7 replies to this topic

[William Imm]

After playing Baldur's Gate, I've been thinking of something - namely, the near-lack of really desirable NPC mages in the game. For example, Edwin only fits in a evil/netural party, Imoen gets full skills pretty late, Xan and Dyanaheir suck as mages, etc. Also, I think it would be fun to have a mage shapeshifter, and have both a normal spellcasting form, and a tank form...

This is where my idea comes in. For some reason, I'd want to name him Lythai. Don't know why, but here goes my idea:

Lythai - Netrual Good Elf Mage (probably will give him a customized mage with some perks/disadvantages)

STATS:

STR 10
DEX 14
CON 11
INT 18
WIS 13
CHA 10

Biography (WIP):

When asked about his past, LYTHAI says he was born into a family of traveling merchants across Fareun, traveling as far as the Dales in order to sell goods, mostly magical convience items, through they do make some magic weapons and armor as support. Lythai appears to be one of the younger people in the Sword Coast branch of the merchant family, through he rembers sometimes taking trips to Amn to trade with people named Ribald and Aurora, whoever those people are He appears to not want to talk about the wolf bite on his chest.

Lythai will stay with you for the entire game (BG1 and BG2). He is in the Red Sheaf inn in Beregost in BG1, can be found in the same house as Aurora from Aurora's Shoes and Boots mod (crossmod will be added as well, and he is also a magic item merchant in BG2 - just not when traveling with you), and is Fate-Spirit summonable. He will interact with many other NPCs, mod and Bioware ones as well.

Tell me what you think about this. I'd like to see the feedback.

Edited by William Imm, 01 June 2012 - 03:43 AM.

[Rhaella]

You probably won't get a great deal of feedback until you've posted more information about the character himself and his backstory. =)

Couple of notes: Be careful to keep him balanced. "Conjurer with perks," on top of having a tank form, may become crazy overpowered. If you're giving him something like serious melee ability by doing something like werewolf form, you'd probably be better off restricting his arcane abilities in some way, rather than making them even greater.

Elves... people tend to roll their eyes at elves these days. Which doesn't mean don't do it, but keep that in mind.

Also, doing both BG1 and BG2 is an insane amount of work. One game is tough enough, but both... make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. =)

[William Imm]

Thanks for the feedback.

Well, I know that good writing makes a NPC what it is, however, I'm not a writer, part time, profession, or a hobby.

For werewolf form, he completely looses all spellcasting abilities, but gains a few innate abilities as he gains levels. Also, at early levels (like, from 1-4), his werewolf form makes him enter a state like Minsc's headwound rage - uncontrollable, but can hit allies and enemies alike. The shapeshift is a 1-per day ability, and only in TOB will he get the greater form.

Well, yea, but if you can make a intresting elf, it's worth it.

This project probally will be on hold untill I get two projects done (BWS-revial and Subrace), however, once I get time, I can start basic work on it.

(I got the idea from having my mage use the IR Cloak of the Wolf, and wondered about making a NPC mage that can shapeshift innately...)

[Eric P.]

In my view, there can never be too many Elves. The character's name reminds me of Lythari, if that's the correct spelling, which are elven lycanthropes (natural, rather than afflicted, from what I gather). I've seen mention of it in some 4e materials, but I haven't read the details, and I'm only casually interested in what's been changed in the Forgotten Realms past the year 1372 DR.

[William Imm]

In my view, there can never be too many Elves. The character's name reminds me of Lythari, if that's the correct spelling, which are elven lycanthropes (natural, rather than afflicted, from what I gather). I've seen mention of it in some 4e materials, but I haven't read the details, and I'm only casually interested in what's been changed in the Forgotten Realms past the year 1372 DR.

Yea, it's only one letter off. Lythai could just be a nickname for him, he could have a diffrent birth name... I decided to give him that name because, well, he is a lycanthrope, he acts semi like a colonized one - I consider it a Meaningful Name myself.

[William Imm]

Some more stuff on this guy:

- I'm planning to have some character quests in BG1. The first one is started right when he joins - he has to deliver a parcel to the Naskel Store and needs a little extra protection due to the bandit activity going about. The second one, I'm not going too much into detail about it, but to start it, you need to go to Baldurian Isle with Lythai in the party.
- His start location in BG2 is now going to be in Chateu Irencius, in the room nearby where Jaheria is locked in. If NeJ and/or AzenMod are installed, he will comment on the portals. The door to that room will now be locked - a key can be found in the same place as Jaheria's key. He will also react if you had him during the party in BG1 or not, and (BGT specfic) if you were ambushed with him in the party or not.
- I'm going to be doing the BG1 part first.
- And of course, crossmod aplenty. He will have crossmod with various NPCs that I have permission to banter with, and (if I can get permission) will have major content with Deliany/Duryle [sic?] in the party.

[AmyAE]

Kind of reminds me of the wizard class in Darkstone, where you could either spellcast or use the class ability to turn into a werewolf, switch your INT and STR scores, and tank the hell out of everything. Pretty fun.

I think decreasing his number of spells per level would be a fair balance.

I'm really interested in this, particularly for how you deal with the character on Balduran's Isle.

[William Imm]

Never actually heard of Darkstone, but that implementation sounds like a hell of fun!

Some other things:

* He is a natural shapeshifter - lets face it - doing it without going berserk is more fun to use.
* At early levels (BG1), he will only be able to shift into werewolf form. I suppose around mid-to-late SoA would be a good time to allow him to allow shifting into greater werewolf form.
* I do think that giving him a version of the Feral Spirit HLA from Refinements would be nice to have for him, but it may need balance modifications/description changes.
* He progresses as a normal mage, but cannot cast any divination spells.
* I am wondering about some other kit options for him - Fighter/Mage and Mage/Cleric being some of them. He will have new dialog relating to these forums.
* He also reacts to being changed by a wild mage spell (eg - sexchanged, glowy).
* As part of his Baldurian's Isle quest, he gets his signature weapon (depending on class, a quaterstaff, katana, or mace). This is upgradable in BG2, and is automatically imported to BG2 (if in the inventory in BG1, it will be behind the frame in Chateu Irencus).
* If my Subrace mod is installed, then he will react to the player's subrace (eg: he is weary of drow, but very intrested in a genasi)
* In dialog - if he sees a especially bad jerk move, he will run up and smack the instigator. For some reason (that I don't know why) this happens to Amonen more often than not.
* Personality wise - he is quite a snarker and bookworm, but also pretty friendly as well. This is evident in his dialog - put him with Edwin, and let the snark team commence!
* Appearance - has silvery hair cut to neck length, blue eyes, turning to gold in werewolf form, wears light Faurian [sic] clothes under his robe, and wears a blue pendant that appears to be somewhat magical (it's equipped on him - you can't take it off)
* I'll try to see if MiLeah or Enkida are avalible to make the portrait for me. I want a nice portrait that is very close to the BG style.

Edited by William Imm, 01 June 2012 - 09:04 AM.