11 replies to this topic

[IchigoRXC]

Hello guys, as an avid BG player I thought I would try and give something back, make something that I want to play in the game world, and perhaps something others will like too. I want to create something that makes people think "wow, thats cool I want him in my party". My answer to that is Axton.

My love of Dragons and all things draconic made me head in that direction, so here is where I shall begin.

Kit

Bahamuts Justice - I wanted to create a Paladin Kit following the Draconic God Bahamut (this however I am contemplating changing as Paladins have no racial enemies, and I would like to give Bahamuts Justice a little one up on dragons it comes to sentencing Dragons to their doom, but also Cleric is possible to with revised weapons, clerics with swords, I could have a Priest of Bahamut)

Advantages All up for change. (No class has been chosen yet, Paladin, Ranger or Cleric based)
I wanted him to have advantages against his sworn enemy the chromatic dragons, as well as keeping to spell speheres that Bahamut would allow. Cold based spells because Bahamut has the domain of cold.

Subject to change

+1 hit Vs Dragons Level 2 8 15 23 (not needed if it has a Racial enemy)
Grand Mastery in 2 Handed Swords and Longbow
Mastery of 2-handed weapon style
Immune to Fear Level 10
(more to come)
Innate spells such as Cold Based spells.

Subject to change

Disadvantages
Can only spec in 2 handed weapon style
May only use swords and Bows
No innate abilities from parent class (whether it be Paladin, Ranger, or even Cleric if it goes that way)
(more to come)


I have attached sphere access, as I hope to make this Kit using the Divine Remix (hopefully I will obtain the knowledge of how to do this from you wonderful people).

Subject to change

Sphere access

Major: Elemental Air, Elemental Water, Protection, Guardian, Law, Wards, Combat, Creation, War, Healing
Minor: Charm, Thought, Divination, Sun, Necromancy, Summoning
None:  Chaos, Animal, Weather, Plant, Numbers, Elemental, Elemental Earth, Elemental Fire



Axton

Following the call of Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, our young ranger has a crisis of faith. He has been summoned by his god to change his life in every way, to be reborn as something completely different and this idea scares him, as it would any man. At 22 years of age he asked himself, was he ready to become one of the chosen, to be reborn into a new race. This calling was no light task, a new beggining as a dragonborn of Bahamut was  quite a priveledge, beset by a large sacrifice. To uphold his name and his views wherever he may be was standard for a diciple of Bahamut, but a lowly squire to adavance in rank to a chosen, to change his life forever. Sure, his life was hard, he was born of no noble blood and his master had been cruel at times, but he had not known need, he had always had a roof over his head, he had been fed his whole life, he was squire to a champion. What made him so special that he should leave this "comfort", why was he picked to pick up the sword and become more than he had ever dreamed. He was young, his human life had only just started, he had not loved, he had not feasted upon a womans bosom, or felt her loving embrace. Was he really a man, and was he man enough to take on this choice. With this in mind, he steals some armour off of his master and sets off for adventure, to test his mettle and all he had learnt as a squire, but also to test him mind, in the hope of one day seeing himself worthy of the call, and his dragon liege.

Subject to change

Ranger or Paladin or Cleric (of Bahamut obviously)

Stats are not definate, but Bahamut is a defender and a wise dragon, so I am going to address his stats accordingly, but also i hope to increase his scores in time, which is mentioned below.

The idea is to have a character who has just started out, has minimal training and has not reached his full potential. These would be his starting stats. He has learned much within the household he was kept, giving him 14 wisdom. On top of that, he was given many intensive chores, granting him the strength needed to wield a 2 handed sword, though at first, not with ease.

Subject to change

Strength 14
Dexterity 11
Constitution 12
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 14
Charisma 11

At 72 points this character is meagre in comparison to his fellow NPCs. When it comes down to it, have you even gone with a PC who has 73 points?


Subject to change


Strength 17
Dexterity 12
Constitution 16
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 17
Charisma 11

at 83 points, this chracter can be seen as awesome by some, or ok comapred to NPCS such as Ajantis or Drizzt.

I hope through upgrades he will eventually reach this pinnacle, which I don't find to extreme. Many other NPCs have higher stats, and what do stats mean when Crom Faeyr makes your strength 25 haha.


Axton is going to be my party joinable NPC in which the Bahamuts Justice will be his class.  This is only the very beginging, and so far I have been doing tutorials on Kit creation using WeiDU and also .cre creation, so I am very early on, but I only started today so I am not expecting it to be done anytime soon.

This is where is gets difficult, My aspirations for this character are this;

• I want to get the character to be accessable in both BG1 and BG2 using BGT as a part of a Larger BigWorldProject megamod. I am reading a tutorial on how to make the character at the moment, and that also give details of how to make him availble in game. What I don't know is how to get him accessable in the BG1 section of a BGT install, and then keep all his equipment and stats for when you find him in BG2.
  
• I wish to give the character a 2 Handed Sword that only he can wield, a gift from his God to help him in his journey.
  
• I then want to make this Sword Upgradeable via Cesp and Crom. The upgrades with use Dragon Fangs, which are items I will need to create and then add to each Dragon that we come across (possibly including Mod added Dragons, if possible). Think the flail of Ages, but a 2 handed sword of DragonKilling Awesomeness.
  
• I also want to be able to upgrade this young weak character Using Items like the Tomes, but specifically for this character. These would be Dragon Essences captured after Death, which increase stats and/or give bonuses like THAC0, resistances, saves etc.
  
• From here I want to create a Quest line where in his search for an epiphany, he realises the Sword Coast is in tatters and Justice is needed. He quickly gets involved in the Iron Crisis and Bandit raids, with conversation relating them and also a few quests to do with them perhaps.
  
• Then I would like to add two Dragons, One Silver like Adalon, hidden away somewhere, possibly accessable from the Naskhel Mines. This Dragon will Upgrade your sword for you in BG1 and also grant you your essence bonuses, rather than using them like tomes like before. The Second dragon would be a Dragon of Some colour, not sure which yet, (probably a green as there is a lot of forest nearby in which it could make a lair), which you will be tasked to defeat by this Silver Dragon who is an emissary of Bahamut. This will grant the first set of bonuses and the first upgrade to his sword, making it +1 enchated with +1 Poison Damage, if the dragon is green.
  
• The next step would be to add the dragon to a new lair in BG2, or make the old Lair Accessable somehow to upgrade weapons and the bonuses from the various dragons that reside in BG2 and ToB.
  
• Lastly perhaps add more quests in the BG2 section, more banter and a sense of needing for the character to fulfil his dragonslaying needs to bring him closer to his God, and make a decision on the Call.

Well as you can see, it is fairly ambitious... to say the least haha. Any help would be very welcome. Any links to Guides and Tutorials (I have been using quite a few By CamDawg on G3 and also the Kat Bella NPC creation guide.

I hope this piques a few peoples interest. Also, anything with Subject to change above, I would love some extra help here, to make him less amazing, and reduce his "Awesome" as some would say

Edited by IchigoRXC, 05 October 2011 - 03:52 PM.

[Tempest]

Hoo boy. This guy has Mary Sue written all over him. Seriously, tone him and all his "awesome"-ness and "special"-ness down a bit.

Edited by Tempest, 05 October 2011 - 08:47 AM.

[IchigoRXC]

Hoo boy. This guy has Mary Sue written all over him. Seriously, tone him and all his "awesome"-ness and "special"-ness down a bit.

Could you be more precise, which bits are all awesome-ness and special-ness so I know what to tone down.

[Tempest]

Could you be more precise, which bits are all awesome-ness and special-ness so I know what to tone down.

1. Blatantly overpowered kit. Grand Mastery in Greatswords and Longbows, fear immunity, and extra spells? Grand Mastery is the signature trick of Fighters, and fear immunity borrows one of the signature Cavalier abilities. Extra spells are just gravy. The disadvantages are meaningless: only being able to spec in greatswords and longbows is not a restriction when the kit is so good with them that you'd never use anything else, especially with a paladin that will immediately be getting Carsomyr because he's better with it than anyone else in the game. No abilities from parent class (I presume you mean Turn Undead, Lay On Hands, etc?) are mediocre disadvantages and you're giving the kit extra spells anyhow to make up for it.

2. Stat total of 83. That's very high, and it's all dedicated to the important stats for paladins/clerics. Only Minsc, Anomen, Korgan, and Sarevok are stronger than him. Only Viconia and Cernd are wiser. Only Korgan and Sarevok are tougher.

3. Young, noble paladin questing to become more than human is a bit iffy unless the character's personality is very heavily grounded.

4. He's already got a gift from his god, but that's not unprecedented (see: Mazzy), but you say he has a crisis of faith. So... why does he still have a gift from his god?

5. Making this "young weak character"'s stats upgradeable? He already has a very high stat total, higher than most Bioware NPCs and even a good number of mods.

6. His epiphany thing... most characters with personality conflicts do resolve them. But none of them virtually take over Charname's job - all of them stay by Charname's side and are supporting characters.

7. Tone. Down. The. Freaking. Dragons. He does not need extra stuff for every dragon in the game. He does not need to be tasked by an emissary of Bahamut to go kill another dragon.

8. He does not need an upgradeable super sword. Such swords exist: they're called Gram the Sword of Grief and Carsomyr. Psion's Blade, too, if you ignore the upgradeable part. The guy can already use Carsomyr to ridiculous effect, and that's one of the strongest weapons in the game.

9. He should be a supporting character in <CHARNAME>'s story. <CHARNAME> should not be a supporting character in his.

[Choo Choo]

Um, yeah. Tempest pretty much said it all.

To be honest, I don't think you should call this project ambitious. It is ambitious technically, yes, but the real difficulty with modding lies in good, believable writing. Trust me when I say that coding and making kits (no matter how super special), and making items and what-have-you, is a lot easier than writing a character who is interesting without the need for such gimmicks.

While I don't like this idea in its current state, I'd like to see what you're able to do with it if you tone it down.

Good luck with your modding!

[berelinde]

Tempest and ChooChoo covered most of my concerns, so I'll focus on your questions.

[*]I want to get the character to be accessable in both BG1 and BG2 using BGT as a part of a Larger BigWorldProject megamod. I am reading a tutorial on how to make the character at the moment, and that also give details of how to make him availble in game. What I don't know is how to get him accessable in the BG1 section of a BGT install, and then keep all his equipment and stats for when you find him in BG2.

This part is easy. Kind of. Spawning him in BG1 is definitely no big deal. You just use BGT BG1 area codes and coordinates. Poof. He's in BG1. Getting him to transfer between games with his gear intact is a *lot* more difficult. About the only way I can think of to make this work is to have him leave the party before Sarevok is dead and use MoveBetweenAreas() to deposit him in BG2. If you wait until Sarevok is dead, it will be problematic because the transition between games is already in force. If you were willing to sacrifice his stuff, you could just let him be transferred to Irenicus's dungeon with everybody else and then move him out of the dungeon using AR0607.bcs (or whatever it is - I forget). Once you get a little better with the coding thing, this will make sense, and it will even become easy to you.

[*]I wish to give the character a 2 Handed Sword that only he can wield, a gift from his God to help him in his journey.

Items are no big deal, either for modders or for players.

[*]I then want to make this Sword Upgradeable via Cesp and Crom. The upgrades with use Dragon Fangs, which are items I will need to create and then add to each Dragon that we come across (possibly including Mod added Dragons, if possible). Think the flail of Ages, but a 2 handed sword of DragonKilling Awesomeness.

Er... right. Anyway, lots of mods have upgradable gear. Check out Item Upgrade.

[*]I also want to be able to upgrade this young weak character Using Items like the Tomes, but specifically for this character. These would be Dragon Essences captured after Death, which increase stats and/or give bonuses like THAC0, resistances, saves etc.

Young, weak character? His stats are plenty impressive on their own. In any case, one-time stat boosts are doable with the engine. They involve creating spells for the purpose, but you can use the spell that increases Anomen's wisdom as a model. Again, this isn't my area of expertise, but it isn't something to obsess over.

[*]From here I want to create a Quest line where in his search for an epiphany, he realises the Sword Coast is in tatters and Justice is needed. He quickly gets involved in the Iron Crisis and Bandit raids, with conversation relating them and also a few quests to do with them perhaps.

What do the problems of the Sword Coast have to do with ridding the world of chromatic dragons? It's great that he wants to help out, but if you are creating the character with an agenda in mind, getting pulled off on tangents is probably not the way to go about giving him a consistent identity. There's nothing wrong with letting him interject into quest dialogue or having him express his concerns about the PC's quests in this manner, but technically, these are the PC's quests, not Axton's.

[*]Then I would like to add two Dragons, One Silver like Adalon, hidden away somewhere, possibly accessable from the Naskhel Mines. This Dragon will Upgrade your sword for you in BG1 and also grant you your essence bonuses, rather than using them like tomes like before. The Second dragon would be a Dragon of Some colour, not sure which yet, (probably a green as there is a lot of forest nearby in which it could make a lair), which you will be tasked to defeat by this Silver Dragon who is an emissary of Bahamut. This will grant the first set of bonuses and the first upgrade to his sword, making it +1 enchated with +1 Poison Damage, if the dragon is green.

Any dragon you introduce in BG1 is going WAY overboard. If you make him consistent with all other NPCs, mod or BioWare, he will be slaughtered almost instantly. If you make him tough enough to contend with a dragon, he will outshine all the other NPCs and <CHARNAME> together. You don't want that. People will call him names behind his back.

[*]The next step would be to add the dragon to a new lair in BG2, or make the old Lair Accessable somehow to upgrade weapons and the bonuses from the various dragons that reside in BG2 and ToB.

It's just moving between areas. You can do it in a number of ways that will make more sense once you have more modding experience under your belt.

[*]Lastly perhaps add more quests in the BG2 section, more banter and a sense of needing for the character to fulfil his dragonslaying needs to bring him closer to his God, and make a decision on the Call.

OK. Hard to respond to this one without more information.

As others have said, he's a bit... too much. Too exotic, too powerful, too much stuff. If you're a truly gifted writer, you could probably make it work, but he would need to be much, much more than a collection of godlike stats and awesome toys for that to happen.

Lots of new modders think that they need to make their character Superman to meet player expectations. They don't. If that was all they wanted, they would just make up a party in multi-player mode, hit CTRL-8 a lot, and console in all the good items in the game right away. No, players like fan-made NPCs because they are drawn to the character's personality... which you say nothing about. If this were my NPC, which it isn't, I would focus on the personality of the NPC first and worry about quests after that. And items, kits, and spells dead last.

On the other hand, if you really want to make the kit, items, spells, and quests and aren't that fired up about the actual NPC, make a quest mod for the PC that allows the player to select that kit for the PC and give out the items, etc, as quest rewards. Modders like to make NPC mods, but players prefer quests.

[IchigoRXC]

[quote]
1. Blatantly overpowered kit. Grand Mastery in Greatswords and Longbows, fear immunity, and extra spells? Grand Mastery is the signature trick of Fighters, and fear immunity borrows one of the signature Cavalier abilities. Extra spells are just gravy. The disadvantages are meaningless: only being able to spec in greatswords and longbows is not a restriction when the kit is so good with them that you'd never use anything else, especially with a paladin that will immediately be getting Carsomyr because he's better with it than anyone else in the game. No abilities from parent class (I presume you mean Turn Undead, Lay On Hands, etc?) are mediocre disadvantages and you're giving the kit extra spells anyhow to make up for it.
[/quote]
Yeah, I was still planning on balancing the kit, it is still a way off. I wanted to remove more, maybe put a restriction on how high certain stats can go. This is pre alpha for everything, I literally came up with it today as I was filling in time waiting for my birthday fun to start haha. As for the Paladin part, I am still not sure it is the way I wanted to go, was just an idea of the 3. I am still not sure if I want Ranger Pally or Cleric. Obviously if it was Cleric the masteries would change.

[quote]
2. Stat total of 83. That's very high, and it's all dedicated to the important stats for paladins/clerics. Only Minsc, Anomen, Korgan, and Sarevok are stronger than him. Only Viconia and Cernd are wiser. Only Korgan and Sarevok are tougher.
[/quote]
I thought it was quite middling when it came to all the NPC's I have seen. Most I have looked at are between 80 and 90 so I didnt think 83 was that high. As an example, Ajantis is 88, Coran is 85, Drizzt is a massive 96. Also this was preliminary, as I wanted to change them for when Stat Additions occurred through the dragon essence. So the given stats were more final stats rather than the weak stats before upgrades. As I said it is all up for change haha.

[quote]
3. Young, noble paladin questing to become more than human is a bit iffy unless the character's personality is very heavily grounded.
[/quote]
Sorry, I have not gone into it enough. The call of Bahamut is not a singular thing, from what I have read about it, it is heard across many followers of the Dragon. The problem is of those called, not all of them respond to it. This is what I wanted to go into with the character. Being very young and only just setting off in his adventuring career, he is presented with the ultimatum of changing for the god which has granted you strength, your blade and the courage you use to face the beyond, or turn your back on him and run away from the calling. He is not special, in the way that any number of other people could be suffering the same, he is special in the way that he is the only NPC to do so. He is not questing to become more than Human, more questing to decide if Human is what he wants to stay.

[quote]
4. He's already got a gift from his god, but that's not unprecedented (see: Mazzy), but you say he has a crisis of faith. So... why does he still have a gift from his god?
[/quote]
The Crisis of Faith is the ultimatum of change. Becoming a Dragonborn of Bahamut is a huge change, you leave behind everything of your past life. The gift is given out to followers of Bahamut, it is only magical or special once upgraded.
[quote]
5. Making this "young weak character"'s stats upgradeable? He already has a very high stat total, higher than most Bioware NPCs and even a good number of mods.
[/quote]
Yeah, sorry, not very clear, those stats were meant to be final, but even so they are always up to discussion. They are higher than some, but I have been looking at a great deal with which are higher.

[quote]
6. His epiphany thing... most characters with personality conflicts do resolve them. But none of them virtually take over Charname's job - all of them stay by Charname's side and are supporting characters.
[/quote]
Is it important to always be the centre of attention? Do we always need to be the "be all and end all" of this quest. Maybe someone elses quest is just as important and we join forces? Just an idea.

[quote]
7. Tone. Down. The. Freaking. Dragons. He does not need extra stuff for every dragon in the game. He does not need to be tasked by an emissary of Bahamut to go kill another dragon.
[/quote]
The dragon idea was just a way to create a sword like the flail of ages, and truth be told everyone likes loot. Everyone likes a bit of upgrading.

[quote]
8. He does not need an upgradeable super sword. Such swords exist: they're called Gram the Sword of Grief and Carsomyr. Psion's Blade, too, if you ignore the upgradeable part. The guy can already use Carsomyr to ridiculous effect, and that's one of the strongest weapons in the game.
[/quote]
The super sword is only planned to be as super as the upgraded Carsomyr and the Flail of ages, it doesn't even make your strength 25 like Crom Faeyr. I just wanted to create an upgradeable sword. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Also, just because he is a Paladin, does not mean he will have the same equipment usage of a Paladin.

[quote]
9. He should be a supporting character in <CHARNAME>'s story. <CHARNAME> should not be a supporting character in his.
[/quote]
He should indeed support <CHARNAME> but why can't he do the same in the end? I mean, they have similar goals, Dragon's are a mighty evil force, and a few of them are definately not routing for old <CHARNAME> so their interests meet quite snuggly.

[quote]
Tempest and ChooChoo covered most of my concerns, so I'll focus on your questions.

[quote name='IchigoRXC' date='05 October 2011 - 12:42 PM' timestamp='1317832979' post='524156'][*]I want to get the character to be accessable in both BG1 and BG2 using BGT as a part of a Larger BigWorldProject megamod. I am reading a tutorial on how to make the character at the moment, and that also give details of how to make him availble in game. What I don't know is how to get him accessable in the BG1 section of a BGT install, and then keep all his equipment and stats for when you find him in BG2.

[quote]This part is easy. Kind of. Spawning him in BG1 is definitely no big deal. You just use BGT BG1 area codes and coordinates. Poof. He's in BG1. Getting him to transfer between games with his gear intact is a *lot* more difficult. About the only way I can think of to make this work is to have him leave the party before Sarevok is dead and use MoveBetweenAreas() to deposit him in BG2. If you wait until Sarevok is dead, it will be problematic because the transition between games is already in force. If you were willing to sacrifice his stuff, you could just let him be transferred to Irenicus's dungeon with everybody else and then move him out of the dungeon using AR0607.bcs (or whatever it is - I forget). Once you get a little better with the coding thing, this will make sense, and it will even become easy to you.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Thankyou. Well I will definately need to look into this. I mean there are mods trying to keep Khalid and Xan from BG1, so I can look into how they got into BG2. Worst comes to worst, apart from his sword, him losing items is not really a problem.

[quote]
[*]I wish to give the character a 2 Handed Sword that only he can wield, a gift from his God to help him in his journey.
[quote]Items are no big deal, either for modders or for players.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Ah for me I am rather loot hungry, I loved collecting items and upgrading equipment, and from the amount of added upgradable weapon mods I have seen, I am not the only one.

[quote]
[*]I then want to make this Sword Upgradeable via Cesp and Crom. The upgrades with use Dragon Fangs, which are items I will need to create and then add to each Dragon that we come across (possibly including Mod added Dragons, if possible). Think the flail of Ages, but a 2 handed sword of DragonKilling Awesomeness.
[quote]Er... right. Anyway, lots of mods have upgradable gear. Check out Item Upgrade.
[/quote]
[/quote]
I think I have given Item Upgrade a once over, it is something I planned to implement much later in the scheme of things.

[quote]
[*]I also want to be able to upgrade this young weak character Using Items like the Tomes, but specifically for this character. These would be Dragon Essences captured after Death, which increase stats and/or give bonuses like THAC0, resistances, saves etc.
[quote]Young, weak character? His stats are plenty impressive on their own. In any case, one-time stat boosts are doable with the engine. They involve creating spells for the purpose, but you can use the spell that increases Anomen's wisdom as a model. Again, this isn't my area of expertise, but it isn't something to obsess over.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Sorry, misinterpreted again, I am about to re-write a lot of things. His stats are good on their own, and up for revision. However these were what I wanted him to become, after his trials and tribulations. I definately won't obsess over it but yes I was thinking of Anomen as an example of it happening.

[quote]
[*]From here I want to create a Quest line where in his search for an epiphany, he realises the Sword Coast is in tatters and Justice is needed. He quickly gets involved in the Iron Crisis and Bandit raids, with conversation relating them and also a few quests to do with them perhaps.
[quote]What do the problems of the Sword Coast have to do with ridding the world of chromatic dragons? It's great that he wants to help out, but if you are creating the character with an agenda in mind, getting pulled off on tangents is probably not the way to go about giving him a consistent identity. There's nothing wrong with letting him interject into quest dialogue or having him express his concerns about the PC's quests in this manner, but technically, these are the PC's quests, not Axton's.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Bahamut is subserviant to torm. He also obtains the justice portfolio at some point (probably after the game is set). However due to this I feel the followers should be Lawful and want Justice throughout the realm. He went out on his journey to see they world, to grow as a man before he decided to follow up on the calling or to leave it. Through his travels he will learn of chromatic dragons and pull <CHARNAME> towards them through dialogue and coercion.

[quote]
[*]Then I would like to add two Dragons, One Silver like Adalon, hidden away somewhere, possibly accessable from the Naskhel Mines. This Dragon will Upgrade your sword for you in BG1 and also grant you your essence bonuses, rather than using them like tomes like before. The Second dragon would be a Dragon of Some colour, not sure which yet, (probably a green as there is a lot of forest nearby in which it could make a lair), which you will be tasked to defeat by this Silver Dragon who is an emissary of Bahamut. This will grant the first set of bonuses and the first upgrade to his sword, making it +1 enchated with +1 Poison Damage, if the dragon is green.
[quote]Any dragon you introduce in BG1 is going WAY overboard. If you make him consistent with all other NPCs, mod or BioWare, he will be slaughtered almost instantly. If you make him tough enough to contend with a dragon, he will outshine all the other NPCs and <CHARNAME> together. You don't want that. People will call him names behind his back.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Yes, I do want the Dragon to be rather a Challenge, maybe not impossible. The only reason I thought of adding a dragon was because of Dark Horizons and the challenge that brought (the dragon quest).

[quote]
[*]The next step would be to add the dragon to a new lair in BG2, or make the old Lair Accessable somehow to upgrade weapons and the bonuses from the various dragons that reside in BG2 and ToB.
[quote]It's just moving between areas. You can do it in a number of ways that will make more sense once you have more modding experience under your belt.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Awesome, I did think that it would be simple as adding a move area command of sorts, but yeah, when the time comes, a long way from now.

[quote]
[*]Lastly perhaps add more quests in the BG2 section, more banter and a sense of needing for the character to fulfil his dragonslaying needs to bring him closer to his God, and make a decision on the Call.
[quote]OK. Hard to respond to this one without more information.
[/quote]
[/quote]
Basically, this is the "stuff I will add in along the way part". I want there to be NPC banter, I have been looking at banter packs, and will learn how to do them. I want some quests for the NPC, haven't thought them up yet, but that will come in time, something to flesh to character out rather than just, "I hate chromatic dragons... kill... arrrggghhh!!!111one".

[quote]
As others have said, he's a bit... too much. Too exotic, too powerful, too much stuff. If you're a truly gifted writer, you could probably make it work, but he would need to be much, much more than a collection of godlike stats and awesome toys for that to happen.
[/quote]
Well I am not a truly gifted writer, but I have a friend who fancies himself a writer and I am planning on getting him involved as he keeps going on at me to be proactive hahaha

[quote]
Lots of new modders think that they need to make their character Superman to meet player expectations. They don't. If that was all they wanted, they would just make up a party in multi-player mode, hit CTRL-8 a lot, and console in all the good items in the game right away. No, players like fan-made NPCs because they are drawn to the character's personality... which you say nothing about. If this were my NPC, which it isn't, I would focus on the personality of the NPC first and worry about quests after that. And items, kits, and spells dead last.
[/quote]
I may have over extended his abilities, but this is very much an early protoype, nothing is set in stone, other than the following Bahamut bit. I do think banter and dialogue is important, and Questing too. Loot is very important to me too haha. The characters personality will grow as the days go on. This has been one days effort, and to say I spent the whole day on it would be a lie. It is my birthday, and I spent a very small amount of time doing it haha. Well, my birthday is now over, but yesterday is now over. Either way, lots of things will change I am sure. There will be a very cut throat attitude to this character until I feel he is fit for the job.

[quote]
On the other hand, if you really want to make the kit, items, spells, and quests and aren't that fired up about the actual NPC, make a quest mod for the PC that allows the player to select that kit for the PC and give out the items, etc, as quest rewards. Modders like to make NPC mods, but players prefer quests.
[/quote]

Thankyou for your help here, I will be looking into all of your points, it is a very rough image of what I was planning to do so don't take anything as rock solid. Also, as it is still being built lots of information will come and be updated. Thanks Also I would like your ideas on balancing the Kit, as well as which class would fit best, Cleric Ranger or Paladin.

[Tempest]

Yeah, I was still planning on balancing the kit, it is still a way off. I wanted to remove more, maybe put a restriction on how high certain stats can go. This is pre alpha for everything, I literally came up with it today as I was filling in time waiting for my birthday fun to start haha. As for the Paladin part, I am still not sure it is the way I wanted to go, was just an idea of the 3. I am still not sure if I want Ranger Pally or Cleric. Obviously if it was Cleric the masteries would change.

If you go the Paladin route, there isn't a whole lot that can be removed - it's a strong class. There's already a ranger with dragons as his favored enemy and antagonistic dialogue with them, albeit it's a secondary aspect of the character and there is far more to him than hating dragons as an ancient enemy of his people. And Bahamut isn't traditionally a patron of rangers, although I don't think it would be much of a stretch (Mystra, of all deities, has an order of rangers).

I thought it was quite middling when it came to all the NPC's I have seen. Most I have looked at are between 80 and 90 so I didnt think 83 was that high. As an example, Ajantis is 88, Coran is 85, Drizzt is a massive 96. Also this was preliminary, as I wanted to change them for when Stat Additions occurred through the dragon essence. So the given stats were more final stats rather than the weak stats before upgrades. As I said it is all up for change haha.

Drizzt should be ignored, while Ajantis has high stats in attributes that are irrelevant to his class and Coran is quite unremarkable outside his stratospheric Dex. Your guy has high stats in every relevant attribute.

Sorry, I have not gone into it enough. The call of Bahamut is not a singular thing, from what I have read about it, it is heard across many followers of the Dragon. The problem is of those called, not all of them respond to it. This is what I wanted to go into with the character. Being very young and only just setting off in his adventuring career, he is presented with the ultimatum of changing for the god which has granted you strength, your blade and the courage you use to face the beyond, or turn your back on him and run away from the calling. He is not special, in the way that any number of other people could be suffering the same, he is special in the way that he is the only NPC to do so. He is not questing to become more than Human, more questing to decide if Human is what he wants to stay.

Yes, Bahamut has plenty of humanoid followers. However, very few become Dragonborn - I have the Draconomicon and Races of the Dragon. It is a rare honor that few pursue. This isn't bad in and of itself. However, why is this guy doing it? Why did he get the call in the first place? Bahamut is seldom worshiped among the humanoid races in Faerun. This makes him exotic and special, which again isn't bad in and of itself. But bear it in mind for the rest of this critique.

The Crisis of Faith is the ultimatum of change. Becoming a Dragonborn of Bahamut is a huge change, you leave behind everything of your past life. The gift is given out to followers of Bahamut, it is only magical or special once upgraded.

Again, why is he here? Why is he getting involved in Charname's story? A crisis of faith is usually something resolved yourself, internally. More importantly, it makes no sense for Bahamut to keep bugging this guy about it - he should decide for himself. Again, a guy trying to become a Dragonborn isn't bad in and of itself, but it's dangerous. And why is he involved in Charname's quest?

Yeah, sorry, not very clear, those stats were meant to be final, but even so they are always up to discussion. They are higher than some, but I have been looking at a great deal with which are higher.

Which ones? Also bear in mind that again, this guy has high stats in all the relevant attributes. Don't present his final stats, present what the guy will be like when he joins the party.

Is it important to always be the centre of attention? Do we always need to be the "be all and end all" of this quest. Maybe someone elses quest is just as important and we join forces? Just an idea.

And if you really want to go that path, you can. But this is Baldur's Gate. This is the Bhaalspawn's story, not some random dragon guy's. You're not the first would-be modder to take this approach. Some mods are indeed like this. They are not the most popular mods. I'll be blunt: most players do not care how awesome or important the NPC is. They are playing the game for Charname's story, not your guy's. I hate to be blunt, but most people who want to read about a dragon guy with magic and whatnot would go read Eragon.

The dragon idea was just a way to create a sword like the flail of ages, and truth be told everyone likes loot. Everyone likes a bit of upgrading.

Not when it's tied to one character and is blatantly overpowered. There will always be loot monkeys, and there are mods enough for them. As a general rule, do not make a mod NPC with an overpowered item, especially if you can't just recruit the character, take the item, and ctrl-y the character.

The super sword is only planned to be as super as the upgraded Carsomyr and the Flail of ages, it doesn't even make your strength 25 like Crom Faeyr. I just wanted to create an upgradeable sword. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Also, just because he is a Paladin, does not mean he will have the same equipment usage of a Paladin.

Yes, he will, unless you intend to edit a whole bunch of items to no longer be usable by this guy. Carsomyr and the Flail of Ages only reach their final versions very late in ToB, and don't require any particular character to do it. And again, there are plenty of high-power weapons already, including upgraded Carsomyr, upgraded Gram the Sword of Grief, and the Psion's Blade, just in the two-handed sword department.

He should indeed support <CHARNAME> but why can't he do the same in the end?

Because this is Baldur's Gate and Charname is the main character.

I mean, they have similar goals, Dragon's are a mighty evil force, and a few of them are definately not routing for old <CHARNAME> so their interests meet quite snuggly.

The dragons in the game, bar Abazigal, are entirely incidental. None of them are important to the story. Baldur's Gate is about Charname and Bhaal's legacy. Bar one dragon that's also a Bhaalspawn, dragons are superfluous to the story and essentially irrelevant.


More than anything, here is my problem: you've told us a lot about this guy's story, what he can do, and his quest. You haven't told us anything about who he is. Is it even a he? Who is this guy? Why is he getting involved? Where is he from? Why does he follow Bahamut? Why does he join forces with Charname for anything but grabbing some meat shields to go fight dragons? Does he have a friendship? A romance? Does he already have a family? Is his desire to become a Dragonborn disrupting his family and friends who don't want to lose a son/brother/husband/friend?

A good mod NPC is much more than just a class and quest.

Edited by Tempest, 05 October 2011 - 04:24 PM.

[berelinde]

Happy birthday, by the way.

[IchigoRXC]

Happy birthday, by the way.

Thanks, it is 4.30 am and time for bed. I will work on this when I wake up, lots of issue to solve. Lots of back story to create, etc etc.

[IchigoRXC]

As of right now I am working on a few NPC mods, this character has been toned down, and is not at the forefront of the mod atm. I am hoping to add in a few NPC's over the course of this project and this guy will be updated within that. At the moment I am just having trouble getting one of my NPC's to talk to me, and thus everything has stopped for the moment. This is the link to my help forum on my broken NPC dialogue. thanks for your help so far.

[GeN1e]

2. Stat total of 83. That's very high, and it's all dedicated to the important stats for paladins/clerics. Only Minsc, Anomen, Korgan, and Sarevok are stronger than him. Only Viconia and Cernd are wiser. Only Korgan and Sarevok are tougher.

Drizzt should be ignored, while Ajantis has high stats in attributes that are irrelevant to his class and Coran is quite unremarkable outside his stratospheric Dex. Your guy has high stats in every relevant attribute.

You must be joking. Most of BG2 NPCs are munchkins with important stats at very high, the sum often exceeding 83. Even rogue NPCs have 17 STR in BG2 (not to mention that a warrior will 99% wear a belt anyway), and everybody except 5 characters is at least as tough and agile. WIS doesn't affect ranger/paladin slots, and 17 is a fine value for dedicated priest (Ano does get his WIS back after the test).

S D C I W Ch Race Class Alignment

- Imoen 9 18 16 17 11 16 Human Thief/Mage Neutral Good
- Minsc 18/93 16 16 8 6 9 Human Ranger Chaotic Good
- Jaheira 15 17 17 10 14 15 Half-Elf Fighter/Druid True Neutral
- Yoshimo 17 18 16 13 10 14 Human Bounty Hunter True Neutral
- Aerie 10 17 9 16 16 14 Elf Cleric/Mage Lawful Good
- Anomen 18/52 10 16 10 12 13 Human Fighter/Cleric Lawful Neutral
- Edwin 10 10 16 18 10 10 Human Mage Lawful Evil
- Haer'Dalis 17 17 9 15 13 16 Tiefling Blade Chaotic Neutral
- Jan 9 17 15 16 14 10 Gnome Thief/Mage Chaotic Neutral
- Keldorn 17 9 17 12 16 18 Human Paladin Lawful Good
- Korgan 18/77 15 19 12 9 7 Dwarf Battlerager Chaotic Evil
- Nalia 14 18 16 17 9 13 Human Thief/Mage Chaotic Good
- Viconia 10 19 8 16 18 14 Drow Elf Cleric Neutral Evil
Cernd 13 9 13 12 18 13 Human Shapeshifter True Neutral
Mazzy 15 18 16 10 13 14 Halfling Fighter Lawful Good
Valygar 17 18 16 10 14 10 Human Stalker Neutral Good

Edited by GeN1e, 14 October 2011 - 03:07 AM.