Author Topic: Custom NPCs  (Read 4876 times)

Offline Grunker

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Custom NPCs
« on: July 17, 2006, 03:01:57 PM »
Hey all.

I'm nearly finished with yet another playthrough of Baldur's Gate, and will soon continue with a playthrough of Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. This time around, I want some modded NPCs to come along for the ride. Trouble is, there is a huge number of NPCs out there, and it is hard to tell which are good and which aren't. I thought I'd let the people of PPG recommed some for me :)

I will be taking Jaheira and Minsc along, and Imoen once I get her out of spellhold. So here's what I need:

1) 1 NPC to follow me until I rescue Imoen (doesn't matter if this NPC is SoA only)

2) 1 NPC to follow me through the entire game (has to have content for both SoA and ToB)

3) 1 NPC to follow me through the enitre game, and romance (has to be female, has to be romancable by a half-elf fighter/mage of neutral good alignment, has to have content for both SoA and ToB)

The NPCs does not necessarily have to have personal quests, but must have plenty of banters and interjections, plus banters with Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen (though NPC #1 does not necessarily need banters with Imoen). The banters and interjections must be of good quality.

NPC #2 can be traded for one NPC with SoA content only, and one with ToB content only, if this is necessary.

Either NPC #2 or #3 has to be a wizard or sorcerer (specialized, multiclassed or otherwise).

So far, I have played with Saerileth (great mod, by the way) and I have played the start of The Longer Road (I found the dialogue was handled unprofessionally, but this may only be the case in the start of the mod, as I have not played further).

Any suggestions on which NPCs I should let tag along?

Thanks,

Grunker :)

Offline Lord 342

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2006, 04:30:59 AM »
I like Viconia.  You can't have too many Clerics and she is the best.  You can have a romance with her if you are not an elf (Get the flirt/banter packs if you haven't) which you are not.  Plus you can convert her to be good if you like that idea. 
Nalia is like a crappy Imoen and she has a relatively easy quest to do which is good for fighters anyway and gives you a nice weapon that if you don't use you should give to Viconia.  Nice how that works out. 
Jan is... different but he serves ultimately the same purpose as Nalia or Imoen and by the time you find Imoen you probably won't have any trouble disbanding him in the dungeon.  Just don't disband people while they are wearing invisibility-granting items.  That is bad.
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Offline berelinde

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2006, 06:44:10 AM »
You could try Taisha. I have never tried her, so I don't know how she is. But she is romanceable, she is a sorceress, and I believe she has ToB content.

Kivan probably has banters aplenty, and, since you are running a male, you can pick up his wife for ToB. But you must have Aerie or Cernd in the party for that.

If I were an NPC reading your post as a "help wanted" ad, I would find it scary. I wouldn't want the job of NPC 1. Best to stick with Yoshimo, since he's designed to cut out when Immy steps in. Well, more of the other way around, but you get the idea. It reminds me of the experience I had when I applied for a job with the Food and Drug Administration. They thought my 3.5 GPA was a little on the low side, thought I should have held a better internship, had more exposure to instrumentation, wanted more on-the-job experience in a chemistry lab, and preferred a candidate with a graduate degree, all for less than 20K a year (this was 16 years ago).  But it is not a "help wanted" ad, and it is best to state clearly your desires and expectations.

Still, I am reluctant to make any NPC recommendations, because I am afraid you would be disappointed with my suggestions.

I will offer this suggestion: mod NPCs do not have much to say to each other, unless you have the Cross-Mod Banter Pack installed. And even then, you have to check which NPCs have banters with whom. For this reason, I do not use more than 1 mod NPC per game.

If you have not already done so, you might want to consider checking the Gibberlings 3 site.

Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2006, 07:40:34 AM »
Quote
I like Viconia.  You can't have too many Clerics and she is the best.  You can have a romance with her if you are not an elf (Get the flirt/banter packs if you haven't) which you are not.  Plus you can convert her to be good if you like that idea. 
Nalia is like a crappy Imoen and she has a relatively easy quest to do which is good for fighters anyway and gives you a nice weapon that if you don't use you should give to Viconia.  Nice how that works out. 
Jan is... different but he serves ultimately the same purpose as Nalia or Imoen and by the time you find Imoen you probably won't have any trouble disbanding him in the dungeon.  Just don't disband people while they are wearing invisibility-granting items.  That is bad.

I meant modded NPCs, I have played and completed the game with all bioware NPCS  ;). Thanks anyways, though.

Quote
You could try Taisha. I have never tried her, so I don't know how she is. But she is romanceable, she is a sorceress, and I believe she has ToB content.

Yea, I gave that thought to, but then I’ll have to wait for the update right around the corner. I may do that.

Quote
Kivan probably has banters aplenty, and, since you are running a male, you can pick up his wife for ToB. But you must have Aerie or Cernd in the party for that.

I gave this some thought to. This mod has been recommended many times.

Quote
Still, I am reluctant to make any NPC recommendations, because I am afraid you would be disappointed with my suggestions.

See my post at G3. It really wasn’t my intent to scare people, so I’m truly sorry if it did. I have a tendency to be very strict and to the point with threads like these :)

Quote
I will offer this suggestion: mod NPCs do not have much to say to each other, unless you have the Cross-Mod Banter Pack installed. And even then, you have to check which NPCs have banters with whom. For this reason, I do not use more than 1 mod NPC per game.

This suggestion I will follow :)

Offline berelinde

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2006, 09:24:16 AM »
No worries. No offense taken, and hopefully, none given. It's hard to calibrate the emotional response of email or forum postings, because of lack of context: no nonverbal clues, concise messages, little opportunity for mitigating text. Emoticons might help, but I dislike them.

So, if you are going to give Taisha a try, you could go with Jaheira, Minsc, and Yoshimo (or Jan)/Immy. You're going to need a cleric. If you dislike Anomen, you could try Viconia. I have never had her in my party, but she could be OK. There's always Aerie, but I'm not fond of her. You'd think I would like her, since she's LG and all, but her brand of goodness comes with a lot of neediness and gets cloying.

Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2006, 05:11:57 PM »
Jaheira is more than enough cleric for me - maximizing the party-usefulness is not something I require.

Playing with five thief-npcs and a wild mage protagonist might be a little on the edge, but otherwise, the sky's the limit. Oh, and I like mages - hence my need for a sorcerer/mage/multiclass-caster type of character :)

Offline berelinde

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2006, 05:45:27 PM »
That's one of the best things about BG: you can run your campaign any way you like. I don't bother much with magic. I've got a mage, sure, and often run a multi-class fighter/mage as the protagonist, but the only spells I really use are ghost armor, melf's minute meteors, breach, improved invisibility, magic missile, identify.....ok I use a few spells. But I tend to rely more on mages who can do some damage when they run out of spells. Thus the fact that the multi-class fighter/mage is often the only mage in the party.

But I'm partial to clerics. The high level spells are righteous (pun intended). Chaotic commands, negative plane protection, and a sunray, and the vampires are just so much hot air.

But I do like Jaheira's spell repetoire: the insect spells are great for taking out spell-casters.

Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2006, 07:57:11 AM »
Oh, no mistake there, for power-gaming purposes, I usually hate the fact that I'm not taking a cleric with me. The only cleric which doesn't suck roleplaying-vise, though, is Viconia, and having her in my mostly good (but not lawful, though) party is a pain in the but.

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2006, 08:12:31 AM »
Jaheira is more than enough cleric for me - maximizing the party-usefulness is not something I require.

I used to think that was true until I realised a while ago the one important difference between druids and clerics.  I mean, almost anything one of them has, the other has something equally cool that will sort you out in that same situation (maybe it works in a different way, but you'll get through that situation just fine).  The one exception is Restoration.  Clerics have it, druids don't.  It's a bitch.
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Offline berelinde

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2006, 08:31:41 AM »
Restoration is handy. But if you have a 9+ level paladin in the party that isn't an Inquisitor, you can buy a scroll.  Not usually a problem in my parties. I tend to run with a LG Priest of Lathander, a paladin, or a fighter/mage as a protagonist. In any case, I will have at least one cleric, so even if I have to cast the spell off a scroll, I can cast the spell off a scroll. Clerics do not have access to the summoned elementals or to the insect spells, though, and they are really nice.

I usually consider Jaheira optional, but she's great against spell-casters.

Offline Bex

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2006, 09:36:04 AM »
I don't think I ever memorize restoration, since anyone with a 9 INT score can cast it from a scroll. In many games, I only need it to save Raissa anyway.

The one clerical skill I use a lot is turn undead.

This may be a daring suggestion to Grunker, but Kelsey fits at least some of your criterion in that he's a sorceror and has plenty of interactions, including his ToB romance with Imoen. However, the only other modded NPC he'll interact with is Keto (not a bad thing, as the banters are great, but maybe not what you're looking for).
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Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2006, 02:14:40 PM »
I know it's silly, but Kelsey's project scares me from using him ;)

Offline TormentedDragon

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2006, 09:23:36 PM »
eh? Kelsey's project? This means what now?

Offline Blucher

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2006, 10:14:06 PM »
Kelsey's Imoen romance scares me off from using him. :-)

Offline Drew

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2006, 11:17:45 PM »
Kelsey's Imoen romance scares me off from using him. :-)
Prefer romancing her yourself?
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Offline Blucher

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2006, 12:07:28 AM »
Prefer romancing her yourself?

No (though the Imoen romance mod is decent enough).  It's just that Imoen's my favorite NPC, and I don't like what the Kelsey mod does regarding her.

Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2006, 08:25:39 AM »
eh? Kelsey's project? This means what now?

Means that the portrait isn't baldurized (as far as I can see on the banners), which destroys my whole BG-atmosphere (I'm a sad, sad perfectionist, and it's pathetic).

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #17 on: July 27, 2006, 08:40:27 AM »
eh? Kelsey's project? This means what now?

Means that the portrait isn't baldurized (as far as I can see on the banners), which destroys my whole BG-atmosphere (I'm a sad, sad perfectionist, and it's pathetic).

Yes, that's been noted by everyone (including Jason, I believe).  However, the provided alternate portraits by Karsten Dahl fit in perfectly:

(http://webpages.charter.net/kelseynpc/kelseypics/kelsey-karstenhair.jpg) (http://webpages.charter.net/kelseynpc/kelseypics/kelsey-karstenhood.jpg)

Edit: Oh and I'm also required by law to suggest Corvis' alternate portrait:

(http://webpages.charter.net/kelseynpc/kelseypics/kelsey-americanhero.jpg)
« Last Edit: July 27, 2006, 08:48:41 AM by Grim Squeaker »
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Offline Grunker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #18 on: July 27, 2006, 12:40:06 PM »
Now we're talking ;)

Thanks, Grim.

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #19 on: July 27, 2006, 12:54:02 PM »
Now we're talking ;)

Thanks, Grim.

No worries.  They are packaged in the mod as optional components.
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Offline Bex

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Re: Custom NPCs
« Reply #20 on: July 27, 2006, 02:09:21 PM »
To use the Corvis one, you'd have to add it manually. Well worth the effort, I say!
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