Anything you want to put up will be most welcome, rbeverjr. I was only giving my own opinions on the matter. Don't take them as a requirement.
For myself, I would gladly add reactions here if I were currently playing BG2. But at the moment I'm engaged in my first run-through of BG1 since I first reviewed the game when it showed up on shelves many years ago, and am running the BG1 NPC mod, Finch. Doesn't quite fit in with the forum.
To the Righteous belong the fruits of violent victory. The rest of us will have to settle for warm friends, warm lovers, and a wink from a quietly supportive universe.
This time, I’ll do a more in-format review of an NPC mod. Since it’s just a mini review, I’ll glance over a lot of the points, focusing more on my conclusions:
For my next victim, I choose Keto. I started a game playing as a Blade, and naturally ran into Keto very early in the game. Since the rest of my party was Yasraena, Jaheira, Aerie and various thief/mages, I had a very magic intense party which forced me to look outside of my normal play style to win a great many of the battles. I typically play a more fighter-heavy style.
Keto is definitely not the powergamer’s dream. Apart from being a bard, which is hardly a powerful class in-and-of itself, her stats aren’t exactly what anybody would consider amazing. In fact, given her low strength and average dexterity, she is pretty useless as a fighter compared to anybody else without some major buffs. Since a bard only gets up to sixth level spells, she doesn’t have access to some of the better late-game spell options either. So she spent my SoA game pretty much singing and casting buffing/debuffing spells, leaving Aerie and (later) Imoen extra room to memorize damaging spells.
She does have one non-battle quest in SoA, which for me was a fun quest. It doesn’t reward the party very well, but the rewards for Keto are perfect for her.
The thing I love about Keto, and what will keep me coming back to her in the future (I want to see her with other NPCs), is that she has a character, and her story is well told. The writing for the Bioware NPCs are very in-character, which is a problem that a lot of mods lose sight of. The voice acting is first rate and the music and poetry are excellent where they need to be and not-so-good where they need to be less so (but excellently not-so-excellent).
So for someone who loves the stories, I recommend Keto heartily. For someone who likes characters who add a little extra challenge or new tactical opportunities, I would suggest her. For players who just want to kick ass, I would suggest you look somewhere else.
For me, Keto is definitely my favorite NPC mod (But Amber comes in a close second so far. I’m not done with her yet though...)
