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Valerie Overview


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#1 Tempest

Tempest

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Posted 23 November 2011 - 08:38 AM

valerieL.JPG

Name: Valerie Lysander

Race: Human (home nation: Amn)

Alignment: Lawful Good

Class: Sorcerer

Stats
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON: 8
INT: 16
WIS: 14
CHA: 17
Total: 79

Starting Spells (assuming level 2): Magic Missile, Sleep

Background:

Valerie is a member of one of the most enigmatic and most distrusted organizations in her home nation of Amn: the Cowled Wizards. Often regarded as corrupt if not outright sinister and malevolent, Valerie represents a very different side to the organization. Magic is dangerous, and so are those who wield it. For the good and safety of everyone in Amn, the Cowled Wizards control the use of magic in that nation and strive to protect the citizens of Amn from magic and those who wield it. Mad necromancers, ill-considered experiments, and deadly arcane beasts are all very real dangers. Even among the Cowled Wizards, however, Valerie is unusual. She is a sorceress, born with the native ability to manipulate and channel magical energy. Unlike many such people, Valerie seeks to understand and control her condition, and use it to defend a people that distrust her almost as much as the things she fights.

Insofar as sorcerers are typical among the Cowled Wizards, Valerie's background is not uncommon. Born to a middle-to-lower-class family in Athkatla, Valerie was cast out of her family in fear when her magical abilities manifested, and she was subsequently taken in by the Cowled Wizards as a ward, later an apprentice. Intellectually capable in her own right, Valerie excelled at her studies and arcane tests, and has recently completed her apprenticeship to be granted the mantle of a true Cowled Wizard of Amn. Her first assignment has been to accompany the Amnish forces sent to Nashkel. There are rumors of demons in the mines, and Valerie is there to lend arcane support to the troops. More importantly, she is there to confirm or deny the rumors that the creatures in the Nashkel mines are demons. The Cowled Wizards doubt that there actually are demons in the mines, but if there are, the Cowled Wizards and potentially the Order of the Radiant Heart will move in and purge the mines by force.

Unfortunately, with the garrison paralyzed in the absence of Commander Brage, Valerie has been left to wait in Nashkel. Yet people are dying in the mines and relations between Amn and Baldur's Gate are continuing to decline. An adventuring party willing to approach a Cowled Wizard of Amn is liable to find a willing ally in solving the crisis in the mines, and perhaps the crisis on the Sword Coast beyond...

Personality:

The place of the strong is between the weak and those who would prey upon them. A Cowled Wizard may not be the classic image of a follower of Torm, but Valerie has a strong sense of loyalty, duty, and obligation to the people of Amn - an obligation that she acknowledges can be difficult, given how wary the Amnish are of magic in general and sorcery in particular. Valerie herself isn't certain whether her gifts are a blessing or a curse, and her feelings about magic are deeply conflicted. All the same, she tries not to dwell on it, and is, in all honesty, an introvert and a bit of a bookworm - Valerie is methodical and studious, a far cry from the usual stereotype of a sorceress. Likewise, her personality tends towards the even-tempered in most circumstances, preferring to try to understand people rather than condemn them.

Friendship:

Valerie has a friendship track of 15-17 talks for a PC with a reputation of at least 10 - her first talk skips if you recruit her after clearing the Nashkel Mines, and a later dialogue will only occur if she was present to see something unusual and disturbing in the Cloakwood Mines that she will promise to research in her own time. Valerie's friendship is phased with the plot, and certain plot events must occur for the next phase of the friendship to proceed - it begins with clearing the Nashkel Mines, then clearing the bandit camps, clearing the Cloakwood Mines, and escaping the return to Candlekeep trigger additional arcs. This keeps the friendship at pace with the plot to a degree and ensures Valerie has something to contribute throughout the game. As a whole, the friendship arc primarily covers Valerie learning about life outside Amn, her own observations of and research into the potential source of the PC's powers (not to worry - her best guess is that the PC is a latent sorcerer or warlock whose powers are emerging), and ultimately, reflections, hopeful and otherwise, on just how deep the rabbit hole goes...

Romance:

Valerie is not a romance option. She is planned to be in Baldur's Gate 2, but for now she is not ready for a relationship. The PC can flirt with her in many of the friendtalks to mostly little avail, though a female human, half-elf, half-orc, elf, or dwarf PC will meet with greater interest from her.


Planned Components

1. Valerie NPC for Baldur's Gate 1 Tutu/Trilogy/EE. A Baldur's Gate 2 extension of her and further developments are intended later.

2. Friendship track for PCs regardless of race or alignment, though reputation must be kept above 10. Valerie will not befriend someone she judges to be of poor character.

3. Extensive banters with the Bioware characters and interjections.

4. Just to clarify, there will be no romance with Valerie. At least, not in Baldur's Gate 1. There will be opportunities to flirt with her, but they will go nowhere. Things may change in Baldur's Gate 2, however...



For her part, Valerie is intended to fit into a predominately good-aligned party. She does not get along well with the majority of evil NPCs.


Edited by Tempest, 06 January 2013 - 06:27 PM.

"The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesterday, but it was never the streets that were evil." - Sister Miriam Godwinson, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri


#2 Tempest

Tempest

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Posted 22 September 2013 - 04:30 PM

BG2 Overview

 

Come the adventures in Amn, Valerie has not changed significantly from Baldur's Gate 1... on the surface, at any rate. She is still a member of the Cowled Wizards in good standing, a position unlikely to win her many friends among the player's other potential companions, and maintains that they are, on the whole, a force for good and order in Amn. Whether or not this belief will stand the tumultuous events of Shadows of Amn remains to be seen, as will a great many other things she deemed a certainty on the Sword Coast.

 

For those meeting Valerie for the first time in Athkatla, surveying the damage to Waukeen's Promenade, Valerie is a far cry from what you might expect of a Cowled Wizard and a sorcerer, being studious, methodical, and fiercely devoted to opposing the many and varied dangers that threaten Amn. Still, while she might have once been blindly loyal to the Cowled Wizards, quick to rationalize anything that might threaten her comfortable, orderly view of the world, that is no longer the case.

 

When you first meet Valerie in Athkatla, your dialogue choices will determine how well, if at all, the player character knows Valerie - friends or perhaps more from BG1, in which case Valerie's dialogue will reflect having been at the player character's side throughout BG1, or mere acquaintances or complete strangers, in which case things will start fresh with Valerie. This choice will have a significant impact on Valerie's friendship in BG2, and a minor effect on Valerie's romance.

 

There are no special requirements to recruit Valerie.

 

 

Shadows of Amn starting proficiencies:

 

Staff: +

Sling: +

 

Level 1 spells: Magic Missile, Identify, Sleep, Protection From Evil, Shield

 

Level 2 spells: Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Glitterdust

 

Level 3 spells: Lightning Bolt, Dispel Magic

 

Throne of Bhaal starting proficiencies

 

Staff: +
Sling +
Dart: +
 
Level 1 spells: Magic Missile, Identify, Sleep, Protection From Evil, Shield
 
Level 2 spells: Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Glitterdust, Resist Fear, Detect Invisibility
 
Level 3 spells: Lightning Bolt, Dispel Magic, Spell Thrust, Haste
 
Level 4 spells: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Improved Invisibility, Greater Malison, Stoneskin
 
Level 5 spells: Breach, Cloudkill, Spell Immunity, Lower Resistance
 
Level 6 spells: Summon Nishruu, True Sight, Pierce Magic
 
Level 7 spells: Mordenkainen's Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal
 

 

Level 8 spell: Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting

 

Friendship

 

Valerie has a friendship arc in Baldur's Gate 2 for any player character who recruits her - Valerie is willing to extend a hand in friendship even to evil player characters or those of questionable reputation, though she is liable to note that she's well aware of the kind of person the player character is and has no interest in getting to know him or her further. The length of the friendship track depends heavily on whether Valerie is friends with the player character from Baldur's Gate 1 or not. Player characters getting to know Valerie for the first time will have a significantly longer friendship track than those who already know her well. There are, if the player is so inclined, ample opportunities to flirt with Valerie throughout the friendship track, which will impact the romance if her requirements are met.

 

Romance

 

Valerie has a romance for eligible PCs in Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal consisting of 18 lovetalks in Shadows, 6 lovetalks in Throne, and all the standard secondary scenes. Note: there is no player-initiated or Valerie-initiated flirting in the manner of some mods. If you meet Valerie's romance requirements during the romance itself, there will be ample opportunities for flirtation by the PC and Valerie herself will express her share of interest.

 

Romance Requirements: Female human, elf, half-elf, half-orc, or dwarf of good or neutral alignment and 12 or better reputation. Charname cannot be a wild mage.

 

Components

 

1. Valerie NPC for BG2: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal.

 

2. A friendship track for PCs regardless of race, alignment, or reputation, and a romance for eligible PCs, with 14 different epilogues altogether.

 

4. Extensive banters with Bioware characters and interjections.


Edited by Tempest, 06 July 2016 - 05:49 PM.

"The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesterday, but it was never the streets that were evil." - Sister Miriam Godwinson, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri