From the Shattered Lands proposes to add two new merchants to BG1, TUTU or otherwise - Notaku, a spell component merchant, and Kel, a purveyor of magical items. Although both are rather oddly willing to tell you of themselves, you suspect neither is giving you the real deal. Notaku will offer the party a number of quests which will originaly relate to hunting down various magical creatures and harvesting important body parts for use as spell components. However, there will also be a few related quests which don't focus as much on killing things, but do tie into a new and unforeseen problem plagueing the Sword Coast. I don't want to say too much here because, historically speaking, larger scale mods have a tendency not to turn out well. The quests will be fairly small to start, but we'll see where they go later on. Kel will provide an outlet for all your hard-earned wealth, offering magic items for sale. Both may be encountered in the Nashkel Fair, and both will be tied into a common storyline.
If you've ever played it, you might guess that the idea is to import these NPCs to BG1 from Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, another 2nd ed AD&D CRPG, along with a number of associated magical items. Obviously, their dialogues will change appropriately, but I will leave it to the player to wonder about, among other things, what the frell these folks are doing visiting Faerun from a world that is notoriously difficult to get to (or leave). It won't be a complete mystery, as there will be some related hints dropped, but you're extremely unlikely to figure it out to your complete satisfaction unless you're either an expert on the Dark Sun setting or it really matters little to you - or you feel that the in-game experience is more important than your metagaming knowledge of the origins of these characters, and you can thus comfortably ignore the mystery of their existence.
The items I plan on introducing as part of Kel's stock include:
- Balkazar's Staff, Quarterstaff of Slow +1
- Dark Flame, Flaming Bastard Sword +2
- Draketooth, Scimitar of Strength +1
- Phrain's Bow, Vitriolic Longbow +1
- Drake Hide, Hide Armor of Cold Resistance +2
- Shimmer Armor, Studded Leather Armor of Protection from Missiles +2
- Drake Shield, Medium Shield of Fire Resistance +1
- Chameleon Gloves, Gloves of Blindness
- Serpent Boots, Boots of Displacement
- Silver Amulet, Amulet of Biofeedback
The items I plan on introducing as awarded by Notaku include:
- Chatchka of Flame, Returning Flaming Chatchka +1
- Gythka +2
- Silk Armor, Protective Cloth +3
- Tanylev's Armor, Splint Mail +3
- Helm of Contemplation, Helmet of Gaze Reflection
- Storm Ring, Ring of Ice Storm
In case you're wondering, a chatchka is a three-pronged crystalline throwing weapon which treturns to its wielder on a missed throw. For the purposes of BG1, I'll simply implement this as a general Returning ability. I will include it under the Dart proficiency. Similarly, a gythka is a sort of throwable double polearm, and will be included under the Spear proficiency.
Items should all on par with what you procure through the course of the game. I will take special care that none of them become "must-have" or overpowered, and will attempt to make them truly interesting rather than overly strong, but tastes tend to differ so I can't guarantee that everyone will like the way I've balanced them.
I have several reasons for undertaking this project. Among them are the following:
- Add to the game a number of weapons to strengthen those profienciy choices which, at least in my games, tend not to be used particularly. Among those I feel are weaker are the Bastard Sword, the Scimitar, and the Spear - so there you go.
- Add to the mix also a number of items which I feel are cool and would add to the gameplay experience.
- Give the player something to do with all the bloody money they accumulate during the course of the game. Seriously - it's possible to earn over 500k in a single playthrough (after Shadow Armor, Robes of the Archmagi et all) and have nothing to spend it on. Most of the items here that are bought with gold will be priced very highly, and so will hopefully force the player to make some decisions about what they really want to supplement their party with and what's simply a waste of money.
- Allow some opportunity for players who wish to do so to challenge themselves tactically by including some truly fearsome beasties through Notaku's quests. Note that said beasties will all be located in remote regions of non-core areas which can be avoided without too much trouble - so you can ignore them and go on with your lives if you feel that the CHARNAME of this particular playthrough wouldn't want to deal with them.
- Create an intriguing, immersive storyline which adds a little mystery and (hopefully) more than a little enjoyment to the Baldur's Gate gaming experience.
- Hopefully, create a couple of NPCs that will make the player think "Hey, this guy is cool. He's really starting to grow on me. I wish I knew more about him."
28/02/06: The concept has been expanded somewhat, and a small number of items have been cut from the list.
03/03/06: The items are coming along well. I will likely provide a few samples of item descriptions within this thread soon. I've also decided to move a couple of these from Kel's stock into Notaku's rewards.
25/03/06: A number of item descriptions have been posted. Kel, along with his items and individual (not linked) quests, nears completion. You may notice that the idea for implementing Silk Armor has been changed somewhat, as well.
I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to draw some BAMs for this project. Currently, all of these items are reusing graphics from Baldur's Gate - in many cases, these aren't very appropriate for the appearance of the item in question, but are unfortunately the best fit I currently have available. Alternatively, I would also be very much interested if anyone knows a means by which the inventory graphics from DS:SL can be extracted. Those interested should contact me by PM.