I'm finding the recent silence on this thread from those in-the-know to be curious. Curious, indeed. ~.^
Clearly you were on the nose, and our dear shadar-kai will be determining which alignment wins the award for greatest racial diversity! (Neutral and Evil are presently tied with 4 each).
I think by this point we've established that Hexxat is pretty much anything we want her to be. She's a bit like Schroedinger's Cat but with about 50,000 possible states of existence.
I'm finding the recent silence on this thread from those in-the-know to be curious. Curious, indeed. ~.^
Clearly you were on the nose, and our dear shadar-kai will be determining which alignment wins the award for greatest racial diversity! (Neutral and Evil are presently tied with 4 each).
We should get Clairvoyance or Farsight spell icon badges if we're correct about our predictions Seriously though, I'm really hoping she'll be shadar-kai, both for the story potential and because of their dark aesthetic.
Since Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil are the least represented alignments in BG2 (as well as BG1), I'm guessing that she'll be either of those. Being "in service to a mysterious master," sounds like Lawful behavior to me, although her service could be involuntary as well.
LE/N Shadar-Kai Shadowdancer would be pretty awesome, especially since she seems to use a bow. I can picture her shadow-stepping across the battlefield firing off volleys of arrows before fading into darkness. Actually, considering they seem to be emphasising how much Shadowdancer is meant to be a *mobility* class rather than a damage one, Hexxat being an archery-based Shadowdancer would make a lot of sense.
Though I personally am holding out for LE. My main Charname is LE, and she needs more LE buddies. So far she just has Edwin, and there's only so many games of chess they can play together while he plots to overthrow her.
Also the shadar-kai idea is firmly one that you broached. I might have jumped on the bandwagon but any farsight-based honours should be yours . You're the mage, after all.
@artificial_sunlight: Thieves can't be Lawful *Good*. Thieves can be Lawful Neutral or Evil. I should know since I am running a LE Assassin right now (and heck, wasn't *Bhaal* a LE Assassin while he was mortal?)
@Eudaemonium Although if Hexxat is a Shadowdancer, LN or LE would be ruled out. Despite the justifications given in Pathfinder, I don't really see why Shadowdancers can't be Lawful (although I can see how Lawful Shadowdancers would be in the minority).
@artificial_sunlight Plenty of thieves are Lawful. Many politicians, government officials, lawyers, and corporate executives in the world today would likely qualify as mid- to high-level thieves in D&D. In Greyhawk, Nerof Gasgal, the Lord Mayor, is a thief-turned-politician. In Forgotten Realms the Shadow Thieves hold one of the positions on the Council of Six. Lawful thieves are more efficient and often more successful than Neutral or Chaotic ones. They're usually part of an organized system which allows them to steal without (overtly) breaking any laws.
@Mortianna, I'm not really familiar with Pathfinder (which I assume is where the Shadowdancer comes from?), so I'm basically just going on the BG engine itself and the 2nd edition stuff that i am somewhat familiar with from scattered PDF files over the years. This is BG, though, where you can have Good-aligned Assassins (which actually is illegal in 2E). Anyway, I am unsure whether the devs would decide to follow Pathfinder in this respect. *shrug*
Though thinking on it, I suspect an alignment of NE is probably more likely than LE for Hexxat, if she is Evil-aligned at all.
@Eudaemonium It's a core prestige class listed in the 3e DMG, and Pathfinder (basically, 3.5e) adopted it as well. I think several people on the development team are Pathfinder fans (Dave Gross writes Pathfinder novels). Of course, that doesn't mean they're bound to canonical rules. For example, in PnP, Dwarven Defenders are restricted to Lawful alignments only, but they can be of any alignment in BGEE (which does seem odd, given the "defender" concept behind that class).
I'm also hoping that Hexxat will be LE. Edwin's witty repartee and role as the "brilliant fool" makes the long journeys bearable, but my LE Necromancer would also appreciate a competent fellow female in the party who shares the same general world-view.
Hey, at least Edwin gets a bit wiser between the games! He goes from Wisdom 9 to an astounding Wisdom 10! Yeah, I think with that Int 18 our dear Edwin firmly qualifies as 'too smart for his own good'.
Another LE member would definitely not go amiss. BG1 gave us Kagain, at least.
They did seem to go with the only non-lawful alignment rule for Shadowdancers, though, even if they skipped the 'must be lawful' for the Dwarven Defender. If you are right and Hexxat *is* Shadar-Kai, not making her a Shadowdancer would seem to be a massively missed opportunity (unless she has her own unique kit). But of course, her race and her alignment are both pretty massive question marks at this point. She could just be a human TN true-class Thief with low stats, a crap bow and 200 points in Pick Pockets.
Good News Voices told me Hexxat is kitted to Shadow Dancer!
This would honestly annoy the hell out of me. Triple backstab is when a Thief really starts to kick ass, and Shadow Dancer delays that glorious apotheosis.
Good News Voices told me Hexxat is kitted to Shadow Dancer!
This would honestly annoy the hell out of me. Triple backstab is when a Thief really starts to kick ass, and Shadow Dancer delays that glorious apotheosis.
Eh, just use Dee's optional fix in the Mod sub-forum. It'll probably get integrated into the game later anyway. XD
Shadowdancer didn't have to be non-lawful in 3.5, in their original appearance, that's a Pathfinder thing. At least not as far as I can remember.
I don't see why a thief would be unable to be Lawful Good either, though. Apart from the "Because it's not allowed ingame" reason, of course, but I mean hypothetically.
@mlnevese - So her plotline is going to be spoiled the minute I recruit her and open her Character Information window? I find that a bit hard to believe.
Her sprite is Human in the gameplay preview, so that rules out Tiefling (since Haer'Dalis is a Tiefling and his sprite is an Elf). I'd say she's either Human or Shadar-Kai. The latter would make a lot of sense if she's a Shadowdancer.
I think Haer'Dalis' sprite is an elf because he's elf-like, not because all tieflings are elf-like. Tieflings prior to 4E can have all sorts of random appearances. Hoof-feet, claws, scales, tails, fangs, snake-eyes, etc.
I don't really get the 4E Tiefling appearance. I would have expected fiendish blood to manifest in all sorts of weird and 'wonderful' ways, but they apparently standardised it into some kind of fixed 'horned with tail' appearance.
I don't really get the 4E Tiefling appearance. I would have expected fiendish blood to manifest in all sorts of weird and 'wonderful' ways, but they apparently standardised it into some kind of fixed 'horned with tail' appearance.
In core 4E materials the tieflings are an actual race that was created by an ancient empire making a really heavy-duty contract with Asmodeus.
I actually much prefer this appearance, even though I had a 3E tiefling character who did not have horns. Of course, this appearance is almost entirely aesthetic (there are some feats that refer to you having a tail), so if you're running a Forgotten Realms or other universe game you can play tieflings as normal.
I actually used it to my advantage for coming up with a character concept in an FR game my friend ran. I played a core 4E style tiefling who was an archaeologist and theorized that this ancient empire existed in Faerun's distant past, but she was treated as a loony by her academic peers.
I think Haer'Dalis' sprite is an elf because he's elf-like, not because all tieflings are elf-like. Tieflings prior to 4E can have all sorts of random appearances. Hoof-feet, claws, scales, tails, fangs, snake-eyes, etc.
Here's my reasoning on why I don't think Hexxat is a tiefling:
Raelis Shai and Lunisia at the Playhouse--who are tieflings--also had elf sprites. (Kirinaldo's sprite is a gnome, but I don't know if he was a tiefling.)
All of the tielflings in Watcher's Keep have elf sprites.
Therefore, I think it stands to reason that tieflings were given elf sprites in BG2.
Obviously, the BG2 developers didn't put as much thought into it as we've been doing. Nonetheless, since all tieflings in BG2 have elf sprites, I think the likelihood of Hexxat being a tiefling is slim, unless the EE developers decided to make her an outlier.
That's fairly sound logic in terms of design decisions. I'd only really paid attention to Haer'Dalis' model. Of course that doesn't mean the devs haven't decided to make Hexxat a human-modelled Tiefling, but it is a small point against the theory.
As a random factoid, Tiefling is the only (to my knowledge) non-selectable race that if you edit your Charname into one will actually display properly on the record sheet. Others will just leave a blank space where the race usually goes.
I personally think that the odds of Hexxat being a yuan-ti pureblood waitress is higher than her being a tiefling maid. Call it an ooze's intuition if you will.
And I'm absolutely 120% sure, that at least a single vowel of this post will proof to be correct in the end!
Comments
Voices told me Hexxat is kitted to Shadow Dancer!
For purposes of full disclosure, I should state that these sources are also Voices.
Since Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil are the least represented alignments in BG2 (as well as BG1), I'm guessing that she'll be either of those. Being "in service to a mysterious master," sounds like Lawful behavior to me, although her service could be involuntary as well.
Though I personally am holding out for LE. My main Charname is LE, and she needs more LE buddies. So far she just has Edwin, and there's only so many games of chess they can play together while he plots to overthrow her.
Also the shadar-kai idea is firmly one that you broached. I might have jumped on the bandwagon but any farsight-based honours should be yours
@artificial_sunlight Plenty of thieves are Lawful. Many politicians, government officials, lawyers, and corporate executives in the world today would likely qualify as mid- to high-level thieves in D&D. In Greyhawk, Nerof Gasgal, the Lord Mayor, is a thief-turned-politician. In Forgotten Realms the Shadow Thieves hold one of the positions on the Council of Six. Lawful thieves are more efficient and often more successful than Neutral or Chaotic ones. They're usually part of an organized system which allows them to steal without (overtly) breaking any laws.
Though thinking on it, I suspect an alignment of NE is probably more likely than LE for Hexxat, if she is Evil-aligned at all.
I'm also hoping that Hexxat will be LE. Edwin's witty repartee and role as the "brilliant fool" makes the long journeys bearable, but my LE Necromancer would also appreciate a competent fellow female in the party who shares the same general world-view.
Another LE member would definitely not go amiss. BG1 gave us Kagain, at least.
They did seem to go with the only non-lawful alignment rule for Shadowdancers, though, even if they skipped the 'must be lawful' for the Dwarven Defender. If you are right and Hexxat *is* Shadar-Kai, not making her a Shadowdancer would seem to be a massively missed opportunity (unless she has her own unique kit). But of course, her race and her alignment are both pretty massive question marks at this point. She could just be a human TN true-class Thief with low stats, a crap bow and 200 points in Pick Pockets.
I don't see why a thief would be unable to be Lawful Good either, though. Apart from the "Because it's not allowed ingame" reason, of course, but I mean hypothetically.
I don't really get the 4E Tiefling appearance. I would have expected fiendish blood to manifest in all sorts of weird and 'wonderful' ways, but they apparently standardised it into some kind of fixed 'horned with tail' appearance.
I actually much prefer this appearance, even though I had a 3E tiefling character who did not have horns. Of course, this appearance is almost entirely aesthetic (there are some feats that refer to you having a tail), so if you're running a Forgotten Realms or other universe game you can play tieflings as normal.
I actually used it to my advantage for coming up with a character concept in an FR game my friend ran. I played a core 4E style tiefling who was an archaeologist and theorized that this ancient empire existed in Faerun's distant past, but she was treated as a loony by her academic peers.
Raelis Shai and Lunisia at the Playhouse--who are tieflings--also had elf sprites. (Kirinaldo's sprite is a gnome, but I don't know if he was a tiefling.)
All of the tielflings in Watcher's Keep have elf sprites.
Therefore, I think it stands to reason that tieflings were given elf sprites in BG2.
Obviously, the BG2 developers didn't put as much thought into it as we've been doing. Nonetheless, since all tieflings in BG2 have elf sprites, I think the likelihood of Hexxat being a tiefling is slim, unless the EE developers decided to make her an outlier.
As a random factoid, Tiefling is the only (to my knowledge) non-selectable race that if you edit your Charname into one will actually display properly on the record sheet. Others will just leave a blank space where the race usually goes.
And I'm absolutely 120% sure, that at least a single vowel of this post will proof to be correct in the end!