No, JCompton is Wes's agent. Im just a fashion accessory.

However, a lot of the material in the Soula mod is written by other people, so the same could happend with Valen. So while most stuff will come from Wes's head, someone has to put it in there. Thats what these topics are about, yes?

Valen is one of the few 'rewards' for evil parties there is, so its pretty natural that alot of people will oppose a 'good' path, just like people will care about a sports team or an artist, even if nothing they do will actually affect that person. I like the fact that Valen is evil and there's nothing you can do about it. I like that Yoshimo dies too, despite the fact that he's one of my favorite NPCs. He wasn't actually a bad guy, he just did a stupid choice, and he has to pay for it. And there's NOTHING you can do about it, cept help him find peace in the afterlife. For a moment, there was actually some kind of realism in the game. There was something you COULDN'T make all better by going on some horrible quest, aquiring several magical items, and slaying some extradimensional thingy of one kind or another. What Im trying to say is KEEP YOUR GOODY TWO SHOES HANDS OFF VALEN! SHE'S OURS! OUR PRECIOUSSSSSSSS!

Now, while Im all for a romance, I do agree that Valen needs more of a personality before that would be a good idea. Its really hard to even guess what she would and wouldn't do with the limited conversations she has.

Im sure there are alot of very lovely reasons for the muggers to attack you, but: 1. They all feel forced. 2. It still boils down to bioware not having time or motivation to make the strongholds more interesting.

You can make up fantastic stories about why those lowlevel muggers would be stupid enough to take on the people who killed Mae'Var all day. It's still silly.

I'll probably have to live with minor things like this cause fixing them is not a high priority(heck, if I could fix it, I'd probably be too lazy). I just think it'd be nice to have more stuff reminding you that your char is not just his destiny. I never did like this whole Bhaalspawn thing myself, but that's just me.

A new crime boss in the shadow thieves is not something that go unnoticed, even among independant operators(Which would normaly be few, but would make some sense considering the war). If you consider the options you have when assigning your thieves, you're pretty much in charge of the city operations and the surrounding lands. Seeing that the death of Mae'Var is a pretty major thing in itself... well, word travels quickly, it makes no real sense that the muggers wouldn't be aware of it. Besides, it would add to the feeling of being a crime boss. You'd expect some perks, not just constantly having to bail out your foolish underlings and return back all too often to pay your tribute. Not exactly the glamourous life of crime you expect.

Actually, I think its a flaw of many strongholds, that posessing them wont influence the way people treat you, cept those directly related to your stronghold. Having the fighter stronghold makes you a lord, but nobles still treat you like dirt. Having the mage stronghold makes you... well, it means your powerful enough the cowled wizards take you seriously. But lets stick to the thief stronghold for now, since thieves are what this is about. The thief stronghold has by far the most potential of all, but its by far the worst as is. Heck, if you DONT take it, you get 10 000 gold and a nice sword(nice in the sense that you can sell it for alot of money). It takes quite a while to raise that kind of money with the guild. Such potential, wasted...

A minor thing, but one of the muggings really bug me: the one in the docks. You get attacked by thugs there even when you're a shadow thief guildmaster. Maybe have the muggings make some more sense; if you have the thief stronghold, you might just tell the muggers to take a hike. Would be neat with some encounters(like the above mention robbing of a tourist). One of the things thats really missing with the thief stronghold is some damn respect. You're the equivilent of a crime boss, lets see some people noticing it! Being able to get involved in some muggings and such would be a great way to show it.

Oh yeah, forgot rogues can dual wield with this mod

However, I wasn't suggesting they get to specialize in WEAPONS(which is the domain of the swashbuckler), but in the various fighting styles. I think being able to place 2 stars in single weapon style, for example, would be useful for the bounty hunter, since I imagine them switching between bow and blade quite a bit. Nothing overpowering, but still a slight combat boost. Still just one star in actual weapons though.

As for poison and nonhumanoids, its tricky. How do you poison a dragon, after all? Their metabolism is fairly different, so regular poisons would be useless. Im sure magical ones could work, but how does a bounty hunter make a poison that can affect dragons? Not to mention demons or undead. From what I understand, the undead poison immunity will only work against poisons that deal damage, meaning they might be affected by other types of poison. How silly...
On the other hand, there are alot of non humanoid enemies out there, and you cant really chose to not face them. It would seriously weaken the bountyhunter to be unable to use his powers against some creatures. Besides, you can use traps against them, cant you? Those are often based on poison too.

The problem with traps that disable the opponent is that there are very few times when you want to disable them. In PnP, a helpless opponent can be questioned for information, handed in for a higher bounty, randsomed, or just tortured for your entertainment. In BG2, they can be killed easier. However, there are already lots of traps that kills the enemy. Tricky situation, dont quite know how to work around it, though powerful disablers(the saving throw penalties you're using is a good idea, I belive) might do it. A trap that casts chaos would be interesting, because it could disable several opponents at once. Many traps has the disadvantage that they only hit one opponent, a chaos trap could be the way a BH would make large groups of enemies more managable.

For combat prowress, how about letting bountyhunters put two stars in all the various fighting styles? It will give them a combat boost without making them swashbuckler wannabees. Swashbucklers are still better at dual wielding, but bounty hunters can master the other styles. This gives them a combat advantage that no none-fighters have, without being unreasonable.

Since poison and disabling the enemy are key components to the bounty hunter, how about giving them the ability to poison their weapons, somewhat like the assassin? Ofcourse, instead of doing damage, they'd do effects like their traps: slow, hold, weaken, confuse or stun the enemy. Again, makes them somewhat better in combat without getting out of line or turning them into fighter/thieves or swashbuckler wannabees.

Stay away from all kinds of supernatural abilities such as resistances or immunities. While the odd bounty hunter might have experimented with poisons enough to develop a resistance to poison in general, this is hardly a trait of the class in general.

I'd say bonus traps and poisoned weapons would make the BH able to compete with the regular thieves again. Throw in the ability to put 2 stars in combat styles, and they should be a viable choice for most players. Sure, they wont be as powerful as monks or kensai mages, but that's not really the point.

And so the neverending debate continues. Good thing too, I've missed it! I completely agree that vampires shouldn't be humans with fangs and that Valen shouldn't become 'just another NPC, only much more powerful'. Thats why Im strongly against the option to redeem her. Anyone mention turning her back to human and I'll put a stake through your right big toe(it hurts more than you'd think... or so Im told).
However, I dont think Valens alien mindset makes it impossible to romance her. Consider the stuff having Valen in your party will lead to: killing a bunch of innocents, fighting the forces of good and order, making deals with demons, and generally raising hell. Hah! Good fun! You'll end up with a rep of 1 and lots of blood on your hands(unless Valen licks it off... now THATS a lovely image!) However, there's no way a good or lawful person would keep Valen around. While a good person migth tolerate Korgan or Edwin because their skills were needed. They talk big and have bad attitudes, but mostly do what they're told. Valen runs around killing children, even when you tell her to behave. See the difference? Only someone fairly evil and unconcearned with anyone else would keep Valen around.
So what we have is an evil Bhaalspawn and a sociopatic vampire. She has connections to the negative plane? The PC has connections to the lower planes. Sounds like a match made in the abyss! In fact, I'd go as far as saying that Valen seems like a far more suitable romance option for an evil PC than any of the original romances. Viccy is all talk and bitchyness, but lets see her handeling the slayer in bed! Ofcourse, as its been previously stated, romancing Valen wouldn't be pretty. Perhaps there'd finaly be a romance where you could tell your vict.. err, partner to shut the f*** up and do as you say, and the romance would actually progress from it! No more damn therapy or whining, just sex and violence! Could make for some interesting lovetalks too. While Valen doesn't come across as the deepest person, she has a decent int(and it keeps improving), so she should be able to handle some advanced philosophical debates on the nature of power and other such things.