NPC Modlist; SoA & ToB

[Edar Macilrille]

Perhaps a sticky?

In any case; there are so many NPC mods around that it now leaves me baffled. Most people seem to stick to a few mods, but let us open our hearts to more by sharing experiences.

Rating Scale, but if you do not explain why you dislike or like the mod, your argument is invalid. Remember, this is very subjective and one person's nightmare is another's wet dream. For a 5* rating it will need to have content for both SoA and ToB.

* A nightmare, the worst mod ever, no story, buggy, etc. You would not wish playing this mod on Irenicus.

** Not a good mod and one that you will not try again. Annoying story or banter, or buggy.

*** Your average decent mod, but far from perfect

**** A very good mod that you would recommend, but not perfect.

***** The perfect Mod in all ways; you are addicted.



Post the mods you have tried here, and your opinion of them.


-Soulafein: Soulafein of Usht Natha can join your party and be romanced by a good PC (he swings both ways genderwise AFAIK). Mod works almost flawlessly, no problem there except in very rare cases. Some consider Sola imba, but with his low hitpoints I do not. Though when fully prepped, he is quite nice. I am a bit unnerved by his constant maudlin talks and spouting poetry. I could live with that, if it was not for the times he chooses for it. It is always when prepping for a fight or sighting an enemy or the like. Quite annoying. He does add to the story, which is quite important to me, add quests, and generally adds perspective to the game. Plus, I like Drow. So all in all a good mod. I would give it a ****
Notice that my opinion of the strength of NPS are influenced by playing with SCS2 (and loving it), Ascension and parts of Tactics. Meaning my enemies are strong and smart.


-Saerileth: Another mod that works flawlessly in most cases (it clashes with Virtue, she WILL leave you at the beginning of ToB if you have Virtue installed). Saerileth is a Human Paladin of Tyr growing up on Mount Celestial and is sent on a quest to join you and judge some fallen Deva. She is romancable, but the fact that she is a mere 15 makes many balk at that (here in Denmark minority is 15, so... and in the Middle Ages girls were usually married and spitting out babies at that age- they had to as their life expectancy was not high). Saerileth adds an interesting perspective on how to play a Paladin with her etremely Black & White view of the world that I applaud, but I have come to hate her personality and Romance as much as I do the Biogals. Enough that it made me uninstall the mod. There is a few quests and the visit to Sigil is interesting, but her Emo stalker and the Demon are both annoying as well. Saerileth is well-balanced, not imba, nor nerfed. But I hate her personality as much as that of the Biogals - oh for a normal-ish romance! I cannot decide if she is a ** or a *** The mod as such is flawless and adds perspective/depth to the Paladin Class, but by TYR I hate her personality.


I have played other NPC Mods, but it is long ago...

[galraen]

Amber - Very good mod, includes romance, her own quest line, adds new areas, but no ToB content - ****

Branwen NPC - The version I got had no dialogue, no added content and changed her class to fighter/cleric - *

Coran NPC - added banter, no added content, but at least he's recognisable from BG1 **

Fade NPC - Another very good mod with quests and added areas, romance included, sadly no ToB content ****

Kelsey NPC - Very good, romance, quests and added content, no with ToB content as well. I didn't like the voice acting much though ***

Saerileth NPC - The best NPC mod I've come across with one caveat, some of the early encounters are too overpowered. Romance, added content and ToB content. If it wasn't for the over powerful oppinents early on I'd give this 5 stars ****

Solaufein NPC - hideously over powered character, completely destroys game balance *

Tashia NPC - A long time since I played this one, I remember enjoying it, a female alerternative to Kelsey, again I didn't enjoy the voice acting ***

Valen NPC - looked good at first, somewhat overpowerd, but the killer was the mod completely screwed up Watcher's Keep *

Yeslick - Added banter, nice to finally be able to have one of my favourite BG1 companions in BG2. No added quests or areas (that I found), but good dialogue. ***

Ones I've played but didn't persevere enough to vote on

Yasraena NPC - Found her a bit overpowered, but the real problem was the distorted sound set, she seemed to be bellowing in an echo chamber all the time.

[Stworca]

- Solaufein mod was one of the first mods "on the market" and as such, can be considered a pioneer. The mod itself has set the standards for other NPC mods quite high, with the character in question already existing in the world, his storyline perfectly fitting the Forgotten Realms, and Ust Natha, where you meet him. Romance-able by both genders (this seems to be a trend these days) with a few great additions in the form of tactical encounters (one of them being guide-worthy).
Still, Solaufein is one of the most, if not THE most powerful NPC added by any mod, Jon Irenicus excluded. With a passive resistance to magic of 65 and countless ridiculous immunities, it will make your game a walk in the park. He does require a lot of micromanagement to be at his peak, but should one have the will, time and ability to manage him, you will require all the tactical mods in the world combined, to balance the power. (It will not be enough, trust me).
Solaufein is compatible with almost every mod, the only exceptions being ones that alter the world greatly, in particular the last Bodhi encounter.
To sum it up : while extremely unbalanced and overpowered, Sola was one of the first, and remains one of the best NPC mods out there. Naturally a 5 star rating.
Fun fact : You don't have to have Solaufein in your party to trigger this "guide-worthy" battle with a party called "Eclipse".

- Valen was another of pioneers, and the first truly evil character in the game. There is no empathy or humanity in her, no redemption, no hope. Valen is the ultimate evil character (so far) and as such, will finally fuel the boredom-fueled-rampage parties that were stuck to the same Viconia-Korgan-Edwin groups for so long.
However, due to the fact that Valen was added by no other, but Weimer, she is up there, at the very peak of overpowered, ridiculous characters that will break the game balance in half.
"Why is that?" you may ask.. Well, Sunny Jim, Valen is a vampire, and the world of Baldur's Gate 2 isn't prepared to fight vampire-NPC's. Level drain (up to 5 levels per hit!) insane immunities and special powers don't tip, but rather break the balance in half, and have its ways with the body. While Solaufein required micromanagement to be fully effective, Valen is the ultimate "Left click and forget" NPC.
Many, many dialogues have been changed, evil-options added, grim deeds allowed, and for that Valen is - in my opinion - the single best NPC mod up to date. There is no voice-acting to speak of, as it was one-man's work, and one of the earliest mods at that, but the amount of changes, the boldness of all-out evil character, and the additional encounters surpass most mods that were released up until today.

Saerileth, Tashia and Amber are three other NPC mods that one should try out, and by one i mean "everyone".

[Edar Macilrille]

BTW, for anyone wishing to try any of the Chosen of Mystra Mods, their Forum seems to contain malware. It may just be my sec system that is too paranoid and sees the mods as malware, but in Pocket Plane there is no problem.


I hope they fix it soon.


Back on track, I will do a test of Kelsey ASAP.

[QuenGalad]

***** Kivan - absolutely wonderful mod. The npc's character is presented perfectly, his quirks, his opinions and feelings, his solemn and morose character that still keeps you interested. Kivan will be an attentive friend to all PC's and to some npc's, always in character. His banter and romance dialogue are all tied to the current events, so it feels a part of the story and not an add-on sprinkled on top. The mod also adds a lot of flavour to ToB, as it is in Throne the romance actually blooms or, if you chose so, Deheriana comes back for you to finally meet her.
On top of all that, Kivan character really is and feels like an elf, not a human with pointy ears and an uppity attitude.

**** Valen - rather unbalanced in many ways and sometimes silly (why on earth would Lloth's priestesses go berserk on her?), but still a very original mod that's worth playing.

**** Xan - a lot of effort went into the depressed enchanter, and the result is good, solid dialogue, some humour and a smoother transition from BG1 to 2.

*** Kelsey - nice inter-party banter and just the kind of guy you'd want for your little sister, though not necessarily for your female pc. No fireworks, though.

** Ninde - huge disappointment. Long, rambling monologues on nothing very much, punctuated with "Oh, go on, you're so very fascinating, Ninde" as the PC's only dialogue option. Ridiculously over the top backstory that could be spread over five characters and they would still seem like huge attention seekers. Banter with other npc's also consists of them gushing over the mod npc in a most tasteless manner. Uninstalled after fifth such dialogue.

** Tsujatha - practically all of the above comments apply (what is it about necromancers that make people write them as such horrible mary sues?). Tsujatha is such a 'special' npc that he orders us to do a task for him and his joining the party is the reward. His backstory is a good rival for Ninde's in the "let's absolutely obliterate the PC's story by any ridiculous means" contest, and he's a frequent object of idiotic Deus Ex Machinae, popping up in situations where otherwise, he'd have to handle the problems du jour like any other member of the cast (gasp!).
The mod also shoves a good deal of the so-called Author Appeal down our throats, whether we like it or not - random passers-by commenting on Tsujatha being "so awfully tall", since the author obviously has a thing for tall men, yet as an elf he should be much shorter than the average human male. There's the obstinate insistence on figs as the PC's favourite snack, describing the "little whimpers of delight escaping your throat" repeatedly - whether you see your pc as such or not, because the mod doesn't care about the player character beyond them providing a suitable background for Tsujatha. The writing contains huge amounts of descriptive parenthesis, too (I'm not adverse to some description, but there's way too many). A good guide to how not to do an npc mod.

Phew! That's enough, I think

Edit: in case someone thinks I'm exaggerating about the necromancers' backstories - or just is curious - here are the spoilers for them (not very spoiling, actually, as both stories are revealed very early in the mods by the npc's themselves):

Spoiler

Ninde - she, like Irenicus, has had her soul torn from her as a result of her trying dark arts to save her brother - during the Time of Troubles, because she's soo very ancient. Which is only the beginning, as the soulless Ninde has become a slave to a vampire, his servant, spy and concubine, involved - naturally - in only the most dangerous intrigue in the highest of societies, for centuries. She knows, saw and did everything. Oh, and those dark arts she practiced? She learned them from a mysterious, dangerous, evil and sexy Shadow Mage - the darkest and most reckless mages in existence - who was a teacher at her school and fell in love with her when she was his student.
Tsujatha - he's an extra-planar, four thousand years old elf (naturally, of an exotic, extra-planar subrace), son of a warlock so powerful and utterly evil that his name is the most horrible curse in his world. He's been kept in stasis as a new body for his dad when the old one dies, angsting and hating his da' accordingly. He was freed by a Princess Perfect and fell in love with her, but then had to abandon his love to go to other planes and seek his father's artifact (which he never uses, does not know what it does and "guards it with his life", even though it's a ring of his detested father. Yeah...)

[wise grimwald]

Saerileth NPC - The best NPC mod I've come across with one caveat, some of the early encounters are too overpowered. Romance, added content and ToB content. If it wasn't for the over powerful opponents early on I'd give this 5 stars ****

.

If you are talking about the dragon, all that you need is good tactics and a good throwing axe available early on.

When you go to rescue her, good tactics are enough.

The only thing that stops me getting her early on is the fact that I want a heap of gold to spend after she gets kidnapped.

[galraen]

It's the rescue that's ridiculous; no matter what I tried the only solution was to let the other guy do the work.

Maybe if I hadn't allowed the hint to pick her up early influence me the first time I played the mod I wouldn't have such bad memories of it. In subsequent runs I left picking her up until later; then it wasn't quite so bad. Trying it straight out of Chateau Irenicus was a very bad idea!

[CoM_Solaufein]

BTW, for anyone wishing to try any of the Chosen of Mystra Mods, their Forum seems to contain malware. It may just be my sec system that is too paranoid and sees the mods as malware, but in Pocket Plane there is no problem.


I hope they fix it soon.


Back on track, I will do a test of Kelsey ASAP.

There's nothing wrong with the site. My wonderful host had an issue of being attacked and since then we've been black listed by Firefox/Google. For good measure I've updated my site's software and deleted everything that was old and hidden away, like my original websites, etc. Its safe, so don't worry.

For your reviews of our mods could you guys/gals post a copy at our forums? Most of the mod's forums have a mod review topic.

Thanks

[galraen]

I'm afraid Malwarebytes anti-malware doesn't agree with you CoM_Solaufein, neither does McAfee. When I try to access CoM it gets red flagged.