when I play paladin, definitely), and that is the one area that is missing when Imoen is snagged from an all-good party. I actually see Imoen as a swashbuckler/mage; this fits her quite well.

Immy as a Swashie Mage.... Yes!

Nalia should be a Transmuter Thief. I think that would best fit her personality.

Valygar as a wizard slayer. His character seems custom built for it. Especially if a romance mod can be attached to that, one that will allow him to only romance mages.

I really like the idea of Nalia starting as a mage and then dueling to a thief. That way she seems less like an Imoen clone.

Change Haer’Dalis from a blade to anything useful … a Skald would be great.

I would prefer to see Minsc as a barbarian or a berserker. I have never been able to think of him as a Ranger.

Hmm....
Nalia as a swashbuckler/mage would work perfecty. Or even just a plain swashbuckler IMO.
Valygar as a wizard slayer would also work very well, given his hatred to mages.
Minsc as a barbarian seems to work well for me! :D

Both Nalia and Imoen fit the Swashbuckler/Mage type. Maybe leave Imoen as a straight thief (Swashbucker would be good), and Nalia as a straight thief/mage, since she would not have concentrated as much on thief as Imoen. If you give Nalia just 2-3 more levels in thief, then she will fit in fine until you get Imoen (and still be useful as a mage after you get her back).

Valygar does fit more as a wizard slayer. His hatred of magic defines his (rather meager) personality. That's a good idea!

However, how to make Cernd and Haer'dalis more useful. Is it possible? I would say possibly changing Cernd to a Totemic Druid. But I have no clue for Haer'dalis... :(

:confused: What?! Nalia isn't supposed to be an Imoen clone? I thought she was only in the game as someone to take along in Chap 2-3, so that when you got Imoen back, you wouldn't even notice the switch. ;) ;)

<span style="color: lightblue">Ok, Valygar will be a Wizard Slayer... that will be a priority. I *would* make him a Kensai, except Wizard Slayer has a basis of basically his entire personality, rather than one single item.
I know that there is a Valygar romance mod being made somewhere, so I might find the people working on it, and suggest having him starting as a Wizard Slayer, and changing to a Kensai as part of his romance. [img]smile.gif[/img]

For Viconia, I would need more information on Shar and Ellistrae... anyone got links ??

Drow gods.

There is a whole lotta folks here that don't know squat about Kensais it seems.

Valygar would make a better Kensai then a Wizard Slayer.

First off, Kensais usually have some sort of personal vow or quest. They always use a family weapon, usually a blade of some sort. Over time, as they grow, their weapon gains power. It might be a plain non magical katana, but, in their hands, it gains deadly power much like a Monk's fist.

Little bit of trivia. Kensai's used to be a Ranger kit. Stealth helped make up for the lack of armor.

<span style="color: lightblue">Ok, reading that, Valygar may infact be better as a Kensai... but, his family armour would then be redundant...
Ack, personality over item. Makes more sense, in the long run. Kensai it is...

Then there`s the matter of changing his Katana over time... how often should it be changed ?? What should be the trigger ??

Vedran, good link... except where is Shar ?? :D


As for Imoen... I won`t touch her at all yet. Not until I`ve got the hang of evolving abilities. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 04-29-2003, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

If you manage to get the makers of the Valygar mod on your side, make it after certain LT dialogues... although this limits it to a female only upgrade, unless Valygar swings both ways (quite possible)

<font color=white> A katana grows when his wielder does, its level dependant IIRC.

You can find information about Shar here and here
She is the Goddess of Darkness.. </font>

Shar is not a drow godess.

<font color=white> Those sites state that she is, how should I know she isn't? </font>

I've never used it, so play at your own risk, but has anyone taken a look at this page (Gebhard Blucher):

http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/winelodge/79/

Specifically, there is a link to: lvl1npcs.zip

It's not a full mod (as far as I know doesn't affect dialogues or plot at all), but does two things:
- Changes the existing NPC's class to something different (for some NPCs, like Imoen, there are several choices, and yes Valygar has a Wizard Slayer option)
- Sets it so when they join your party they join as level 1 characters, but with enough XP to be able to immediately level up to the level they would normally join at. So you don't get to allocate the starting proficiencies, but you get to choose all proficiencies gained on level-up simply by leveling them.

Just hate to see someone go to a lot of effort if there's something already out there that already does 99% of what you wanted to do in the first place.

Well, have Valygar's armor be a weight 3 spidersilk tunic. It's not encumbering, could easily be highly enchanted. Or a Sword Spider Silk tunic.. Sword Spiders actually spin enchanted metal webbing that many Drow wizards use to turn into robes that are strong as plate mail (AC3) with out any enchantment what so ever. Just so long as it's light and non encumbering, a Kensai can wear it.

See, that's the problem with SoA. There are NO shirts or pants that can help with AC. Hell, there are NO wearable pants period. Ever worn platemail with no pants? You would be SCREWED buddy... No Pants of Power. No Pants of Arrow Deflection.

Are you sure? To be a Kensai, I always thought you had to undergo specific sword-saint training, much like a Monk has to. I mean... I remember when you were somewhat against the choice of the Kensai kit for the PC, because Gorion was no swordmaster. Valygar's parents were wizards, and the only reference to Valygar's military career was that he served in the Amnish Scouts, which is the justification for his Stalker class.

I must confess to thinking Valygar would be suited more a a Wizard Slayer than a Kensai.

Somebody in his family had to have some serious weapons training. You don't get a katana like his from a gumball machine you know.

The problem with Valygar as a Wizard Slayer is he is so comfortable with magic items. He starts off with 2 of the better items in the game, his sword and armor. He chose the one Ranger class that casts wizard spells for crying out loud. What wizard slayer would chose to do that? Like it or not, he is quite comfortable with magic and his bluster against it is just hot air.

I hardly think it matters that Shar isn't a drow goddess, All Viccy talks about goddess wise is Shar.

She is a rogue Drow priestess, that came to the surface to get away from her evil kin. If Drizzt can serve Meilikki then there is no reason Viccy can't serve Shar. IMO anyways.

Aside from that, I always take Viccy with me in my parties but I have yet to see the Cutscene about the last DeVir? What activates it exactly?

I love some of the ideas, but I hope you will give us the choice to install all the components separately.


Viconia spoilers...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
In Throne of Bhaal, Viconia can become good, so adding a SOA way for her to switch alignment would be redundant and directly in conflict with the official game in a major way, you would need to redo about every TOB lovetalks.

The reason why Valgar is so attuned to magic is because it is in his bloodline, not because of any voluntary training.

<span style="color: lightblue">Ok, here`s what I`ve decided sofar, based on this thread:

Nalia: Swashbuckler. I may give her a couple of Magic Missles as special abilities to reflect her having some minor mage training. Or maybe I`ll make her a lvl2 mage dualed to swashbuckler... we`ll see. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Valygar: Kensai. I may or may not make his family blade evolve over time... depending on if I can work out how to. ;)
Viconia: No change, bar maybe having Shar grant her some abilities. I won`t change the goddess she worships based on what the drow do, if the goddess she *already* worships isn`t strictly a drow goddess.
Jaheira: I`ll change her profs if I don`t have to edit every single file related to her...
Cernd: Totemic Druid.


I will not touch Imoen or Mazzy.

I`m still open for other suggestions, too. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Klotz, I had a look at that file... and from what I can tell, my mod will overlap it in one or two regards, but not completely. ;)

Would this work?

IF
Level(Valygar,15) //If Valygar is level 15
HasItem(NPSW04,Valygar) //and he has his blade in inventory
THEN
RESPONSE #100
TakeItemReplace(NPSW04,NPSW04A,Valygar) //then take it and replace it with better blade
END

IF
Level(Valygar,20)
HasItem(NPSW04A,Valygar)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
TakeItemReplace(NPSW04A,NPSW04B,Valygar)
END

IF
Level(Valygar,25)
HasItem(NPSW04B,Valygar)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
TakeItemReplace(NPSW04B,NPSW04C,Valygar)
END

...

Oh, cripes, the one I wanted to add: Make Anomen a Cleric OF HELM!

<font color="gold">The kit Cleric of Helm or just a general Cleric worshipping Helm?
If the first, no can do, as he is dualled from a Fighter. While you can dual from a kit, you can't dual to a kit. So in other words, a Fighter/Cleric of Helm is impossible. ;) </font>

<font color="gold">The kit Cleric of Helm or just a general Cleric worshipping Helm?
If the first, no can do, as he is dualled from a Fighter. While you can dual from a kit, you can't dual to a kit. So in other words, a Fighter/Cleric of Helm is impossible. ;) </font> </font>[/QUOTE]Not entirely. All you'd have to do is:

- Make Anomen a pure Cleric of Helm
OR
- Tweak his .CRE file to give him those abilities (Seeing Sword and True Sight) at the right levelups.

[ 04-30-2003, 06:45 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]

Well it is possible with cheating, but, lets not go there.

I have always seen Anomen as a Berserker Cleric. That boy has a temper!!

The only problem there is that Beserkers cannot be of Lawful alignment. :/

As far as Valygar's katana goes, I always assumed one of his wizardly ancestors made it.