Two classes they should make into fleshed out NPC's for BGEE2. Wizard Slayer & Undead Hunter.
Debaser
Member Posts: 669
Now before you get your knickers in a twist because these class kits aren't at the top of the easy to exploit pile....
I have actual storyline purposes. I think a think a Wizard Slayer who has a grudge against Jon Irenicus would be super compelling and easily add to the destructive path Jon cuts without hurting anything. Not cheesy...and if you make him distrustful of all magic users...potentially very funny with banter. And it gives you a lot of room to make many side quests funny in new ways like the Mage Stronghold or the Planar Sphere quests for instance.
Also if you make sure that the WS is human you can leave it open to dual to a thief, giving you another possible thief character who can use the Use Any Item ability to compensate for the WS weaknesses for meta gamers.
Along the same lines...you could have an Undead Hunter Buffy The Vampire Slayer spoof who is hunting Vamps around Bodhi's layer...similar kind of pathology. Just...someone who despises vampires instead of Mages but you could make this character obsessed with his or her job and expand on related vampire activity for new quests. There's so many undead centric points to SOA that it feels like a good fit, even if it's not as inspired as the Wizard Slayer.
I know people want thieves (because they're drastically needed!) ...But there really aren't many characters that understand the PC's obsession with the main antagonists. Also there's not many folks you can dual class in SOA. And if the rumors of an Evil Assassin making the cut are true, you've got one thief in the bag already. I just feel there are some kits which are underrepresented over the course of both games. BG1 has a lot of Vanilla classed NPC's that overlap a bit too much, and SOA has a lot of random picks that don't really align with the main story as much. And almost no one lists those kits as popular when people talk about PC's they're rolling anyway.
Maybe make the Undead Hunter a girl Half-ling? A Mini Buffy? I'd just like to see a few more options overall that feel like a good fit. What do you think?
I have actual storyline purposes. I think a think a Wizard Slayer who has a grudge against Jon Irenicus would be super compelling and easily add to the destructive path Jon cuts without hurting anything. Not cheesy...and if you make him distrustful of all magic users...potentially very funny with banter. And it gives you a lot of room to make many side quests funny in new ways like the Mage Stronghold or the Planar Sphere quests for instance.
Also if you make sure that the WS is human you can leave it open to dual to a thief, giving you another possible thief character who can use the Use Any Item ability to compensate for the WS weaknesses for meta gamers.
Along the same lines...you could have an Undead Hunter Buffy The Vampire Slayer spoof who is hunting Vamps around Bodhi's layer...similar kind of pathology. Just...someone who despises vampires instead of Mages but you could make this character obsessed with his or her job and expand on related vampire activity for new quests. There's so many undead centric points to SOA that it feels like a good fit, even if it's not as inspired as the Wizard Slayer.
I know people want thieves (because they're drastically needed!) ...But there really aren't many characters that understand the PC's obsession with the main antagonists. Also there's not many folks you can dual class in SOA. And if the rumors of an Evil Assassin making the cut are true, you've got one thief in the bag already. I just feel there are some kits which are underrepresented over the course of both games. BG1 has a lot of Vanilla classed NPC's that overlap a bit too much, and SOA has a lot of random picks that don't really align with the main story as much. And almost no one lists those kits as popular when people talk about PC's they're rolling anyway.
Maybe make the Undead Hunter a girl Half-ling? A Mini Buffy? I'd just like to see a few more options overall that feel like a good fit. What do you think?
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Comments
But I DON'T like the idea of adding a character that is directly anti-Bodhi or anti-Irenicus. I want to keep the drama between charname and Bodhi/Irenicus, or between charname/Imoen and Bodhi/Irenicus. I don't want somebody else's drama popping up and competing with the main storyline. NPCs work best (in my opinion) when they add depth to the rest of the world, instead of narrowing your focus with redundant emphasis on the main storyline.
However utilizing the under valued kits would also be nice. A really cool Barbarian NPC would definitely be fun as well.
Plus the idea of more Dual class options DEFINITELY sounds cool. The options in BG2 are stupidly limited. I think it's only 2 NPCs possible, and one dies while the other isn't gained until ToB.
Merry Xmas. And honestly...the Wizard Slayer who can Dual to Thief is my first choice...out of the two...juts for reference. I just think some kits that don't see the light of day...Assassin, WS, UH, Swashbuckler...or even a Skald or Barbarian would be nice. I hope they keep adding NPC's for a while to the game honestly.
The Twisted Rune were supposed to have a bit of a quest line leading up to that fight, but it got cut, would be a nice way to introduce a new character or two, while tying up some loose ends.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/1648/1bg2-twisted-rune-2combat-animation
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/61585/#Comment_61585
Undead Hunter sounds neat as well, and I agree with @Philhelm that a Van Helsing style character would cool (though I think the much more charismatic Hugh Jackman pwns that role now versus Peter Cushing).
So good suggestions @Debaser, I'd actually be pretty thrilled with those myself.
Additionally if you did dual him, the Use Any Item Thief High Level Ability would compensate for all of his class weaknesses. Making him pretty dang flexible.
Also...@ZanathKariashi had the idea to make the Undead Hunter and Wizard Slayer a hunting / investigative duo who are trying to solve the Twisted Rune Quest. And I kind of really dig on that. (In fact I think it's bloody brilliant since it's unfinished in proper game terms) @Anton gave some great links on the topic. I know everyone loves Keldorn, but it'd be nice to have alternatives who don't have better places to be. And it'd be cool to see people who want to hunt down mages and the undead when there's so many Liches in Amn.
The Undead Hunter isn't too necessary when you have folks like Anomen, Viconia and Keldorn either. But I like what you are thinking of though. The 'underpowered' kits need love.
I've mentioned this before but I would love to see a Half-Orc Shaman. I'm pretty supportive of any non-human NPC tbh.
That said, I feel like the Valygar already fills the role of magic-hater... And if you really want a Wizard Slayer in the game, you could obviously make Charname a Wizard Slayer. Of course, most players find that the cons (esp. not being able to use potions) outweigh the pros for the kit... Perhaps they could add a Wizard Slayer specific suit of armor in BG2:EE to remedy that issue somewhat.
My hope for BG2:EE is to bring back more of the NPCs from BG1. I expect that we will see Dorn, Neira, and Rasaad return, but there's still many original BG1 characters like Branwen, Xan, Kivan, etc that don't appear in 2. Although I'm not sure if the restrictions prevent Beamdog from bringing those characters back, but assuming they could do that, I'd personally prefer the return of some of those characters to more new ones.
However, if they can't bring back some of the MIA BG1 characters then I'm all for new characters that make use of some of the unused classes / kits.
That being said, legally they seem locked into what's already there. So...I'd rather have two new characters that make sense plotwise, with better backstory and more voice acting than nothing. Jon Irenicus is a force of nature, it makes no sense that no Wizard Slayer would be investigating him.
As for the Swashbuckler request, keep an eye out; I'm working on something just for that. (although she might not be a Swashbuckler in the end...)