66 replies to this topic

[Dakk]

Woo, win!

First: Don't bother if it's Jude Law =

Second: With the new, totally hot and awesome, Jaheira, an obvious candidate for improvement is Khalid. Mainly for two reasons,
1) his default portrait is kinda meh:


2) there is evidence that Bioware originally intended to make him a Figher/Mage (multiclass). There's even a component in BG2Tweak that makes him a F/M.

3) there's room for "lore-correction", as he's a Calishite (Ottoman/Arab).

So a better looking Khalid, possibly somewhat lore-corrected, and - most important - without any armour.

Kudos!

Edited by Dakk, 12 February 2012 - 10:49 AM.

[William Imm]

2) there is evidence that Bioware originally intended to make him a Figher/Mage (multiclass). There's even a component in BG2Tweak that makes him a F/M.

You can also make him a Duskblade if you have installed the G3 kit mod Sword & Fist and did the change via Level1NPOs/Shadowkeeper (like Vorgen/Usurper did), which allows him to cast some useful mage spells as he gain levels, and he still can wear armor up to and including splint mail. Basically, what I'd want is a version with splint mail, as well as a fighter/mage robed version.

Edited by William Imm, 13 February 2012 - 05:01 AM.

[Eric P.]

Khalid was probably too timid to wield arcane power...at least not safely. Might be interesting to make him a Wild Mage, but I don't believe in giving MC characters a kit. YMMV

[Dakk]

2) there is evidence that Bioware originally intended to make him a Figher/Mage (multiclass). There's even a component in BG2Tweak that makes him a F/M.

You can also make him a Duskblade if you have installed the G3 kit mod Sword & Fist and did the change via Level1NPOs/Shadowkeeper (like Vorgen/Usurper did), which allows him to cast some useful mage spells as he gain levels, and he still can wear armor up to and including splint mail. Basically, what I'd want is a version with splint mail, as well as a fighter/mage robed version.

Khalid was probably too timid to wield arcane power...at least not safely. Might be interesting to make him a Wild Mage, but I don't believe in giving MC characters a kit. YMMV

The last point by Eric P might be why Bioware decided not to go with Khalid as a mage. My personal guess is that they decided it was too complicated with a F/M and F/M as the first (good) couple you meet.

The kit "Duskblade" is much newer than Baldurs Gate - it's a Prestige class from 3.5 I believe - and it's a mod-added kit anyway whereas F/M is present in vanilla BG(1&2). And, as I said, (hidden) dialogue and text in-game suggests Khalid was originally designed as F/M.

At the end of the day, Enkida will make any version(s) she feels like doing

Edited by Dakk, 13 February 2012 - 08:04 AM.

[Enkida]

I will redo certain BG1 NPCs if enough people ask for them, but I would really prefer to redo BG2 NPCs first.

I have asked Miloch if I could include his colour corrected Branwen, Quayle, Tiax, Yeslick and Ajantis in the next pack. I will probably also ask Sanctifier about his colour corrected Viconia. Just to put it out there, in case anyone was going to make those lore requests, they're already "done" by other people. There are a lot of BG1 NPC face edits out there that are quite nice as well, but they're beyond the targeted scope of this pack, which is to stick closely to the original artwork style - of both versions of the games, now. "Ugly faces and all" since "ugly" is a highly subjective matter most of the time. :-)

Specifically, saying things like "lore Khalid in armour / lore Khalid not in armour" means for me basically recolouring his skin, then leaving his helmet and shield in, or taking his helmet and shield out and putting a mop of appropriately textured dark hair on top of his head, and that's about it. There's not really enough surface area on his current portrait to really see any significant change in his costume if I replace his shield with a shoulder, and he's not getting a major clothing overhaul in any case, unless his clothing were for some reason to conflict with his (vanilla game) declared deity. And if it did, I bet Miloch would have covered it already. ;-) Just putting that out there.

I think someone put in a request for Ninde so I'm annotating that here as well.

[Enkida]

Update: Neht’taniel v4 is added to the list, he uses a Jude Law as an elf portrait. Off with his head! New portrait it is!

Jude Law Aklon is planned to be in the works, but not in this next update as the mod is not released yet.

Edited by Enkida, 13 February 2012 - 03:39 PM.

[Enkida]

Drows v1 portrait versions added to the list

[Eric P.]

More thoughts about half-elves...

Jaheira and Khalid most likely had Moon elves for their respective elven parents.

There are two ways to handle a half-elf's physical appearance, given 2nd Edition rules and the _Players Option_ material:

1 - Half-elves look like humans

2 - Half-elves' physical features are a blend of human and elf, with color features appropriate to elven subrace.

There may also have been the option for a half-elf to look fully elven, but I don't recall if that comes from any published materials.

[Eric P.]

And a thought about humans...

It would be ideal, IMHO, for human color features to follow those of the character's particular ethnicity, as there are several human ethnicities throughout Faerun (as well as some outlying lands, like Kara-Tur and Maztica).

[Oracle]

There is a Khalid Mod Baldurs Gate 2 http://www.shsforums...bg-ii-released/ , It does however alternate portraits has shown on the thread.

Could I also make a request for alternate Portrait for Kindrek on COM http://forums.chosen...iov0&board=50.0. I think the the picture lacks any detail in the face and could do with some work.
thank you

[William Imm]

Jaheira and Khalid most likely had Moon elves for their respective elven parents.

FinnJO's Subrace mod (the one I'm working on resurrecting) implies that Jaheria is a sylivan (wood) elf, as the mod assigns her the wood elf subrace. Just a little food for thought.

[Enkida]

If you have a request, nail it down here i specifics, name the mod it is for and I may get around to it. Otherwise, I have no idea why default Jaheira foesn't look sylvan enough already, because isn't she half elf? Any discoluring could have come from her human parent, and her half status is deeply integrated into default Bioware NPC banter, complete with voice acting

[Eric P.]

I don't know where sylvan comes into play, but as for Jaheira, it's completely reasonable to guess that her coloring comes from her Tethyrian parent. It doesn't break canon, although I've been confused before by references and images suggesting her hair to be blonde, while I've always thought of her as brunette.

[Enkida]

Longer Road added to the pipeline

[Eric P.]

Jaheira and Khalid most likely had Moon elves for their respective elven parents.

FinnJO's Subrace mod (the one I'm working on resurrecting) implies that Jaheria is a sylivan (wood) elf, as the mod assigns her the wood elf subrace. Just a little food for thought.

But there's evidence to suggest otherwise. There's a known population of Moon elves in/near Tethyr, and Jaheira is from that area, so I was putting two and two together to see what I came up with Conceptually, her elven parent could have been Sylvan, or possibly maybe Wild, so it's kind of a toss-up between Moon and Sylvan.

After further research, I've seen that Sylvan elves populate the forests in Tethyr, so...heh...

Edited by Eric P., 25 February 2012 - 08:31 PM.

[Enkida]

to do: Rashemen. what african, there is no africa in the Forgotten Realms. version of BG1 minsc portrait

Edited by Enkida, 27 February 2012 - 01:06 AM.

[Eric P.]

Yeah, not counting Chult, which is a fair bit away from Rashamen

[Rhaella]

Granted, Rashemi are described as "dusky." Hmm. Between that, the long braids, the spirit infested country and so forth, North American Indian may be closest.

[Eric P.]

Probably a darker skin tone than Native American. A combination of black African and Arab skin tones might be appropriate, or perhaps similar to darker skin tones of the people of India.

[MiLeah]

*Eye twitches*

I swear, I could so rock this boat right over. Seriously, by the time I get done with my ranting spree regarding the whole 'Forgotten Realms' lore [The more I read about it, the more I wanna call it the 'Forget-U-Realms'], I will be banned over 3 times.
So I'm going to be a good little puppy and leave the boat right where it is.