by: Feuille

AIMS

-To give the PC more insight into his character if he is not being romanced - ie, a detailed and thorough friendship track


IDEAS

-Maybe LG Anomen can be given a quest by the Order. Sir Ryan Trawl tells him that he can continue travelling with Charname, but perhaps they don't necessarily change their mind but they ask him to do a quest. The PC can decide whether or not to help him. 



DISCUSSION THREAD:

Tameon:

I really think Anomen could benefit from a PC/Anomen Friendship. He barely speaks to the PC after he either joins the Order or falls, if I recall right (he didn't in my games, at least). I think Anomen's a cool character and wanted to be buddies, but he never spoke to me. Crying or Very sad I felt so unloved.

I do recall some really good Anomen quest suggestions in the Quest Suggestions thread for Sim's Quest Pack. Sim seemed rather uninterested, so I don't suppose he'll use them. Perhaps it would be a nice addition to IEP?



Feuille:

Do you remember what kind of things they were? I'll talk to Sim if I think they'd be effective. But I'm sure we can think up stuff ourselves!



Tameon:

Okay, after spending more time than I care to speak of searching through the Quest Idea Suggestion thread, I came to realize that the Anomen suggestions were actually in their own thread. Dammit. Oh well, it was an interesting read. So many good suggestions that will probably be forgotten.

Here it is, the original post made by SixofSpades.

Quote:

OBJECTIVE: Before, Anomen had two paths in the game, depending on whether he Passed or Failed his Test.....with some extra mental anguish thrown in if you happen to be Romancing him. Now, he has four paths:

1) Anomen refuses his father's order to kill Saerk, and Cor confiscates the Delryn Family Shield (even if you've performed the Weimer upgrade) and Helmet*. Anomen maintains a Good Reputation, and passes his Test. He gains a +4 Wisdom bonus, a personal suit of armor**, the Priest of Helm kit (along with 3 True Sights and 2 Seeking Swords), and the title of Sir Anomen, and becomes Lawful Good. Later on, he gets the news that Saerk was indeed behind Moira's killing after all, and that his father is dead. He rushes off to avenge his family, and the party hurries to catch up with him. The PC exhorts Anomen to remain merciful, and he does so, but demands that Saerk hand over Cor's body and the Delryn Helm* and Shield that he was wearing. Anomen then leaves the party to cremate his father and stand vigil over the urn. He will be return, Fatigued, after 24 hours have passed.

2) Same as above, except that after Saerk has been found to be guilty, the PC does not discourage his execution at Anomen's hands. Anomen kills Saerk, becomes a Chaotic Good Berserker and gets 2 Berserker Rages, but loses the Priest of Helm kit and the WIS bonus. He still leaves the party to honor his dead father and regains his Helm* and Shield.

3) Anomen obeys his father and goes off to avenge his sister. He kills Surayah and Saerk, and later on fails his Test. He becomes a Chaotic Neutral Berserker, with 2 Berserker Rages. A couple of weeks later, Terl shows up again, bringing the news that Saerk has been found innocent of Moira's death. The Fahrrad clan is demanding blood for blood, but since Calimshite law does not hold in Amn, Terl says that Anomen can get off with paying 10,000 gold in blood money. (Failure to do so will result in Anomen's arrest and deportation.)
After this difficulty is dealt with, Anomen faces another moral problem: Was killing Saerk really such a terrible thing? If the PC responds with, "Even though he wasn't directly involved with Moira's death, he was certainly an atrocious, evil man who deserved to die," Anomen will agree and have a full reconciliation with his father, who is of the same opinion.

4) Same as above, except that if the PC says "Killing Saerk for revenge seemed like the right thing, but perhaps this is the gods' way of punishing those who act before learning the truth," then Anomen only partially comes back to terms with his father--although this can be alleviated even more by giving Cor 5,000 gold to get his mercantile company back up & running again. A short time later, Anomen states that he needs some time away from the party, for penance and to seek forgiveness from Helm. Take him to either of Athkatla's Helmite Temples, and he will leave the party, telling you to return in 3 days. After you do, he will rejoin and is now a Lawful Neutral Priest of Helm (he retains his 2 Berserker Rages), with the +4 WIS bonus, although he never recieves the Delryn Full Plate** or title of Sir Anomen. He will not, under any circumstances, say what he went through during his 3 days of penance.



* Delryn Family Helmet: Sets wearer's DEX to 15 (essentially giving Anomen a -1 AC bonus) and casts Phantom Blade 1x/day. Only usable by Anomen.

** Delryn Full Plate: Identical to normal Full Plate (can be worn with magical Rings, etc.), except that it also grants immunity to Blindness and Backstab. Colors match Anomen's default Clothing colors. Only usable by Anomen.

Power-wise, the 4 outcomes seem pretty balanced to me:

1) Lawful Good Priest of Helm. Gets WIS bonus, Armor, plus Helm and Shield later on. The only 'drawback' is that he gets no Berserker kit or Rages, so this probably needs some toning down.
2) Chaotic Good Berserker. Gets Armor, Helm and Shield later on, 2 Rages, and any Helm abilities earned prior to facing Saerk. Loses WIS bonus.
3) Chaotic Neutral Berserker. Gets 2 Rages, Helm and Shield. Does not get Armor, Helm abilities, or WIS bonus, and must pay 10,000 gold.
4) Lawful Neutral Priest of Helm. Gets Hwlm, Shield, 2 Rages along with Priest of Helm kit, and WIS bonus. Does not get Armor, and must pay 10,000 gold.


Some decent suggestions, and a nice compliment to an Anomen Friendship, if you do end up working on such a component. There are also alot of other neat stuff in that same thread, which I shall provide below.

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php/topic,16340.25.html

Sim says he is "vaguely considering handling Saerk's dealings differently". He doesn't even says he will use those ideas. Also, it will be one year ago next month that he said that. Okay, end long post!



Feuille:

Okay, I've come to a decision. I've read through that thread (thanks again Tammie wink), sludged through all that rather off-topic stuff sarcastic eye roll, and I've come to a decision.

What I envisiage writing/coding/whatever isn't an Anomen makeover, and it isn't a quest makeover. It's an expansion of Bioware Anomen. New quests for people, aye, but changing the original ones isn't what I had in mind.

Plus, the whole new kit thing is such a controversial subject, I don't want to touch it wink

So. So, what I plan to do: I'm not changing any of the Saerk stuff. Personally, I like it the way it is, because I never DO chaotic neutral Anomen and the LG one is fine... but I digress. What will happen, is that there'll be a few conversations you have with him that are like the normal banters (the posh arrogant "not worth the time spent cleaning the weapons after the battle!" ones) at the beginning of the track. You'll be able to ask him questions via the chatpack and that'll all be good.

Then.

Terl shows up after the normal amount of time and tells him about Moira as per usual. Poor Anomen!

*Inbetween hearing about it and going to see Cor there will be a conversation where he reminisces about something that Moira and he did
*If you haven't asked him about his family, he will mention that his mother is dead

Then.

The whole thing with Cor happens (Cor blimey!)

LG Path:
Basically, it will have similar things to the romance path from (A) before the Cor thing and (B) after, but before he starts going all mushy wink
He will mention the day he was squired and his father was drunk. Just after the Cor thing he will have the angry "I must gain some reassurance!" talk.
He will have similar conversations with the male PC but he will underplay his feelings and have a much greater control on himself. He won't shout so much but he's not getting as close to the PC. He's much more prideful.
He will explain that "the Order encourages thought on such things as emotions but I admit that I am wary of speaking of them with you."

I'm not sure when it'll end, but that's what I thought up whilst playing the game Very Happy
What do you guys think?