Chosen of Mystra

[MacabreLAM]

I have a mod in mind. I'm wanting to learn how to code BGII mod NPCs, but http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=5886 for some reason doesn't explain a part, and I can't continue. I would really enjoy some help for building my NPC, if anyone is interested. I would like him to be very real and in the game, almost as if he weren't even a mod, which means a voice actor. I would gladly do it, but I'm female, and this is going to be a male character. I've played him through the game as a PC many, many times, romancing Jaheira, Nathaniel (amazing mod, by the way, I'll have to go congratulate them), Fade and Viconia. I have all of it in my head; of where he would appear, why, his life and story line, biography, personality, etc.

So, here's the details you're waiting for.

Statistics.
Strength: 12
Constitution: 16
Dexterity: 18
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 12
Chrisma: 13
(Or something like this.)

Class: Swashbuckler (Not only is this my favorite class, but the game needs a good theif.)
Race: Honestly, I wouldn't mind creating a whole new kit and making him a (perferably) wolfwere or werewolf.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, but due to his story line, it'll change to either Chaotic Good or Neutral Evil.

Name: Now, this is horrible. I hope you'll all forgive me. His given name is Khalid (I do have it planned out for Jahiera, if she's in the party, to have a reaction to it). If you can let this slide, it'd be magnificent. His surname is Armand.

Possible romance?
Yes. You can romance him. In fact, I would recommend it, as he has an interesting romance line. Khalid is extremely open minded, and as being such, will romance any race (besides halfings, dwarves and gnomes for now, though in the future that may be avaliable), any gender and any alignment.

Personality and a bit of his background.
Khalid was born in Neverwinter, and he has two siblings. He's quiet, and usually thinks before he speaks. He has an uncontrollable temper when extremely angry, and isn't afraid to attack anyone. He rarely ever is angry, though, as he's very balanced in himself and it's extremely hard to set that off. He will become a fatherly figure for some NPCs if they're in your party despite his age.

I'm about to write the script for him right now, but seeing as I'm not sure on if I'll even get someone interested or not, I would like to see first. I would love it if someone were interested in helping me mod him and teach me how to go some of the coding. The poll is optional, I would much rather your opinion stated.

Honestly, I would love to be able to learn how to code so I could do it myself, so, if anyone would perfer teaching me over helping me code in the first place, I'd be greatful.

[Dead_Ghost]

Welcome to CoM.

About the mod, what's his race? Looking at the stats, he looks human or half-elf (due to the high Dex and Con).

[BGhead]

I cast my vote for yes, because I do believe this would fill a niche.

However, my vote was not an unqualified "yes".

Instead of Khalid Armand, why not make him Armand Khalid? Jaheira can still go nuts over it, but it avoids some issues. Unless you like issues.

His stats are kind of disproportionate. Unless he's a cleric, he's not going to need a wisdom that high. I'd stick to the 18 dex, regardless of his race. At the absolute max, and only after knocking everything else down, I might consider 19. Having godlike abilities is just too much for most people to take. *Unless* you were to have the dex kick in only in changed form. If you went that route, I'd also suggest giving him a higher STR and CON when changed, something like 16/19/18 for STR/DEX/CON.

*BUT* I'd knock the intelligence, wisdom, and charisma down to 10/7/6 while changed.

People go bananas over stats. You might also want to consider changing your font color to something besides green. It's darned near impossible to read.

Sorry if this is hypercritical.

[MacabreLAM]

The text's been changed, and I changed his wisdom, too. I thought they were a little high, as well, but then I was thinking how in game you can get up to 35 points if you continue to roll. It was only up there because of the dialogue he has with other NPCs and the PC, but it's not really needed.

The name idea sounds okay, but it'll take me some getting used to. Heheh.

His .cre is already a lycanthrope, so that'll be his race.

The whole theif thing is because I've never played a game with Jan, Imoen comes in 4 chapters later, and Yoshimo is only for the beginning part of the game. I had no theif in my party (because Nathaniel...) just because I don't want Yoshimo in it this turn around. I do have Imoen now, but still, this would offer a little more variety.

The idea of raising and decreasing his stats in the hybrid form is amazing. .-. I didn't even think about that, so I'll definitely go with that.

I thank you for the help, it's appreciated.

[Ashara]

I like the idea of NPCs having the same name. It looks weird that every name in the game is unique, even if they have to pull the name out of their bottom. However, Khalid has a definite Arabic/Oriental touch to it, so I assume there is a family history connected to Calim/Zakhara etc?

The concept repeats other mods a bit: Amber is my favorite BG2 thief and Delayni/Durlyle is a good lycanthrope, but by whatever reason male thieves were less often offered to development than the female ones (there is Mansur, and there used to be er... don't rememebr his name from the Allies from the Shadows). Squashbuckler is a stromg kit, but for me it associaters with pirates by whatever reason.

If you want the character to romance one and all, I'd suggest that you track PC's responces, and initiate romance based on compatibility of characters, otherwise your NPC might appear promiscous, and he does not sound like Coran who searches love in the name of love from the character description. Also, romance ate a few interesting NPCs - either by them never being done, or by romance track becoming the only thing that is to an NPC. Investing into friendship track, high interjection density and some quest content (though for the sake of all holy don't do any kidnappings or powerful enemies from the past who are ever after the NPC!) is well worth it.

Good luck.

[MacabreLAM]

Heheh, thank you. And no, his first quest has nothing to do with over powered enemies from the past or kidnappings.

He has, actually, one or two quests if I can work with it right.

If I get to do what I want to do, he'll put his 2 cents in everywhere he sees fit, and he'll have a lot of banters with hopefully all the characters.

I didn't include this, but here's a bit to how he'll react to some NPCs. This may be spoilers for some people.

He'll react the best to Keledorn and Minsc.
He's okay with Cernd and Korgan, but there's a few disgreements, etc, with them.
He'll react the worst to Anomen and, if there's a romance going on between the male PC and Viconia, her.

Really, he gets along with most characters, and likes to make fun of Edwin, who he will have no problem with.

Aerie and Imoen will come to look at him like a fatherly figure, and if the right track is going (only later in ToB when their issues are settled), Anomen.

I've been thinking about this, but I'm not sure yet. I was thinking that if the PC doesn't romance Khalid, in the right circumstances, he might romance someone else.

I do realize I'm not giving a lot of details out, but that's because it's fun to play through and find out things instead of having them handed to you before hand.

[Raven_Song]

Admittedly I know absolutely nothing about modding, but you seem to be setting yourself an incredible amount of work, especially since you're just beginning to learn.

You've got a bisexual character who will romance any alignment, so assuming you intend to write a seperate path for each gender/alignment,
that's a possible six different paths, (Male Good, Male Neutral, Male Evil, Female Good, Female Neutral, Female Evil). Add to that romance conflicts and now a possible romance with an NPC ...

I'm not trying to discourage you, you've got some interesting ideas, but perhaps you should just focus upon one path for the time being, and add other options later.
_________________
Zhaan: I love all living beings. The seek has re-opened my eyes to the wonder of the spirit. I am now going to devote my life to enlightenment.

[BGhead]

Actually, Raven Song has a point.

If you work on the friendship path first and get that all hammered out, it will help you get a better feel for where the NPC is going, but it will also enable you to write the romance better.

That, and the friendship path will be more interesting because you're going to be putting a lot of your good material into the friendtalks. If you did a romance path first, you'd use all your good ideas there, and the friendship path would seem sparse.

It is hard to overemphasize how important that friendship path is. There are NPCs whom I will not name who don't contribute much to gameplay unless the romance is going on. That means that I wouldn't even consider including them in any party unless I was romancing them. There are other NPCs, like Xan or Kivan that I like to include in the party whether I'm romancing them or not. There are also NPCs whom I only include in the party as friends because I don't like their romances.

Have fun, but remember to eat and sleep. Once you get into modding a lot, those things can suffer.

[BGhead]

Actually, Raven Song has a point.

If you work on the friendship path first and get that all hammered out, it will help you get a better feel for where the NPC is going, but it will also enable you to write the romance better.

That, and the friendship path will be more interesting because you're going to be putting a lot of your good material into the friendtalks. If you did a romance path first, you'd use all your good ideas there, and the friendship path would seem sparse.

It is hard to overemphasize how important that friendship path is. There are NPCs whom I will not name who don't contribute much to gameplay unless the romance is going on. That means that I wouldn't even consider including them in any party unless I was romancing them. There are other NPCs, like Xan or Kivan that I like to include in the party whether I'm romancing them or not. There are also NPCs whom I only include in the party as friends because I don't like their romances.

Have fun, but remember to eat and sleep. Once you get into modding a lot, those things can suffer.

[BGhead]

Actually, Raven Song has a point.

If you work on the friendship path first and get that all hammered out, it will help you get a better feel for where the NPC is going, but it will also enable you to write the romance better.

That, and the friendship path will be more interesting because you're going to be putting a lot of your good material into the friendtalks. If you did a romance path first, you'd use all your good ideas there, and the friendship path would seem sparse.

It is hard to overemphasize how important that friendship path is. There are NPCs whom I will not name who don't contribute much to gameplay unless the romance is going on. That means that I wouldn't even consider including them in any party unless I was romancing them. There are other NPCs, like Xan or Kivan that I like to include in the party whether I'm romancing them or not. There are also NPCs whom I only include in the party as friends because I don't like their romances.

Have fun, but remember to eat and sleep. Once you get into modding a lot, those things can suffer.

[MacabreLAM]

Thank you for the advise -- and yes, I have a large friendship path planned out.

I don't plan to have this mod done within the next thousand years, and I most likely will put out a mod or two before him since I want to put in so much work for him, but I definitely understand what you're saying.

[Andyr]