but I think we can all agree that a professionally developed NPC will never be as bad as the worst modder NPC.
No one has made a claim to the contrary as far as I can see, but since you seem so desperate, here's a pat on your back for winning a strawman argument. And with that courtesy, I remove myself from further discussion on the topic, as you haven't shown yourself to be anything more than a typical fanboy.
Whoa there, that's a little confrontational. We all use fallacious arguments sometimes, but for a topic as innately subjective as this I think it's OK if we have varying opinions. I think it's OK if @Schneidend likes the Beamdog NPCs best, and I think it's OK if someone prefers the Saerileth mod (though that person would seem to be in a minority) because taste is a subjective and personal experience.
As for me, I haven't tried any mods (unless you count Enhanced Edition) because of the concern of introducing new ways for the game to crash or glitch. Perhaps I should give them a try sometime though.
@LordRumfish truly? Yes, you should as you're missing out a lot without mods. They're less glitchy than you might think. In fact, my last run went 99% smoothly even with tons of mods. The only thing that might hold you back is the trouble of installing them.
I don't see how it's fanboyism to have experienced several NPC mods and find only a handful of them worth their salt. Tashia and Fade are well done, but that one Evil Monk gal that came with a female Wild Mage whose names I cannot recall, were much less so. It does not help that modders won't even bother to use their NPCs to help fill class or race gaps in the vanilla roster. Lots of elves, lots of Fighters, lots of Fighter/Mages, and Monks galore.
Also, I asked you, genuinely, to point me in the direction of some of these Thief NPCs you mentioned. Don't cop out by accusing me of bias just because you cannot back up your claims.
@Illustair Well, that and I'm a little intimidated to try. I don't know which ones are good and it's difficult to get anything approaching an objective answer (a well-reasoned answer is a nice substitute). Is there some place you can see a list of mods and reviews of them?
I don't know how the new thief lady will pan out, but I relish the chance for discovery.
In December, send me a message with a link to your accurate, pre-launch, prediction and I'll give you a badge. I'll even accept non-Hexxat predictions if you made one in a different thread.
So @Coriander, will you accept predictions made in the "[UNOFFICIAL] Ask Hexxat Anything" thread, or am I in enough trouble already?
In all fairness, all you can see in that artwork is some glowing eyes and a thief cloak (to echo Messi: :what does it meeeeean?'.
I'm going with Neutral Evil Shadowdancer. I haven't decided on race yet. I'm fluctuating between Tiefling, Human or something more 'exotic'. If Human I expect her to have kind of 'quirk', like actually being a werepanther.
(Though I secretly want Mortianna to be right, because I need more LE buddies and Shadar-kai would be new and interesting).
Pretty similar style to the PS:T soundtrack. Would be really cool if she brought in some more Planescape influence into BG2. Even though I think BG2 is overall the better game, I think Planescape setting is lot more interesting.
In all fairness, all you can see in that artwork is some glowing eyes and a thief cloak (to echo Messi: :what does it meeeeean?'.
I'm going with Neutral Evil Shadowdancer. I haven't decided on race yet. I'm fluctuating between Tiefling, Human or something more 'exotic'. If Human I expect her to have kind of 'quirk', like actually being a werepanther.
(Though I secretly want Mortianna to be right, because I need more LE buddies and Shadar-kai would be new and interesting).
Maybe I'm over-analyzing things, but there's a lot of room in her hood. What is she concealing? Snakes? Medusae are proficient in bows, and would be excellent assassins with poison and petrifying abilities (the latter of which would explain her eyes).
In all fairness, all you can see in that artwork is some glowing eyes and a thief cloak (to echo Messi: :what does it meeeeean?'.
I'm going with Neutral Evil Shadowdancer. I haven't decided on race yet. I'm fluctuating between Tiefling, Human or something more 'exotic'. If Human I expect her to have kind of 'quirk', like actually being a werepanther.
(Though I secretly want Mortianna to be right, because I need more LE buddies and Shadar-kai would be new and interesting).
Given the burning, infernal glow of her eyes, Tiefling seems more likely, although it doesn't seem to match what we think is her game portrait.
That's why I (half-jokingly) suggested something like werepanther. I tend to associate the whole 'glowing yellow eyes in the darkness' thing with cats (and with were-beasts in general, though perhaps not werecapybaras). It would also make sense if it was something she could 'turn off' or that 'activated' under certain conditions. Or it could just be done for cool effect. Though these could quite easily apply to tieflings, since 'cat-like eyes' are usually a demonesque trait in fantasy at large. The unusual hair colour also points vaguely in that direction.
I am undecided. I kind of don't want her to be a tiefling, though, since we already have one and two tieflings seems a bit much when we only have one gnome, one dwarf and one halting.
Maybe I'm over analyzing things, but there's a lot of room in her hood. What is she concealing? Snakes? Medusae are proficient in bows, and would be excellent assassins with poison and petrifying abilities (the latter of which would explain her eyes).
It's certainly possible - "medusa" was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the hood/eyes combo - but it seems at odds with her portrait. Unless that's not actually her portrait. *shrug*
Maybe I'm over analyzing things, but there's a lot of room in her hood. What is she concealing? Snakes? Medusae are proficient in bows, and would be excellent assassins with poison and petrifying abilities (the latter of which would explain her eyes).
It's certainly possible - "medusa" was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the hood/eyes combo - but it seems at odds with her portrait. Unless that's not actually her portrait. *shrug*
Now that would be funny. They overwrote it just for the screens to troll us all.
I'd call 'em Gorgons. Medusa was just the name of one of three sisters.
*Edit* It has been pointed out that D&D has distinct Medusa and Gorgon creatures, Gorgons being some kind of ironskinned bull with petrification breath. Ovid would tend to disagree, but he's been dead a couple of millennia.
Now that would be funny. They overwrote it just for the screens to troll us all.
On the contrary: they never flat-out said that portrait was Hexxat. The assumption was made because that's the portrait used in the trailer, but it could just as easily have been a pre-generated character.
Then again, there aren't any pre-existing sprites for medusae in BG2 (as far as I know) and I doubt they'd go to the trouble of creating one just for a single NPC.
Well, didn't we get the name 'Hexxat' from said trailer/screens where it was used by said portrait? If so, she uses the human sprite, which to be honest seems fairly fine for a medusa (since they are generally human except the whole snake-hair thing).
There are now a couple of sound files named Hexxat1 and Hexxat2 on the new media section of the website, so we have sort-of confirmation that the name is at the least an official codename.
I'd call 'em Gorgons. Medusa was just the name of one of three sisters.
If this was about Greece mythology, I'd agree with you. However, in (A)D&D Gorgons and Medusae are two completely different kinds of monsters. This was seen rather well in both expansion packs of Neverwinter Nights 1. Just a little subtlety.
I'd call 'em Gorgons. Medusa was just the name of one of three sisters.
In terms of Greek mythology, yes, but D&D and other fantasy fiction has the habit of taking individual figures and making them into races: Medusa, Minotaur, Lamia, etc.
Well, I can confirm that there is one race of creatures that has large yellow eyes with slit pupils and commonly work as thieves, spies, and assassins.
Bad things will come to those responsible. Backstab or be backstabed, "Hexxat"!
Could be worse. She could be a Swashbuckler.
I just looked back at this post, and I must have been sleep posting or drunk or something. It looks like meant swashbuckler, and put shadowdancer. shadowdancers can backstab. O_o At any rate I blame the NSA (hacked my brain) and Obamacare(worst threat to America ever.)and miniature giant space hamsters(no valid explanation) and the sequester(when in doubt blame this.) and the god particle(will prove that god exists, because all I read was the title of the yahoo! Article)
Shadowdancers get a much-reduced backstab, especially in the next patch (there is an override mod file that gives them a slightly better progression). Considering by default Shadowdancers don't even get 4x backstab until level *25*, I thought your statement made sense (simply that a Swashie would be worse in this arena, since they get a whopping zero).
Comments
Whoa there, that's a little confrontational. We all use fallacious arguments sometimes, but for a topic as innately subjective as this I think it's OK if we have varying opinions. I think it's OK if @Schneidend likes the Beamdog NPCs best, and I think it's OK if someone prefers the Saerileth mod (though that person would seem to be in a minority) because taste is a subjective and personal experience.
As for me, I haven't tried any mods (unless you count Enhanced Edition) because of the concern of introducing new ways for the game to crash or glitch. Perhaps I should give them a try sometime though.
I don't see how it's fanboyism to have experienced several NPC mods and find only a handful of them worth their salt. Tashia and Fade are well done, but that one Evil Monk gal that came with a female Wild Mage whose names I cannot recall, were much less so. It does not help that modders won't even bother to use their NPCs to help fill class or race gaps in the vanilla roster. Lots of elves, lots of Fighters, lots of Fighter/Mages, and Monks galore.
Also, I asked you, genuinely, to point me in the direction of some of these Thief NPCs you mentioned. Don't cop out by accusing me of bias just because you cannot back up your claims.
I don't know how the new thief lady will pan out, but I relish the chance for discovery.
I'm sticking by my initial prediction: Lawful Evil (even though it's technically not allowed), Shadar-kai, Shadowdancer.
I'm going with Neutral Evil Shadowdancer. I haven't decided on race yet. I'm fluctuating between Tiefling, Human or something more 'exotic'. If Human I expect her to have kind of 'quirk', like actually being a werepanther.
(Though I secretly want Mortianna to be right, because I need more LE buddies and Shadar-kai would be new and interesting).
Pretty similar style to the PS:T soundtrack. Would be really cool if she brought in some more Planescape influence into BG2. Even though I think BG2 is overall the better game, I think Planescape setting is lot more interesting.
I am undecided. I kind of don't want her to be a tiefling, though, since we already have one and two tieflings seems a bit much when we only have one gnome, one dwarf and one halting.
Definitely going with Shadowdancer, though.
I didn't even know Medusae were a thing.
*Edit* It has been pointed out that D&D has distinct Medusa and Gorgon creatures, Gorgons being some kind of ironskinned bull with petrification breath. Ovid would tend to disagree, but he's been dead a couple of millennia.
Then again, there aren't any pre-existing sprites for medusae in BG2 (as far as I know) and I doubt they'd go to the trouble of creating one just for a single NPC.
Monster manual says their eyes glow red, however.
http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:Doppelganger
XD
At any rate I blame the NSA (hacked my brain) and Obamacare(worst threat to America ever.)and miniature giant space hamsters(no valid explanation) and the sequester(when in doubt blame this.) and the god particle(will prove that god exists, because all I read was the title of the yahoo! Article)
Shadowdancers get a much-reduced backstab, especially in the next patch (there is an override mod file that gives them a slightly better progression). Considering by default Shadowdancers don't even get 4x backstab until level *25*, I thought your statement made sense (simply that a Swashie would be worse in this arena, since they get a whopping zero).
Also, they sound kind of Arabian.