NPC Mod Recommendation Thread

[Qwinn]

Now that I've tried out a few quest mods (and am incredibly impressed with the quality of most of those I've tried), I now intend to try out some of the NPC mods out there. Quite a few look interesting. I'm most interested at the moment in trying out:

Tashia (though I -did- have to find an alternate portrait for her, sorry, but I don't do giraffes)

Yasraena (here's the link: http://www.gilalion.com/yasraenamod.htm )

Kitanya (here's the link: http://www.rpgdungeon.net/kitanya/ )

The Tiefling Sisters (when that mod is completed)


Yes, obviously, I'm partial to female NPC's Whaddayawant, I'm a guy!

Just looking for some opinions on the above, and any other recommendations out there. NPC mods that introduce demigod characters (like Chloe) or loads of overpowered items, etc., need not apply.

Qwinn

[Sytze]

It depends on what you're looking for.

Tashia is a great NPC, but lacks on the interaction and voicing department.
Kitanya is not yet complete, the romance part is still largely worked on.
Yasraena is complete, both SoA and ToB and has voicing.
The Thiefling Sisters will take some time before they are completed.

I have only tried Tashia out of the five and I liked her. However, Bri, I believe, is working on an update. Which includes voicing, more dialogs and lotsa more interactions. If I were you, I'd wait for the update, although there's no telling when she will finish it.
I don't advice you to use the Sisters and Kitanya yet because they are not yet complete.
So if you had to pick one NPC out of that list, you might want to check Yasraena out. I'm actually doing the same thing now, because I just started a new game with her installed. If you want, I could have a bit of info on her in a few days.

[Qwinn]

A review on Yasraena would be great, I have a couple other reasons to postpone my next game for a few days, thanks!

I knew Kitanya didn't have a romance yet... I figured I'd take her as a non-romance PC this time through, and if I liked her I could always play another game down the line with her as the romance when it became available.

I agree with the idea of waiting on the update to try Tashia.

And I know the Sisters won't be done for a while, but I'm anticipating their arrival with enough enthusiasm that I figured they deserved a mention

Qwinn

[SimDing0]

Kelsey and Keto are, I'd say, the most worthwhile NPC mods around. Keto in particular I'd say it a must-have, especially if you're partial to female NPCs, although if you're playing a female character and going for romances, Kelsey becomes all the more attractive.

[Qwinn]

I'll definetly give Kelsey a shot eventually - watching him flirt with Imoen in ToB should be fun. Since I -always- take Imoen, and I play mages fairly often myself, he'll likely have to wait until I go through with a non-mage character and am not filling my second mage slot with Tashia. Might be sooner than expected, though, if I'm going to wait on the upgrade for Tashia.

I'll probably try Keto eventually too, but I have four reasons for her not being real high on my list. 1) Sorry, but I really really really dislike her portrait. Bleagh. 2) Assuming I replace the portrait with one I could even want to romance, that option's not available anyway. 3) No ToB content yet. 4) I'm not a big fan of bards as far as useful characters go - but if I were going to want one, I'd want a kitted bard (blade or skald). Keto is unkitted, right?

Qwinn

[VonDondu]

[QUOTE=Qwinn]I'll probably try Keto eventually too, but I have four reasons for her not being real high on my list. 1) Sorry, but I really really really dislike her portrait. Bleagh. 2) Assuming I replace the portrait with one I could even want to romance, that option's not available anyway. 3) No ToB content yet. 4) I'm not a big fan of bards as far as useful characters go - but if I were going to want one, I'd want a kitted bard (blade or skald).[/QUOTE]
I don't think there would be any harm in editing her if you want her to have a kit. I do that to NPCs all the time. You can also replace her portrait easily.

Keto isn't all that great in combat when you first meet her, but she's a very entertaining character. Let me put it this way: the fact that she'd rather not be fighting monsters is part of her charm. Like all Bards, she'll become a lot more powerful as she gains levels. I changed her weapon proficiency to Short Bow so that she could provide ranged support, and her spells also come in handy. Early in the game, her pickpocketing (shoplifting) ability did wonders for my party's inventory.

I haven't finished the game with Keto yet, but she brings a lot of wonderful dialogue to the game, and I'm sure I haven't even seen the best parts yet. I'm sorry that the lack of a romance is a drawback to you, but I think the mod more than makes up for that by the volume of dialogue and interaction that it adds to the game. To me, that's just as valuable as a romance component.

Tashia could have been a great mod, but it has sort of a half-finished feel to it, which is disappointing because the existing dialogue is of such high quality. In my opinion, she's more talkative than any of the stock NPCs.

I realize that you asked about NPC mods, but if one of your goals is to add interesting dialogue to the game, then allow me to recommend the Gibberlings Three Anniversary Mod (it's a long, hilarious quest) and the Pocket Plane Banter Packs. You can add those to your game without taking up an NPC slot.

[VonDondu]

[QUOTE=SimDing0]Kelsey and Keto are, I'd say, the most worthwhile NPC mods around. Keto in particular I'd say it a must-have, especially if you're partial to female NPCs, although if you're playing a female character and going for romances, Kelsey becomes all the more attractive.[/QUOTE]
Is Kelsey fair game for criticism, like Anomen? That is to say, is Kelsey so omnipresent now that we can treat him like one of the standard NPCs? My last female character (keep in mind that I was trying really hard to roleplay) couldn't stand him. It might have something to do with the fact that his portrait and voiceset remind me of an old roommate I intensely disliked. I've heard there's a Pocket Plane mod called "Getting Rid of Anomen", and since so many new new mods have references to Kelsey, I wonder if someone ever thought of making a "Getting Rid of Kelsey Mod". Sort of like the "Kill Cespanar Tweak" (nudge, nudge). Just for fun, of course.

[lompo]

[QUOTE=Sytze]
Yasraena is complete, both SoA and ToB and has voicing.
[/QUOTE]

Do you have some info about that NPC: class etc.?

[jcompton]

[QUOTE=VonDondu]Is Kelsey fair game for criticism, like Anomen? That is to say, is Kelsey so omnipresent now that we can treat him like one of the standard NPCs? My last female character (keep in mind that I was trying really hard to roleplay) couldn't stand him. It might have something to do with the fact that his portrait and voiceset remind me of an old roommate I intensely disliked. I've heard there's a Pocket Plane mod called "Getting Rid of Anomen", and since so many new new mods have references to Kelsey, I wonder if someone ever thought of making a "Getting Rid of Kelsey Mod". Sort of like the "Kill Cespanar Tweak" (nudge, nudge). Just for fun, of course. [/QUOTE]

As a matter of fact, the creative mastermind who brought you the Game-Be-Gone mod informs me he's working on a mod dedicated to having Kelsey committed to Spellhold and brutally tortured.

That said, yes, definitely play with Kelsey and Keto. As far as Tashia being wildly interactive, her banters are rather pedestrian and one-sided (Tashia almost always "winning"), as I recall, although a lot of people enjoyed the "riddles" PC interaction, which indirectly inspired the creation of NPC flirting.

[SimDing0]

[QUOTE=VonDondu]Is Kelsey fair game for criticism, like Anomen? That is to say, is Kelsey so omnipresent now that we can treat him like one of the standard NPCs? My last female character (keep in mind that I was trying really hard to roleplay) couldn't stand him. It might have something to do with the fact that his portrait and voiceset remind me of an old roommate I intensely disliked. [/QUOTE]
Heh, I think a part of Mr. Compton's probably very pleased that he's being treated the same as the Bioware NPCs.
I should point out, however, that if Kelsey was a perfect guy who everyone in the party loved, I'd be rather disappointed with the writing. I've never romanced him, however, so I can't comment on the horror of the experience. I do, however, feel that Keto and Kelsey fit in with the original game better than any other available NPC mods, as well as enjoying the highest quality of writing (these two points form my key criteria for mod assessment). And Keto has some REALLY good ogre voicing.

[VonDondu]

[QUOTE=lompo]Do you have some info about that NPC: class etc.?[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, there's nothing in the README file except she's 9th Level and of Good alignment. I just installed the mod to take a look at her, and here's what she looks like when she joins your party:

Yasraena
9th Level Fighter
Chaotic Good
STR 18/97
DEX 18
CON 12
INT 13
WIS 12
CHA 16
Short Sword *****
Two Weapon Style *
Primary Weapon: Shortsword +1: Fireflower (does extra damage to certain monsters)
Offhand Weapon: Shortsword +2: Ironkiss (inflicts extra bleeding damage)
Armor: Chainmail +1
Necklace: a special heirloom with no apparent magical properties, but unremovable

Biography:
When asked about her past, YASRAENA tells you that she was fortunate to escape the darkness of the Drow city Menzoberranzan, but she never tells the tale of her escape without honoring the sacrifice of her master, Divalir.

When you meet her, she's searching for Divalir, who might have been captured by Jon Irenicus, but she knows nothing else about Irenicus. She was captured and imprisoned, but she managed to escape when her cage was damaged during the Shadow Thief assault (sound familiar?).

Since she's stronger than Minsc (and twice as goodlooking), unusual for her race, seems bound to her master, and wears a mysterious necklace, I can't help wondering if she's a fembot.

My only initial complaint about the mod is that the sound quality of the voice set (but not the voice acting itself) leaves something to be desired. I don't know much about voice recording and audio compression, so I wouldn't know how to improve it, but there you have it.

[Qwinn]

VonDondu:

Okay, you make a good case for Keto. Tell ya what, I'll take her through in my future game when I take Kelsey through, but I'll try and wait until she has some ToB content.

Thanks for the character sheet on Yasraena. I had already seen most of it on their forums, but one thing I didn't see was her weapon proficiencies. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she supposed to have a 7th proficiency slot by level 9?

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Oh, one more thing:

Yes, I absolutely love the G3 Anniversary Quest mod. It is indeed very funny, I enjoyed it thoroughly. My only issue is with a bug I consistently run into at the very end, and (potentially, assuming the bug isn't interfering with it) the lack of any worthwhile reward. I've posted about it on the G3 forum, but haven't gotten any replies to my last couple of posts over the last month or so.

Qwinn

[Andyr]

Oh, I thought you resolved your issue in the end? If not, I'll take another look at the thread.

[Qwinn]

Andyr, are you Camdawg? I didn't know that

I was kinda figuring that you missed the fact that I had multiple posts on that thread, and only saw my last one. I did in fact have the same problem as the original poster of that thread, I'm guessing that the only post you noticed was the one pointing out a very minor bug that didn't really impact anything. There's a big bug at the end, and I try to give a fair amount of detail in that post. Please read all of them (and don't even worry about the minor issue I reported, I shouldn't have even mentioned it, I knew it would wind up obscuring the real issue) cause since I had no edit functionality available I had to do multiple posts. Sorry bout that.

Qwinn

[Andyr]

Nope, CamDawg is CamDawg (not sure if he's registered here) and I am Andyr.

Cam is the owner and admin of Gibberlings Three, I'm just one of the modders there. I did a some work on the anniversary mod (writing and coding Drini, who is loosely based on me). Cam, though, has answered most of the bug reports; he's less lazy than I am! Also, he put most of it together. Will see if we can get a fix out soon...

[Qwinn]

Thanks kindly

Qwinn