"Teacher" Mod
smeagolheart
Member Posts: 7,963
Hello Baldur's Gate Community. I'd like to design and create a mod that adds "teachers" to Baldurs Gate 1/BGEE.
I imagine a fighter, after completing the Nashkel mines and entering Chapter 3, goes back to Beregost and besides getting ambushed by Elminster and a little girl also can meet an expert dwarven Fighter. This NPC can teach the player, assuming he meets the prerequisites, to be a berserker, kensai or wizard slayer. This apprentice training will come with a price (say $5k gold) and perhaps a quest or two then Ron the generic fighter will be awarded the appropriate kit.
Imagine Daniel, the monk, could learn the ways of the Sun Soul monk by apprenticing with a wise old man and learning how to wax on and wax off on the vases in the Jovial Juggler then could get back at all the kids that bullied him.
You see where I'm going with this?
I envision a mod where Kits being earned is a feature in BG1. BG2 has strongholds as class specific feature. BG1 could have quests and trainers that allow kits.
In this way, perhaps even it would be possible to "dual into a kit". Say a kitless druid duals into a fighter and could meet the expert dwarven fighter master and could possible gain a fighter kit. If the druid had a kit before dualing then I would not like to allow him to gain a second kit.
Ideally for someone to take use of this mod, I'd like them to start kitless as a generic class.
Challenge: I don't know Weidu, however, I am a general programmer and can look at code and kind of tell what it means usually. I am serious about doing this and willing to put in the work to get it done.
So just throwing this out there and soliciting help and seeing what you all think.
I imagine a fighter, after completing the Nashkel mines and entering Chapter 3, goes back to Beregost and besides getting ambushed by Elminster and a little girl also can meet an expert dwarven Fighter. This NPC can teach the player, assuming he meets the prerequisites, to be a berserker, kensai or wizard slayer. This apprentice training will come with a price (say $5k gold) and perhaps a quest or two then Ron the generic fighter will be awarded the appropriate kit.
Imagine Daniel, the monk, could learn the ways of the Sun Soul monk by apprenticing with a wise old man and learning how to wax on and wax off on the vases in the Jovial Juggler then could get back at all the kids that bullied him.
You see where I'm going with this?
I envision a mod where Kits being earned is a feature in BG1. BG2 has strongholds as class specific feature. BG1 could have quests and trainers that allow kits.
In this way, perhaps even it would be possible to "dual into a kit". Say a kitless druid duals into a fighter and could meet the expert dwarven fighter master and could possible gain a fighter kit. If the druid had a kit before dualing then I would not like to allow him to gain a second kit.
Ideally for someone to take use of this mod, I'd like them to start kitless as a generic class.
Challenge: I don't know Weidu, however, I am a general programmer and can look at code and kind of tell what it means usually. I am serious about doing this and willing to put in the work to get it done.
So just throwing this out there and soliciting help and seeing what you all think.
Post edited by smeagolheart on
7
Comments
But how would the game factor those changes retroactively upon gaining a kit? Will a pure thief lose his skill points if he suddenly becomes an assasin? He should have -10 skill points/lvl in order to be an assasin. If not, a player can create an overpowered character by getting lvl 10 as a thief and then becoming an assasin, gaining advantages without any disadvantages.
Similarly, if a mage suddenly specialises in magic, will the opposed spells be deleted from his spell book? If a ranger becomes an archer will he lose his specialisation in a melee weapon?
Great points.. There must be limitations.. Some kits will not be possible. I had not considered thief skill points... I had considered like a berserker if the fighter had say pips in a ranged weapon, then he would not be able to gain the kit. It may not be doable for the thief class. I'm only looking to do it if you could legally have the current setup for the kit so there would by necessity be a bunch of checks behind the scenes. Even if it's *only* possible for fighters, clerics, druids (maybe), Rangers (I think?) it is a valuable addition to the game. If a Ranger has melee weapon pips he would not be able to train as an archer.
Again, I'm leaning toward you know the wise old master archetype. Wizard Slayer? "So you want to learn how to battle wizards? Bah, I can teach ye but be warned it's not easy..." If you don't qualify you wouldn't get an option. "I'm sorry but you are too far along in your training to learn what I can teach."
I would aim not to provide "illegal characters" will too many skill points, weapon pips, etc. These wouldn't get the option as they don't meet the prereqs.
The illegal characters I'd like to add would be restricted to dual classed getting a kit on second class (if unkitted first class). This could add cheese but I think the added cheese would not be more than is already in the game. I'm not certain about adding a kit to a multiclass...
I would be inclined to just restrict it in this case. The wizard teacher would say something like "I'm sorry but you know spells from a circle of magic that directly opposes what you wish to learn. Come back if you erase it from your spell book". that could be made more more flavorful and roleplaying but that's the gist of it.
I like your ideas about quirky fighter kit teachers and the like. :-)
Also there should be all of the mage specialist teachers with their own quirks, illusionist should be tricky to find, necromancer is actually evil and will try to steal your soul once you are trained, diviner is terrified of you if you are evil or actually will pity you if you are good (because he senses the essence within you!) and will train you easily (since it is one of the weakest specialisations, getting it should be easy) etc. Ofcourse you should have the required ability score or the teacher will say you are too unhalthy (con) ugly (cha) clumsy (dex) or weak-willed (wis) to be trained.
Cool ideas can be found, but such a mod would be very grand-scale and akin to a total conversion mod. Also, such a mod should not allow kits to be chosen at the start of the game, or else there would be no point to try to get them in-game.
I would not restrict the game choices. The mod would be an addition to Baldur's Gate not a subtraction. Picked a kit already? Okay well maybe next play through you won't if you want to use this feature... I think one teacher per Class would be better. I imagine this type of dialogue tree with the Mage teacher who I shall call Leonard (for no reason)... each branch would have PC, if he met the requirements of not having opposition school spells memorized, possibly do certain things and pay a small training fee (say $5k gold). I'm not trying to have 50 quests or something, just a small addition to add flavor. Maybe no quests are even necessary. I'd not like to reinvent the game just a cool addon.
And quests to gain a class or kit can be downright boring. I remember PST's quest to become a mage. It was long, tedious and boring fetch-and carry stuff, even though the resolution was semi-decent, the quest itself was a drag IMHO.
Maybe gaining the kit this way will also give the player a magical item suited for their specialisation. For example, an amulet that casts detect illusions 5/day for diviner, a robe of elemental mastery (combined effects of cold, fire, electiricity robes +%40 resist all) for an invoker, a ring of protection +3 usable only by abjurers, a black wand that can animate dead with charges for necromancer-only, a scintilating colorful cloak that can cast mirror image+blur+invisibility+non-detection all together instantly 1/day for an illusionist, a circlet that grants charisma bonus and charm immunity for an enchanter, a staff+2 that protects against petrification and slows the opponent it hits for 1 round with no save for a transmuter, etc.
If you wanted to gain the kit in game you could do this... Or you could pick say a kitless cleric and dual to fighter then gain kensai as the kit.. Sounds neat to me
I'm imagining chapter 3 (so post Nashkel mines), the dwarf fighter in Beregost. A Mage trainer in high hedge (recently in town visiting his buddy Thalantyr maybe). A couple of high level cleric and paladin guys could be outside of The Song of the Morning temple. Ranger and Druid guys could either be in one of the woods areas or possibly first area of Cloakwood (although that is chapter 4).
Thieves may not be viable due to the aforementioned skill point issues for Assassin and Bounty hunter. Swashbuckler should be possible though.
Bards should be possible, as you don't pick your lore and pickpocket points, perhaps a trainer could be in or outside the Belching Dragon Tavern meeting his buddy Volo.
I'm going to hold off on Monks and Sorcerors for now..
So I'm going to plan to start with 6 or 7 actors, see how it goes with all the internal comparisons and take it from there. Keep it small for now...