44 replies to this topic

[Moongaze]

Arcane Nalia

I've wondered...why is a noble like Nalia a thief? Sure, they wanted to give her a Robin Hood-like theme, but quite honestly...a level 4 thief doesn't do much in BG2, except when you start using potions and such. Aside from that, there are three Mage/Thief characters in the original game, two of which dualclassed, and only one single-classed mage, who can't even use Identify. My suggestion? Change Nalia into a single-classed Invoker. Give her a normal staff and 40 normal darts as her initial equipment, and change her spellbook to avoid including Conjuration/Summoning spells. These lost spells can be replaced with some equally useful spells from other schools (Agannazer's Scorcher instead of Acid Arrow, for example). Her stats could remain as they are.

Yes, Nalia's thief class makes sense in the story, I suppose, but that's beside the point.

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Valygar Tweaks

Valygar is wary of arcane magic. He doesn't trust it. Then...um...why is he a Stalker, who get three arcane spells as priest spells? Change him into an Archer or Ranger instead. That way he will retain his ranger-like nature, while not including any arcane magic into his available spells. Alternately, just remove the three arcane spells from his book (though that would be a disadvantage to his Stalker kit). Or perhaps change Valygar's kit into Wizard Slayer.

Valygar's leather armor is quite powerful. The only stronger suit of leather I've encountered is the Shadow Dragon Scale, in SoA at least. It offers a lot of protection and a great AC. In comparison to other NPC's, his armor is probably one of the most powerful NPC-linked item available. I'd suggest toning it down a little, offering a weaker AC bonus and removing some of those extra resistances, now giving a protection against magic.

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Anomen Tweaks

When Anomen fails his test, he gains nothing special, aside from different dialogues. I'd say...when he turns to Chaotic Neutral, change his charisma to 11 or 10, and raise his wisdom to 14. Hopefully that will better reflect his more rebellion personality, and the fact he has learned something new from his bad experiences.




That's all. I just thought of them yesterday. Feel free to disagree with me. I'm probably one of the few who thinks this way, anyways.

[Domi]

Quote

Valygar Tweaks

Valygar is wary of arcane magic. He doesn't trust it. Then...um...why is he a Stalker, who get three arcane spells as priest spells? Change him into an Archer or Ranger instead. That way he will retain his ranger-like nature, while not including any arcane magic into his available spells. Alternately, just remove the three arcane spells from his book (though that would be a disadvantage to his Stalker kit). Or perhaps change Valygar's kit into Wizard Slayer.

Valygar's kit is *very* appropriate for his conflicting character and for Corthala's curse - wether he wants it or not, magic does course through his veins casueing him all sorts of dilemmas and traumas. Stalker also corresponds well with the part of his backstory that describes him as a scout in the army. I'd not be tweaking anything on Valygar - he is a balanced and well-implemented character.

[Idobek]

Moongaze, on Jun 21 2005, 11:24 AM, said:

Yes, Nalia's thief class makes sense in the story, I suppose, but that's beside the point.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd say that's the entire point. Also, those thief levels make little or no difference to her mage power, so why remove them? Oh, and NPC Kit Pack has the option to give Nalia a mage kit.

[Domi]

I agree with that... What I would actually *loved* to see on Nalia is the ability to determine which class is her first and which is her second, ie to be able to grow her as a thief if she loses her Castle and grow her as a mage if she keeps it.

[the bigg]

Domi, on Jun 21 2005, 04:00 PM, said:

I agree with that... What I would actually *loved* to see on Nalia is the ability to determine which class is her first and which is her second, ie to be able to grow her as a thief if she loses her Castle and grow her as a mage if she keeps it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wasn't there a mod, by the name of IceWind Gate, which did this?

[Domi]

I do not know, I thought IWG proved to be Weimer's first and complete fiasco.

[the bigg]

Domi, on Jun 21 2005, 04:39 PM, said:

I do not know, I thought IWG proved to be Weimer's first and complete fiasco.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Since it converts to 3rd ed, you can develop Nalia as a Thief rather than as a mage, so technically it did what you said
Although, I wished it were more bug-free

[Domi]

I thought it crashed the game when you added NPCs in with IWG or some other big troubles connected with joinables due to inherent hard-coded IWDII limitation... or something of the kind that rendered IWG unplayable for a casual user. Yes, I loved IWDII system too and would have wanted to see it implemented in BG2, but I thought it was a no go.

Edited by Domi, 21 June 2005 - 07:51 AM.

[the bigg]

Yeah, you had to join them, export, remove and reimport, or something annoying like that...

[Moongaze]

Well, thanks for clearing that up. I'll scurry off in shame now.

[Idobek]

Don't be like that. You posted your ideas and your arguments for them. We posted our arguements against. This is what a discussion board is for. Also notice that nobody has yet disagreed that something has to be done with Anomen. Including myself and I have a mod that tries to correct this.

[Domi]

Yep, it's a collection of equally valid opinions

[Orions_Stardom]

Moongaze, on Jun 21 2005, 08:24 PM, said:

Arcane Nalia

I've wondered...why is a noble like Nalia a thief? Sure, they wanted to give her a Robin Hood-like theme, but quite honestly...a level 4 thief doesn't do much in BG2, except when you start using potions and such. Aside from that, there are three Mage/Thief characters in the original game, two of which dualclassed, and only one single-classed mage, who can't even use Identify. My suggestion? Change Nalia into a single-classed Invoker. Give her a normal staff and 40 normal darts as her initial equipment, and change her spellbook to avoid including Conjuration/Summoning spells. These lost spells can be replaced with some equally useful spells from other schools (Agannazer's Scorcher instead of Acid Arrow, for example). Her stats could remain as they are.

Yes, Nalia's thief class makes sense in the story, I suppose, but that's beside the point.

Idobek summed it up quite nicely

Quote

Valygar Tweaks

Valygar is wary of arcane magic. He doesn't trust it. Then...um...why is he a Stalker, who get three arcane spells as priest spells? Change him into an Archer or Ranger instead. That way he will retain his ranger-like nature, while not including any arcane magic into his available spells. Alternately, just remove the three arcane spells from his book (though that would be a disadvantage to his Stalker kit). Or perhaps change Valygar's kit into Wizard Slayer.

Valygar's leather armor is quite powerful. The only stronger suit of leather I've encountered is the Shadow Dragon Scale, in SoA at least. It offers a lot of protection and a great AC. In comparison to other NPC's, his armor is probably one of the most powerful NPC-linked item available. I'd suggest toning it down a little, offering a weaker AC bonus and removing some of those extra resistances, now giving a protection against magic.

As it stands, we change Valygar into a Kensai and remove his armour (since Kensais can't wear armour). Main reason I don't like Archer or plain Ranger is because I don't think he behaves very much like a ranger at all - but if he is a ranger, I agree with Domi that Stalker makes the most sense.

Quote

Anomen Tweaks

When Anomen fails his test, he gains nothing special, aside from different dialogues. I'd say...when he turns to Chaotic Neutral, change his charisma to 11 or 10, and raise his wisdom to 14. Hopefully that will better reflect his more rebellion personality, and the fact he has learned something new from his bad experiences.

What has he learned? It doesn't seem to me he understands anything more, or that he accepts what happened.


But, if you can justify any of these things with in-game evidence, I will definately implement them.

Edited by Orions_Stardom, 21 June 2005 - 10:53 PM.

[BigRob]

I think Valygar is a ranger because he spent some time as a scout for the Amnish army, so he was trained in wilderness survival, tracking, hiding, that kind of thing. He may not be the traditional ranger, but then, neither is Minsc really.

[Domi]

Valygar has a fair amount of 'rangering' background in the game: he has a cabin in the iwlderness and it is there where he is hiding (as opposite to staying in the city). He is definetly well-aquainted with the local rangering populuce, since they protect him as one of their own. Stalker kit also gives a leeway there, saying that rangers of that kit are well accustomed in the cities. In a conversation with Mazzy Valygar speaks rather wistfully about stealth skills. His scouting background was already previously mentioned. If he wants to travel anywhere, it is Neverwinter as opposiute to Waterdeep as he mentions to Mazzy (ie wilder region vs civilized region). He speaks of his father as of a man with a merry laughter and love of the wilderness - and who but a ranger or druid would put this into a convo about his dear dead father? He is also quite terrified by his parents turning undead - a non-direct pointer on the 'nature' connection.

But what background there is to make him a Kensai? As far as we know he had never traveled East or anywhere beside Amn for that matter. Even his katana is not *his* per se - it is a hereditary blade that could have been aquired as a curio by one of his mage-anscestors who played around with enchanting it. His hatred of magic gives a reasonable grounds to make him into a Wizard Slayer imo, but a master of the sword that spends his whole life perfecting his swordplay? He seems to be too guarded of a character for that. Plus he comes from a traditional noble family; if he would have gotten any training at all in sword play in his youth it would have been traditional style, ie heavy armor; and his military training would be all about sneaking around, cutting thorats quietly if he has to, rather than about flashy one on one mortal combats.

Uhm, sorry about the rant. I am sort of attached to Valygar and all things valygarish.

Edited by Domi, 22 June 2005 - 07:17 AM.