Heya,

The War of the Spider Queen series takes place in the current game year of the Realms, which is 1372 DR (Year of Wild Magic). Information about what's happend thus far in the War can be found in the Player's Guide to Faerun, pg 170.

The Time of Trouble was 1358 DR (Year of Shadows)
The Baldur's Gate I novel occured in 1368 DR (Year of the Banner)
The Baldur's Gate II novels occured in 1369 DR (Year of the Gauntlet)

Heya,

Alright, thank you.

But a further question: if I want emphasise that the fiend is small / little / insignificant how should I proceed?

You'd just use "little fiend"

which in drow is... lotha nuij

You might find this website helpful: House Maerdyn Translator

And this is the dictionary it uses, mostly: TL'Ilythiiri Zhaun'ol (The Drow Dictionary)

It's not a romance .

Well there you go. *blushes and goes and hides in a corner*

Heya,

Well, Viconia tries to be nice to Kivan in BG1...

Be that as it may, this is BG2 we're talking about. The fact remains that she won't romance a male PC elf in BG2. Why would she romance a male NPC elf in BG2? (Being nice to someone does not equal romancing them.)

I noticed the link to the Kivan mod in your sig, Nightmare, and my initial reaction to the Kivan/Viconia romance idea was exactly the same as my reaction here. You must have a very good reason for it to work. (Especially since Kivan is a devotee of Shevarash. The Black Archer is not the kind of deity that would take his worshippers consorting with drow very lightly, since he's mostly focused on killing every single one of them (yep, he's the closest thing the surface elves have to an outright evil deity, and he allows Chaotic Evil clerics (as well as CG and CN) in his clergy. But this is not the place for that discussion!)

(The solution to Viconia romancing an elf NPC is simply to remove the restriction against romancing a PC elf (which then means that your version of Viconia does romance elves)... which then means said NPC elf gets competition from PC elves.)

Heya,

Have you any idea of the back-aches those breasts would cause that poor Half-Orcish woman?

Sheesh.

Heya,

2 questions:
1)  In the time of troubles, only part of a diety worshiped on multiple worlds would have been brought down to the walk the earth, right?  If they died, would they rejoin the rest of themselves, or would the god permanetly loose that part of their power.

This is one of those paradoxical situations... What probably happened is that Lolth's avatar was sent to Toril, and the rest of her "divinity" was barred from influencing Toril by Ao.

2)  Is their ranking (whether their a lesser, intemediate or greater power) based on their total power on all the worlds their worshiped or just the given world?

The power of a deity on Toril is determined by just their worshipers on Toril. Though Lolth on Toril and Lolth on Oerth are the same deity, there are actually differences between them and what power they possess - for instance, on Toril, Lolth has six domains, while on Oerth she only has four... But Lolth on Oerth will have extra salient divine abilities, because the Toril Lolth has had to use three of hers on extra domains, while Oerth Lolth only had to use one. (If that makes sense at all. )

Heya,

obviously i'm stupid, and off topic, but how did the gods die when they were forced to walk the earth. It doesn't make any sense to me.

During the Time of Troubles...

Mystra was killed by Helm when She tried to re-ascend to Her dwelling upon discovering who it was who had stolen the Tablets of Fate - unfortunately for Her, this was not enough to appease Ao's wrath, and Helm would not let Her by. This caused magic to begin to malfunction wildly.

Bane and Torm got into a big fight in Tantras, destroying parts of that city in the process. The result was that Torm prevailed over Bane, but died from His efforts.

Bhaal was destroyed by Cyric (who was a mortal at the time), who killed Him near the Boreskyr Bridge. Cyric later went on to murder Leria once he'd ascended.

Myrkul was destroyed by Midnight over Waterdeeps's harbour - some small amount of His essence remains behind in the form of a crown called the Crown of Horns.

Torm's life was restored to Him at the end of the Time of Troubles by Ao, because Torm had been fulfilling His Duty by defending Tantras from Bane. Cyric and Midnight (who became the new Mystra) were "ascended to godhood" by Ao.

If a god was slain during the Time of Troubles, they were irrevokably killed. Only Ao could restore them to life. Several gods had plans to avoid that kind of fate, but not all of them succeeded. (Bane had previous planted the seed for His return in the form of His son Iyachtu Xvim - whom He destoryed in His return... According to the BG saga, Bhaal had gone about "sowing His wild oats" prior to the ToT in order to achieve something similar to Bane...)

I would imagine any deity that existed on many worlds would have their Toril aspect destroyed totally - unless Ao, for some reason, decided to let them return to Toril.

Heya,

BTW in addition to what Zandilar said, the sword Cyric used to kill Bhaal and Leira turned out to be an avatar of Mask, though Cyric didn't find that out until over a decade later.  So in fact, one god (i.e. Mask) was hiding during the ToT .

Yes, that's right. I forgot all about Godsbane - who also had the spirit of Kelemvor captive, and hid him from Cyric.

Sometimes, though, I have to feel sorry for Mask. He gets such a rough deal.

Heya,

I know, I'm being a pipsqueak here...

Roc is also an anagram for Orc.

Just wondering something. I read somewhere, maybe on this board, that using (a certain person's?) portraits in mods is violation of copyright.

By that figuring, - well there are a lot of portrait packs out there with pics scanned from book covers as well as lots of portraits that are on the net in general. I download a bunch for future reference but I don't keep urls of everyplace I go....and anyway a pic might be posted a million different places on the net.

Was this guy serious about copyright violation, and if so how does one mod without the worry that at some point now or in any possible future someone might sue him for use of a pic he found someplace.

I write, semi-professionally - internet stories and recently had to change the name of a minor character in a story I wrote five years ago due to some twit having the same name and not likeing his involvement in my work at all. (Dragonfan fan stories by the way)

See where I am going with this? Unless a person does his own art, start to finish they Could Be at risk. What's up with that.

Just wondering.

Minotaur In Maze

Heya,

If you're worried about copyright issues, my advice to you is simple: Look on NWN Vault (or other portrait site)... Look for original art posted by the original artist. When you find one you like, e-mail the artist and politely ask for permission to use the portrait in your mod. Chances are, the portrait artist will say yes, unless the work was comissioned specifically for another mod. Also, if you don't see something that would work, but you do see an artist whose original work catches your eye, you could e-mail them and politely inquire if they're willing to do a comission.

(I see you already found Sol Ek Sa, so I won't tell you to look there. )

Heya,

What exactly changed, why and how does Sean explain it?

What books were the changes detailed in?

This is the key quote out of that thread...

Except it wasn't TSR "trying to bring everyone together." It was Lorraine Williams (owner of TSR, a non-gamer who looked down on gamers, who was proud that she never gamed, and planned on giving TSR to her daughter as a gift when she turned 18 so she's have a "little business" to run") who said that all TSR products had to use the same universe so that people would all buy the same universe-books. She's also the person who said "If it's in core D&D, it's in FR," which is why every single Monster Manual monster _had_ to have a place in FR, and why every world-subset expansion (OA, Maztica, Al Qadim, etc.) was crammed into FR instead of letting it be independent. Lorraine, who ran TSR into the ground because she didn't know what she was doing. Lorraine who decided that TSR's audience was children age 8-10 and any evidence to the contrary was just wrong. She wanted FR to use the Great Wheel because the Great Wheel was "official." Do you really want to be taking her advice for your game or for official FR product?

We went a different way because we were no longer forced to follow strict rules that made no sense or were even bad for the setting.

You can find information on the new Cosmology in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (pg 256) and the Players Guide to Faerun (pg 139). (They are both 3rd Edition books.) Briefly, it's more of a treelike structure, and has deity groupings that make more sense. (For example, Dweomerheart is the home of all the deities of magic, Mystra (NG), Azuth (LN), Velsharoon (NE), and Savras (TN).)

Heya,

Eilistraee's home is Svartalfheim in Ysgard; Ghaundaur's is the Cauldron of Slime in the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze; Kiaransalee's is Thanatos in the Abyss; Lolth's and Selvetarm's is the Demonweb Pits, 666th layer of the Abyss; Vhaeraun's is Ellaniath in Carceri.

Uh... Nope.

I do have to contradict you here... they retroactively changed the Cosmology of Faerun, and it basically "has always been that way"...

Eilistraee now dwells (mostly) in Arvandor with the Seldarine
The rest of the Drow pantheon dwell in the Demonweb Pits, and even Eilistraee has a realm there, though she rarely ever visits it.

The Realms were never meant to fit into Greyhawk's Great Wheel cosmology....

Here is a very interesting thread on Sean K Reynold's forums talking about the Cosmology of the Realms, and why it was part of the Great Wheel in the first place, and why it should never have been...
Cosmology Question

(Sean Reynolds is responsible for the new cosmology, and since his name is actually on the cover of FRCS along with Ed Greenwood, Skip Williams, and Rob Heinsoo, I think he'd know what he was talking about. )

(Mind you, the new cosmology was not published at the time the Baldur's Gate games were made!)

Heya,

Feanor said AD&D, and his post is in reference to BG2, so clearly he's talking about 2nd Edition, not 3rd Edtion (which of course is D&D, not AD&D).  In 2nd Edition, the planes I mentioned are the ones the deities reside on.

Retroactive change means that technically the change effects 2nd Ed too. It also doesn't preclude the idea that some races came from other primes (because, they did, in fact, do so.) And nowhere is it ever stated that you can't travel between different cosmologies either - portals might be one way to do it, being as they're so common... (Elves, for example, came through a portal.)

But I'm not going to argue with you about it, because it's clear we're never going to agree. I am just pointing out that the Cosmology has changed in 3rd Ed and it's a retroactive change.

Heya,

Where's Impact from? I never saw it?

I first read about it in Faiths and Pantheons, but I'm pretty sure it's been incorporated into 3.5e... *grabs 3.5e DMG to check*

Okay... It's not in there, but it definitely says that the Keen ability can only be applied to piercing and slashing weapons...

The Impact special ability can be found on page 27 in Faiths and Pantheons, in a side bar under Gond's entry in the book.

Heya,

In real life times, think of it as the weapon being exceptionally well balanced, i.e. it handles better than most weapons of it's type.

That description could apply more correctly to masterwork weapons. Keen weapons are exceptionally "sharp". The Keen ability can only be applied to piercing or slashing weapons. Bludgeoning weapons have the Impact ability applied to them for the same effect (doubling of critical range).

Heya,

That's what I originally thought, but then I was sure I remembered seeing keen warhammers in IWD2.  I guess either my memory's just playing up, or Black Isle made a mistake.

Well you know it's possible that they just had it able to be applied it to all weapons in IWD2, computer games rarely adhere 100% to the rules of the pen and paper game they're based on. I am not sure, it could also be that Impact is a 3.5 revision. But Keen definitely only applies to sharp or pointy weapons.

Heya,

If there will be romance with the PC, I am not going to write it as a standard BGII romances are written. You can be friends even if you are not romancing her, she won?t leave, she won?t sulk. She won?t romance any evil aligned PCs though, nor will she make such a good friends with them either. And she won?t romance a female PC (she?s just not lesbian or bisexual), but you can be friends with her. And I think she would romance any race, she?s not a kind of person who will look the outside, she rather looks for a kind and loyal heart.

Yes! :thumb: Friendship is a great idea!

Bioware tended to neglect relationships between female characters... Especially in the romancable 3 (actually I think they just neglected relationships between characters that didn't meet romance requirements in general). Having the ability to befriend a major NPC is always a good thing. :thumb:

About her religion and god, where could I find out more about Lliira? The description on the site Bob mentioned is kind of short. I know I could try to find it on my own, but I think that maybe here are people who have a lots of links to related sites

Lliira has always been concidered a minor deity of the Realms, and her main claim to fame at the time of BG2 (1369 DR) is that she's acting as "caretaker" for Waukeen's faithful while Waukeen is missing.

And because I'm feeling generous , here's Lliira's dogma...

Each day is another movement in the Elysian Rigadoon, the joyful dance of a life lived in rapture and without care or frustration. Seek joy always by working to bestow it upon others. Festivals are for all - gather into celebrations the lost, the lonely, the exiled and outlaw, the shunned, and even your foes. Let folk follow their own desires, and never fail to follow your own.

That's from the 3rd Ed book, Faiths and Pantheons... If I get the time/inclination I'll type up her dogma from the 2nd Ed Faiths and Avatars - but essentially it's the same, just more wordy .

Heya,

There is a temple of Waukeen there. But I am planning on some sort of interlude where the PC can interfere, perhaps on the market place (after all her parents are merchants). The idea is molding in my head, hopefully I will be able to write it down soon

Because Lliira had a special role in the Time of Troubles (taking on Waukeen's divinity), it might be interesting to keep in mind how old your NPC was during the Time of Troubles, and what effect, if any, the loss of connection to Lliira had on her during that time (if she was old enough to be a priestess then - if she's in her late 20s, then that's quite likely)

The Time of Troubles occured in 1358 DR... BG2:SoA occurs around 1369DR (11 years later) - so if she's 29, she'd have been 18 at the time, and possibly already a priestess. Just something to concider.

Heya,

Since I'm here, I may as well mention it...

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting has a list of common first names and surnames on page 12, for pretty much all races and all the major regions. It wouldn't be good to overuse the table, but it does give you an idea of what names sound like in the various regions.

I might also add that the FRCS is a good resource for most aspiring mod makers, because it has a very good overview of the Realms, providing history and flavour for the various regions. Current game year is 1372 DR, the BG saga occurs during 1369 DR.

Heya,

Just be careful where you apply it.  I don't have books handy, but sometimes there are differences in content in 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition.

There's a point in a dialog I'm working on involving a girl who commited suicide. Her familly is not poor. The tragedy is lessened if they could just go to the Temple district and have her brought back. So, as long as it does not conflict with Forgotten Realms lore as established in the BG1&2 games or official FR lore, in this case I'd say that she died without faith, and therefore is beyond any known form of Resurection available in Athkathla.

If FR lore does allow even the faithless to be easilly brought back, I'll have to find some other way to keep her "out of reach." Maybe because she doesn't want to return or something, but that may reduce the emotional value of the story.

2nd Edition comments:

2nd Edition didn't allow for the person being raised to refuse to come back, but it seems fairly logical. They were just assumed to work all the time. Raise Dead required the whole body, and that they weren't dead longer than 1 day/caster level... and permanantly drained a point of Constitution from the person being raised. Also, Raise Dead could not return an Elf to life (could raise other humanoids, but not elves - but as you can see, this did not apply in BG2 - plus Jaheira got Harper's Call which does not appear in 2nd Ed anywhere. Druids got Reincarnation, and that was it as far as bringing back the dead is concerned!). Resurrection, could raise someone who had been dead up to 10 years/level, didn't require the whole body, and could raise even elves. (Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot about System Shock Survival rolls... You need to survive one of those in both cases, but an average Con (10) has 75% chance to be successful. Don't need them in 3rd Ed, and certainly don't need them in BG2!)

The reverse of Resurrection, Destruction, could put someone beyond being raised, but not beyond being raised by a Wish spell.

General and 3rd Edition comments:

Committing suicide is a big hint that she may not wish to return.

For a faithless or false, up to the point of Kelemvor's judgement, they may be raised or resurrected by normal means... Generally I'd say a day is about right. After that, a Wish or a Miracle spell is required (because the direct intervention of a deity is required - and even so, I think the person concerned could still refuse to come back anyway)... True Resurrection, Wish, and Miracle all require rather hefty sacrifices (by way of material goods), they are, by no means, cheap.

Also, the dead are very much aware of who is trying to raise them, and can refuse to come back. (For example, a paladin might not allow herself to be raised if the person doing the raising is a priest of an evil deity).

Personally, I feel the idea of the "resurrection that doesn't work" is over done... It's almost a cliche, particularly in Realms books where deities and their clerics are almost universally avoided (and if clerics are included, they're usually low powered, fanatical, or incompetent (and usually they're all three)). *sigh* It's a personal gripe of mine.

Heya,

Almost certainly true.  The problem is that so many dramatic plots depend on the lost lover, the fallen friend, the loved one beyond reach, etc.

It's very tough to write a tale of loss when the Death of X can be fixed at any time by a visit to the local priest. At most, you can get some mild pathos out of a poor family trying to save up to bring back a loved one, but then that says something dark about the motivations of "Good" priests.

For that matter, the certainty of an afterlife makes many sorts of story less viable.

For this dialog, I need a tragedy. If it's trite, I'll have to live with that. 

See, the problem is, most things can be fixed in the FR by finding a mage or cleric and having them cast X spell for Y money. Money is the major issue; almost everyone in the FR has never even had a quarter of the money to raise someone at once. Perhaps, you can make a tragety about a rich family, and about how money can't buy everything...

Unlike their 2nd Ed counterparts (which only require the cleric's holy symbol and some holy water), the 3rd Ed "raise dead" spell line all require a costly component. (The BG2 versions of the 2nd Ed spells require no components at all!)

Raise Dead (the 5th level spell) requires 500gp worth of diamonds.
Resurrection (the 7th level spell) requires 10,000gp worth of diamonds.
True Resurrection (the 9th level spell) requires 25,000gp worth of diamonds.

Most good churches would probably charge that as a minimum, but also they generally charge for the time and effort as well ( I don't agree with that idea if the person concerned can produce the actual component required - but donations are always well appreciated) - in the case of Raise Dead it would be 450gp on top of the 500gp of diamonds.

Now, take into concideration the number of 9th level clerics (the minimum level required to cast Raise Dead) in any given city - and you start to see that getting someone resurrected is not so easy. However, having said that, Athkatla is well and truely big enough to have several 9th level clerics... And if this story/plot involves the PC, they're almost certainly going to have a high enough level cleric in the party to perform the resurrection anyway (Jaheira advances VERY quickly as a Druid and generally has Harper's Call very shortly after the game commences, for example).

Sometimes there are reasons why writers ignore game rules, because generally speaking game rules don't make a good plot. You could just say it doesn't work and give no justification at all - after all Aerie doesn't get her wings back by casting a Regeneration spell (and restoring lost limbs is exactly the purpose of that spell). That's definitely not the best way to handle it, though.

Heya,

2nd Edition comments:

2nd Edition didn't allow for ....

Actually, 2nd edition allowed for almost anything within the bounds of roleplaying. It should always be remembered that higher-level clerical spells are a boon from a deity and could fail if the cleric failed to roleplay the required request.

We're talking about a CRPG here, and RP is a very minor part of a CRPG. A computer can't make judgement calls about RPing. And it would be odd to have a raise dead not work for an NPC when it never fails for an NPC in the PC's party (that hasn't been totally destroyed).

I think the goal of a good writer/scripter for CPRGs is to provide for sensible roleplaying.  Otherwise you might as well just play doom.

No, the job of the writer/scripter is to provide an entertaining experience within the confines of an interactive story. The way dialogue works in BG2 allows for a small amount of choice, but not the freedom of true Role Playing. If I want to do something not covered by dialogue/game scripts, I can't. I'm stuck with the options provided.

I must say there have been many many times when given options in dialogue (both in the main game and within mods) that I've gone, "but this character wouldn't say any of those things, where's the xyz option?"

Anyway, that's way off topic for this thread.

ObOT: In 2nd Ed, Raise Dead strips a point of Con from the person being raised... But I don't think it does that in BG2...

Heya,

Actually, the BG saga is quite full of lore flaws.

Yes, but ToB even more so than the others .

Heh. You think ToB is bad, try some of the NWN series.

One word... (if I spell it right!)

Suldanessellar.

Try and find that in any canon source that isn't one of the BG novels.

How about two? Pages 67 of Lands of Intrigue book 1, and page 126 of Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate II.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the 3rd Edition FR Campaign Setting as well, but I could be wrong.

1) Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate II... what can I say? The book was written around the game, which definitely isn't canon... Not to mention that Volo himself is an unreliable narrator.

2) Lands of Intrigue... Hmmm... I'll have to check that out... (Yeah, I've been known to be wrong. I didn't check my sources properly... *sigh* I completely forgot about LoI.)

3) FRCS has no reference to Suldanessellar - if it's that important an elvish settlement, it would be mentioned along side Evereska and Evermeet (or at least in the Lands of Intrigue section of the book, but it's not). No mention of Suldanessellar in Races of Faerun. Player's Guide to Faerun doesn't have a reference either, but that's not surprising. I could go through the rest of my 3rd Ed books, but somehow I don't think I'll find any references.

Heya,

Not to mention Greyhawk is the "default" 3rd Edition world (the general 3E D&D handbooks refer to Greyhawk deities, etc), and consequently there are probably far more campaigns set in it than the Forgotten Realms.

I can't remember the last time I saw a map of Oerth. Which would seem to indicate that there are a lot of homebrewed worlds using the Greyhawk pantheon.