Party NPC mods: your favorite, and why?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:49 pm

Just that. In another thread, this was linked to, showing just how many NPC mods are now out there. How many have you tried, and which have you liked? Which seem overpowered, or deficient in some way? Which provide especially good dialog, or side quests? Just seeking your own personal experiences.

Punkatt · Post by **Punkatt** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:05 pm

I`m playing Fade and Tsujathav av the moment, Fade being a thief with many dialogue options and Tsujathav a mage with not as many but still some dialogues.... Play`s great so far and especially Fade is good.

FireLighter · Post by **FireLighter** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:45 pm

I found Yasraena to be fun although a little cheesy and powerful. Since her weapons dont have a set damage, (they do around 16 in the beginning), they can hit just about anything (which is what makes her cheesy).

She can also be acquired early on (at the end of chateau Irenicus). Other than that she is fairly well written and has a sidequest (or 3). All in all I'd rate her as a 8/10.

Berethor · Post by **Berethor** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:11 pm

I liked the Tashia mod. she is powerful and entertaining, has sidequests, little battles of her own, and a conversations.

one noteable one was when she said she forgot all her spells and that she had to take up fighting. so i told her I would give her a mossy branch i had picked up earlier. she said she didnt need that and that she needed real weapons, and i said that if she was gonna do that i got dibs on her robe of vecna and staff of the magi, and then all of a sudden she remembered her spells. that converstion made me laugh.

i also like the kindrek mod but it is kinda cheap, his weapon has a ability that disrupts any spellcasters spell, and his weapon does SO much damage and does the dispel on contact thing like Carsomyr, so it is kinda cheesy. NOT TO MENTION THE WHOPPING 127 MAGIC RESISTANCE!

lastly I like the Saerelith, she is VERY easy to romance, especially if you are a paladin. but she gets kidnapped by this demon and when it is loading a new area, the game crashes. if anyone has any advice on how to fix this please let me know

TonyMontana1638 · Post by **TonyMontana1638** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:21 pm

The Kitanya mod has been fun to play, as Wizard-slayer is an interesting character class. I'm also eagerly anticipating the release of Amber, a tiefling fighter/thief due out, hopefully, sometime soon.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:34 pm

Well... as I indicated in the other thread.... I rather enjoy Tsujatha... My favourite to date

I like the mod because his dialogue is a nice blend of sultry and philosophical. While certain parts of it could certainly be labeled as "adult," it is very tastefully done.

His character is strong and vulnerable, dark and brooding, sensitive and artistic. In other words, the type I'm always a complete sucker for

Tsu's interaction with the other party members are very interesting as well. I also find the premise of his attraction to "good" a compelling one..... (you need to be of "good" alignment for him to romance you despite his being neutral evil)
Finally, I won't give away spoilers.... but I appreciated the ending/epilogue because it is not especially fairy-tale like.

I have also tried:
*Yasreana - I really like her, and I enjoyed her quests/ background story, but a little more dialogue would have been nice

*Kivan - very nice done for a weekend project, I thought the creator did a great job in fleshing out his character. This is definitely a mod I'd like to see further developed

*Chloe - I loved her personality and dialogue

A touch overpowered though. However, that is easy to fixed with SK

*Tashia - same as above

Solaufein - I find Sola very good. But, I would have liked to see the mod voiced. Also, compared to Tsu he is slightly wooden and a little too academic

Kelsey - In terms of overall quality, this mod sets a benchmark. Enormous amounts of banter, all of it very professionally done. Kelsey's personality is that of the fairly conventional, sweet sort. Not really my "type," but I'd certainly recommend him to anyone looking for a tons of interaction and interjection in a high quality mod.

Raven_Song · Post by **Raven_Song** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:28 am

Mods I've enjoyed so far, but not necessarily completed... Possibly some spoilers below as I've just copied th blurb that comes with them

Alora Happy happy joy joy
Level 9 (When you meet her)

STR 12 DEX 19 CON 12 INT 14 WIS 7 CHR 15 (not overpowered)

Chaotic Good
Swashbuckler thief class

Quest (to be added later)

She will have at least 2 banters with all members of the party more on some others. She will have many interjections also. So far inerjections have tended to be thief related, just try having her talk to Ribald

Nathaniel - Nathaniel is a young man whose life was disrupted by the events that unfolded in Baldur's Gate. A former Flaming Fist officer, Nathaniel was deeply shaken by the takeover of the guards by Sarevok's lackey and made the decision to leave the city. He can be found in the Docks looking for a friend of his, and the right man will be able to gain his trust and, eventually, love. The mod also features an extensive friendship track, allowing Nathaniel's character and attachment to the Bhaalspawn to develop if he or she is ineligible for the romance. Be warned: as a former law-enforcer, Nathaniel has deeply-held, rigid views on lawbreaking and will not completely trust a thief no matter his or her alignment. He will not tolerate criminal activity without good reason.

Race: Human Class: Kensai Alignment: Lawful Good

Strength: 16 Dexterity: 17 Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 9 Charisma: 14

The Nathaniel Mod contains:

Over 5000 lines of new dialogue and more than 400 original voice clips
Over 150 comments on Charname's activities in Amn
Original items, some of which are more useful than others
At least four banters with each of the Bioware NPCs, with the exception of Korgan who has three
A Nathaniel-specific quest
Four non-joinable NPCs, three of whom have original voicing

A romance track for male humans, half-elves or elves of Good or Lawful Neutral alignment containing:
-27 Charname-Nathaniel banters
-Extensive flirts, changing significantly throughout the talks rather than only after the romance is "committed"
-Opportunity to give gifts
-Conflicts with Aerie, Jaheira and Viconia
-Optional conflict with Weimer's Solaufein
-Bodhi abduction
-Opportunity to switch to the friendship track should you wish

A friendship track for ineligible males and females of any alignment except Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil containing:
-17 Charname-Nathaniel banters
-Platonic flirts, changing throughout the talks
-Reactions to certain Charname-NPC romances

Kido - Insane chaotic evil jester who worships Cyric. For those who miss Xzar.

Kido's Stats

11 Strength 17 Dexterity 13 Constitution
16 Intelligence 8 Wisdom 15 Charisma

Important Note: Kido will be a Jester and still Chaotic Evil, normally this isn't allowed for bards, but what can you tell when Cyric is around?

Kido's throwing dagger (usuable ownly by Kido)

+1 throwing dagger, returns to owner, target must save vs. spell or be stunned for four rounds

*Spoiler*
It is my intention that his dagger can be upgraded thanks to a quest one will be able to do for the Cyric Cleric in the Docks district (don't think its implemented yet)

Kido can be found in the play house cheering for Biff the Understudy (you read it correctly he applauds at Biff's efforts, didn't I told you he had some srews loose?)

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:07 am

Fade: A non-insane, non-betraying, non-evil single-classed thief. She's still in beta, so it's a work-in-progress.

Keto: A bard who sings! She stays sober most of the time, but she's a real hoot... Quality is excelent!

Saerelith: Paladin, which doesn't fit in alot of parties, but very goodly and easier that Aerie to romance. She does interfere in a quest or two, though, so beware! She's obsessed with doing the right thing.
There was some talk on her website about doing away with that (or making it something you can reason with her about) so that may no longer be an issue.

Kelsey: He's the industry standard for NPC mods.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:47 am

Saerelith: Paladin, which doesn't fit in alot of parties, but very goodly and easier that Aerie to romance. She does interfere in a quest or two, though, so beware! She's obsessed with doing the right thing.
There was some talk on her website about doing away with that (or making it something you can reason with her about) so that may no longer be an issue.

I hope not. You raised my interest at once when you stated she took control of matters, because that's something I really like (provided it occurs on an occasional basis). There are at least two party members I can think of in the original Bioware group who will do as much, as well, and it always got a laugh out of me.

Berethor · Post by **Berethor** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:07 pm

Problem with Saerelith. When you take her, she has a quest of her own, and after a while, it will happen. She will be kidnapped by a guy named Glourkist and some lady will come from Mount Celestia and tell you that Glourkist wants a scepter of some sort, then it tries to load another area and it crashes the game. If anyone has a solution to this problem please let me know.

Bloodstalker · Post by **Bloodstalker** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:49 pm

I've played the Saerileth mod, and never had a crash in the sopt that you mention. Could it be a conflict with another mod? I believe there are a couple that conflicts with the mod and can cause problems. Check the readme file. Also, do you have the older version of the mod, or the latest version? I think they released a newer version not that long ago that adressed some issues with bugs.

Or maybe a re-install of the game if it's an older instal and has had a lot of mods run on it.

@fable:I agree. I hope they leave her as she is. Myself, one of the things I like about her is the fact that she has certain opinions and beliefs that she won't compremise. She's a Paladin, she should be all goody goody and such.

I know the quest she interferes with, and it's very fitting stance for the character. Besides, it's not hard to circumvent it if anyone wants to, so I don't see the need to change it. I myself just live with it because of RP value, but it's not a major problem for anyone who wants to get around it.

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:39 am

[QUOTE=fable]I hope not. You raised my interest at once when you stated she took control of matters, because that's something I really like (provided it occurs on an occasional basis). There are at least two party members I can think of in the original Bioware group who will do as much, as well, and it always got a laugh out of me.[/QUOTE]

I completely agree... Both made perfect sense to me, but I was still shocked... If you want to be spoiled, I'll tell you, the two "quests" that she interferes with are of a dubious nature:

Maevar's Assignments, and the sacrifice to the Hell Knights in the underdark. She'll ditch you if you do either..

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:44 am

No, thanks--but thanks for putting it in black-on-black. Since I'm interested in party NPCs who add a new element to the mix, why would I want to know exactly what they're going to say and do in advance?

Anybody else got favorite NPC mods?

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:28 pm

Someone should have made Noober an availible NPC.... That would be amusing. "Those colors look really stoopid on you"...my favorite line from him.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:41 pm

If you suggest that up in the Pocket Plane Group's forum, I'll bet someone takes you up on that.

They have an astonishing wealth of party NPCs to offer.

Eadaii · Post by **Eadaii** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:06 pm

I enjoy Chloe and Valen. Both can be a bit overpowered, but that's easily fixed in SK.

Not really an additional NPC, but if you play a girl, the Edwin romance mod adds a lot of interestin options. (It's available on Spellhold Studios.)

Eadaii · Post by **Eadaii** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:10 pm

Additionally, the mod that adds Jon Irenicus to ToB is fantastic.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:29 am

Time to bring up this thread, again, as there's been a fair amount of new NPC mod content added and older ones updated since people last commented--and new people joined this forum, too. You can view the list of available party NPCs here, at the Pocket Plane Group, along with links and downloads.

Let me begin by uttering a word of praise for Valen. It's difficult to do evil in an NPC, since all most NPCs manage is to act surly, give nasty advice, and get angry if your reputation becomes too good. Valen employs more regularly the technique Minsc and Korgan very occasionally use of interrupting things to act as party leader and make choices--invariably evil choices. This is well-integrated with the overall character and doesn't happen too often, so it comes across as a strong personality rather than a grab by the game to force you down a particular path.

Domi_Ash · Post by **Domi_Ash** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:36 am

Well, if the intention to ressurect this thread is to place highlight on the newer NPC mods, then I'd like to cast my vote for Amber and Xan.

Both NPCs come with romances, but you know what was the main hook for me? That both of these NPCs were a blast to play *without* romances (I'm Kivan's girl for obvious reasons, lol). Xan for example has just as many (46!) talks in non-romance as in one of his two romantic path! Amber is not far behind. One of her absolutely wonderful features is that she can romance Player 2, so you can have your main character a female romancing some other guy, and Amber will shower her affections on your second custom character. Another lovely thing about Amber is very good selection of Player-Initiated dialogues. They address events in the game and stuff.

If I must name one special thing about each of these two characters I'd go with: voicing in Xan's banters: Kulyok painstackingly collected rarely used lines in ToB and rare sounds and wrote banters that *matched* these lines, so you have first lines of NPC-NPC banters voiced by ORIGINAL actors! For Amber: 'getting Amber join the party' quest is one of the funniest things that I've seen in modded and unmodded games! It's great.

Having Xan and Amber along made my dream come trie - play a very talkative, very functional party as near to all-elven as it gets. My party was:

PC = Female Elven Cleric/ranger
Kivan = Archer and Romance
Amber = Fighter(7) Thief Tiefling with Elven bloods
Xan = Enchanter
Haer'Dalis
Aerie

Because of Haer'Dalis = Aerie romance, and relatively high amount of banter that Kivan has with Aerie, and the huge amount of talks with PC that all three custom characters had, and many of those talks being *event-specific* the game really felt like an adventuring with *people* not like standing walking alone, waiting for a preciously rare banter or interjection.

I also tried the same combination with Protagonist being a male paladin, romancing Aerie (I wanted to romance Amber, but her romance stats requirements did not match my character and I did not feel like making another), and the amount of banter sky-rocketed! Plus when Haer'Dalis quit, I replaced him with Kivan's Deheriana in due course

Basically these two new NPCs made my dream of a perfect BG2 party with all characters that agree with my temperament and my idea of role-playing a computer game come true. I love both of them and love them dearly! Go, Amber! Go, Xan!

Ian Kognitow · Post by **Ian Kognitow** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:53 am

fable wrote: Let me begin by uttering a word of praise for Valen. It's difficult to do evil in an NPC, since all most NPCs manage is to act surly, give nasty advice, and get angry if your reputation becomes too good. Valen employs more regularly the technique Minsc and Korgan very occasionally use of interrupting things to act as party leader and make choices--invariably evil choices. This is well-integrated with the overall character and doesn't happen too often, so it comes across as a strong personality rather than a grab by the game to force you down a particular path.

I very much agree here. As overpowered as Valen is, my games with her were probably the most fun I've had, precisely because she kept throwing wrenches into my carefully micromanaged plans. Her character-specific encounters were also well written and very fun. Still, how abusive were those claws? Heh. Ascension was a joke ending up with both Valen and Bodhi on my side.

Others that come to mind:

Kelsey and Sola: Well, these seem to practically be standard and probably everyone here has played them so there's not much need to comment on their merits.

Tsujatha: He was fun, but I found his romance items probably even more overpowering than having Valen around. I forget exactly my item combinations, but with added stuff like utilizing hardiness, my character ended up 100% resistant to both magic & physical damage. I suppose it's easy enough not to wear them, but I typically can't resist using stuff that I acquire fairly in the game.

Keto: Maybe the best written NPC available. Pretty much everything one could ask for from a bard.

Chloe: Good, powerful, character but for some reason I ultimately found her kind of boring to have around. I think I remember having botched the romance bit of it though. Was there ever ToB content written for her?

Tashia: Again, another very well written and balanced character, though she was a little bit buggy in my run through with her. Her pet leopard I remember finding very useful as well.