The tragedy of Hexxat.
Edwin_Odesseiron
Member Posts: 226
I've just finished my evil playthrough of TOB. Very fun, as always. But Hexxat? What the hell? Where to begin?
Did I miss something with her? My priestess of Talos/mage romanced Hexxat. But do you ever actually learn anything about her?
She has... a mother.. That she doesn't want to discuss. And other things... She doesn't want to discuss. Despite the fact she apparently loves you and you went on all these random quests of treasure hunting for her.. Nup. Nothing. I literally know nothing about her. Even her romance sucks, filled with flirty one-liners as opposed to a meaningful, thought/emotion-provoking experience, such as with Viconia. Seriously, that's all it is.
Hexxat: It is quite a hot day.
Charname: I can think of something else hot.
Hexxat: But can you stand the heat?
Charname: Given enough incentive.
Hexxat: My kind does not like extreme heat..
Charname: Yet your heat could melt ice..
Hexxat: How charming. Let us be off, lest we both get too hot....
Seriously. That's ALL the romance is. That's it. Really. I know. Hard to believe. But that's it. Did I mention that's ALL it is?
Now, I wrote that example in about 4 seconds. That's all it took for the devs too, I'm guessing, judging from the quality of the writing. Gone is the Bioware of old, and Hexxat is a shining example of how badly their writing is missed. Oh, and be sure to check out her "info" on the starter screen. "With a wit sharper than any sword." Seriously? THAT passes for wit?
You even fail her final quest if your charisma isn't high enough. That's right.. After all the suffering, all the trials, all the things you share, if you simply don't have the charisma (or say the wrong thing) she will opt suicide. Permanent suicide.
So not only was she essentially duped by Larloch into doing all this crap, she cares not. She abandons you at the height of your quest to die. Riiiiiight.
She couldn't say "Hey, a little busy here, L, come back and see me once I have finished helping charname." After centuries of waiting, I'm sure another few weeks/months wouldn't matter to either of them. Absolutely retarded.
I have gone from a supporter of this NPC to an absolute hater. I will never, ever play her again. I will venture into Dragomir's Tomb simply to slaughter her. Then I will reload and do it again.
What the hell? This is the Bhaalspawn saga! Not the "emotional rollercoaster of a vampire who doesn't want to discuss her past." The story focuses on her FAR too much. As if she's achieving some destiny of her own. Everyone else's sidequests feel like sidequests. Hers feels like a parallel run of your own journey. No, Hexxat, you are not the star, no matter how much the devs wanted you to be. She smacks of "overdone." Tries too hard, achieves too little, misses the mark by a mile.
Which brings me to another point. Vampire thief. Err, yeah. She has no level drain touch. And aside from her selfish nature, she doesn't really seem all that "evil." She actually seems quite compassionate at times, and very understanding. Unlike the obviously evil characters like Korgan who is just soulless and devoid of any compassion whatsoever.
She makes no sense. I don't even understand why the devs would take the much-needed thief NPC and pigeonhole her into such a SPECIFIC character. She should have been some other class if they wanted to make her as they did, vampire and everything. Another thief character should have been made for BG2:EE, one that could fit into any (or any evil) party.
We got three new NPC's in BGE1, a game already saturated in NPC's. And in BG2E, we get one (devs got lazy and just "imported" the three from BGE1, it seems.)
Even her epilogue sucks.
Wow. Bad after horribly bad. By the way, her saving throws suck. She died more times than I can count because she was held, or stunned, or confused. Bad NPC is bad.
Despite all of this, I do feel Hexxat was made for a purpose, and there is a lesson to be learned from all of this: To show us the folly of not selecting Jan Jansen to be your thief. I'm sorry, my irritating little friend. I'm bailing you out of those jail cells immediately.
Lesson learned. Lesson bloody well learned.
Did I miss something with her? My priestess of Talos/mage romanced Hexxat. But do you ever actually learn anything about her?
She has... a mother.. That she doesn't want to discuss. And other things... She doesn't want to discuss. Despite the fact she apparently loves you and you went on all these random quests of treasure hunting for her.. Nup. Nothing. I literally know nothing about her. Even her romance sucks, filled with flirty one-liners as opposed to a meaningful, thought/emotion-provoking experience, such as with Viconia. Seriously, that's all it is.
Hexxat: It is quite a hot day.
Charname: I can think of something else hot.
Hexxat: But can you stand the heat?
Charname: Given enough incentive.
Hexxat: My kind does not like extreme heat..
Charname: Yet your heat could melt ice..
Hexxat: How charming. Let us be off, lest we both get too hot....
Seriously. That's ALL the romance is. That's it. Really. I know. Hard to believe. But that's it. Did I mention that's ALL it is?
Now, I wrote that example in about 4 seconds. That's all it took for the devs too, I'm guessing, judging from the quality of the writing. Gone is the Bioware of old, and Hexxat is a shining example of how badly their writing is missed. Oh, and be sure to check out her "info" on the starter screen. "With a wit sharper than any sword." Seriously? THAT passes for wit?
You even fail her final quest if your charisma isn't high enough. That's right.. After all the suffering, all the trials, all the things you share, if you simply don't have the charisma (or say the wrong thing) she will opt suicide. Permanent suicide.
So not only was she essentially duped by Larloch into doing all this crap, she cares not. She abandons you at the height of your quest to die. Riiiiiight.
She couldn't say "Hey, a little busy here, L, come back and see me once I have finished helping charname." After centuries of waiting, I'm sure another few weeks/months wouldn't matter to either of them. Absolutely retarded.
I have gone from a supporter of this NPC to an absolute hater. I will never, ever play her again. I will venture into Dragomir's Tomb simply to slaughter her. Then I will reload and do it again.
What the hell? This is the Bhaalspawn saga! Not the "emotional rollercoaster of a vampire who doesn't want to discuss her past." The story focuses on her FAR too much. As if she's achieving some destiny of her own. Everyone else's sidequests feel like sidequests. Hers feels like a parallel run of your own journey. No, Hexxat, you are not the star, no matter how much the devs wanted you to be. She smacks of "overdone." Tries too hard, achieves too little, misses the mark by a mile.
Which brings me to another point. Vampire thief. Err, yeah. She has no level drain touch. And aside from her selfish nature, she doesn't really seem all that "evil." She actually seems quite compassionate at times, and very understanding. Unlike the obviously evil characters like Korgan who is just soulless and devoid of any compassion whatsoever.
She makes no sense. I don't even understand why the devs would take the much-needed thief NPC and pigeonhole her into such a SPECIFIC character. She should have been some other class if they wanted to make her as they did, vampire and everything. Another thief character should have been made for BG2:EE, one that could fit into any (or any evil) party.
We got three new NPC's in BGE1, a game already saturated in NPC's. And in BG2E, we get one (devs got lazy and just "imported" the three from BGE1, it seems.)
Even her epilogue sucks.
Wow. Bad after horribly bad. By the way, her saving throws suck. She died more times than I can count because she was held, or stunned, or confused. Bad NPC is bad.
Despite all of this, I do feel Hexxat was made for a purpose, and there is a lesson to be learned from all of this: To show us the folly of not selecting Jan Jansen to be your thief. I'm sorry, my irritating little friend. I'm bailing you out of those jail cells immediately.
Lesson learned. Lesson bloody well learned.
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Comments
I must say I was also disappointed that the only woman of colour in BG2 (aside from Viconia who is from another species) falls into the whole exotic vampire trope. All I could see is Grace Jone's character Katrina from the cheesy horror flick Vamp. I honestly wish she was just a human thief from Chult who has recently joined the shadow thieves, maybe one that worships Eshowdow (Chultan god of shadows) as apposed to Ubtao. That alone is enough to make her interesting. Either she's from the exotic locale of Chult or that she is a vampire, but both at the same time is overcompensating. Her character just feels borderline fanfiction.
But really if you strip back the vampirism, there isn't much to Hexxat. Her character pretty much revolves around the concept of having a token vampire NPC. What grounds her to the game is truly a mystery. And why have a vampire NPC in the first place? There is no way they'd ever be able to compete with the character design of Bodhi.
I just wish we had the option to team up with the church of Lathander to storm Dragomir's Tomb and slay her before she pops out of her coffin.
I just really don't like going to spell hold early but then I hate using yoshimo so I'm not sure what I'd do if I don't use her, I guess I go for imoen early. The problem with that is that irenicus with SCS etc is really hard if you don't have some levels, at least improved haste and ruby ray/warding whip...
not to mention the evil/dead lesbian trope thing. She manages to fulfill both.
I'm romancing her at the moment and just really wishing I could romance viconia as a lady.
What really struck the killing blow to the entire character story arc was the final tomb and the apocalyptic trainwreck of badly scripted events there. In comes some unrelated and clished NPC, delivers cheesy dialogue, eats some 300 damage and just pops away in her plot armor. She reappers, this time gets greater whirlwind attacked by 2 level 25 warriors with +5 weapons for at least 430 damage per round, and she not only plops away AGAIN with her script immunity, no she also manages to magically steal the cloak from the back of a level 32 thief while getting the double +5-stick-massage...
The third time - just for the heck of it - I actually took a pocket calc and added up the damage she eats before *AGAIN* zipping away: 334 points.
Boy, is THAT pathetic. :-)
Badly written, badly scripted. utterly pointless annoyance and total immersion-killer.
my dislike of her introduction aside I fell out with her pretty quickly she just completely failed to engage me or make me like her enough not to just want her to die for what she does. Also The fact that so many characters just accept her in in the party bugs me no end particularly the druids.
plus I just feel like shes such a stretch as a character shes exotic in pretty much every way and I just find it realy hard to accept her as a legitimate character.
Despite some issues with Neera, such as her using "Valley girl speech" (Pretty sure she's the only character in Faerun who says "chill out") at least she has some interesting content, a unique class and some good history (that she actually tells you!)
The only cool thing about her is being the token vampire and token lesbian character. Yet even this is ruined when bodhi doesn't even respond to her vampirism! wtf!
Hexxat's final quest: Willingly dies.
If Hexxat was a mod NPC, she'd be shunned to the deepest crevices of the modding world. Hidden away. Locked away. Forgotten in a tomb, as she should be. She'd be ridiculed and mocked mercilessly. The creators would see themselves forever spat upon by the rest of the modding community and would likely create nothing ever again for sheer shame of Hexxat.
But because she is official content, people are defending - Wait.. No. They're not. Finally. You know an NPC is truly horrible when no one likes her and notices the writing/character development simply sucks. And when the other half are calling for Clara over Hexxat.
Seriously though, she is fanfiction gone horribly wrong. What idiots sat in a room together and thought this would be acceptable game content?
Not even simply talking from a gaming point of view, but a consumer one. We, the people paid good money for *this*?
Devs ought to be ashamed of themselves.
NPCs should really be there to complement Charname on his mission. Anything more sees them trying too hard.
You've pretty much got two ends of the spectrum, the BG1 NPCs whose storyline is largely confined to their biography and the BG2:EE NPCs who have elaborate quests with voiced dialog. The BG2 NPCs are somewhere in the middle. Going too far to the BG1 end of things doesn't risk much since you can fill in the blanks via the player's imagination. However going to the BG2:EE end of things risks having NPCs that overshadow folk like Jaheira or Edwin who are absolute icons of the series. The elaborate nature of the Jaheira romance should have been treated as the ceiling for the new NPCs, overstepping that just invites all sort of problems.
They were just too ambitious with Hexxat. It seemed like they tried to match the content of Rasaad, Neera and Dorn when they should have focused on matching the smaller level of detail that the BG2 NPCs had. When you fill in too much of the gaps for the player, you end up creating a rather linear NPC.
She could have been a simple human thief that got lured into the tomb of Dragomir, but instead activated a trap with effects of a 9th level Temporal Stasis spell. This would have put her a state of suspended animation where she wouldn't be able to move or age for as long as the spell was active. So when the player defeats Dragomir they end up finding Hexxat cursed. Upon freeing her, she would join you completely unaware of the century or so that has since past. She would be an anachronism of a NPC. Her motivation would simply be to find a way of going home, be it the island of Chult or somehow look for a way back in time. She'd join up with you because she wouldn't know how to navigate the time she currently finds herself in.
She wouldn't have to teleport around Faerun tomb raiding or be in the service of a master. Instead she would be just like any other BG2 vanilla NPC. Her extra content could have been the implementation of Chultan traders or refugees, maybe a map of Chultan immigrants in a swamp setting with your resident witch doctor. Of course this would have be available without her being forced in your party. If she needed a quest, it could be to trace her decedents, to find what became of her family but that would only amount to some lines of dialog.
The thing I liked about Haer'Dalis is that he has an initial quest about being rescued, opening a portal to another dimension and freeing some thralls. But after that he dropped back in line with the group without doing anything more. Not to mention you didn't need him to do his quests, you could completely shun him but still get the jist of what he had to offer.
The best exercise in creating a NPC is to write a fleshed out biography that doesn't rely on mysterious origins and then analyse it for any fanfiction tropes or Mary Sue tendencies. There was no point in having a vampire NPC when there is that Valen NPC mod. When you start going all exotic with classes and races in lieu of backstory that stand on its' own, that's when you know you need to take a step back.
As over the top as Hexxat is, she may have been salvaged by some good writing, which wasn't present. Devs seemed to think that just her being a vampire and the initial surprise of how you recruit her would be enough. No. All characters need a cool story, regardless of how cool they are.
A vampire NPC is ridiculous. A vampire NPC with such a crappy backstory is even worse. And to top it off, she works for Larloch, one of the most powerful beings in the Forgotten Realms. And that same overly powerful being cannot restore her humanity (despite the fact his specialty is undeath related things) - But charname can find a way when it's one of the romanced NPC's turned by Bodhi. Come on. It's just too much. I literally groaned when it was revealed that L was Larloch and shook my head. I felt embarassed for them.
Absolute fanfiction that could have been written by a 14 year old girl.
- Vampire NPC.
- From Chult.
- Works for Larloch.
Who approved this? As a mod, you could say "oh well, it was one guy, he had no one to tell him how retarded this idea was." But I am stunned how a TEAM of people approved this nonsense.
It's like they tried to throw in everything possible into it, in a lame attempt to outdo the existing NPC's. But the Minscs, Jaheiras, Edwins, Imoens.. All stalwart icons of the series, can never be overshadowed.
Even the promotional stuff features the EE NPC's (albeit with Minsc.) It is like they tried to take over this game and put their own stamp on it - which would be fine, if it wasn't trying so damn hard to take away the history of the game by over-indulging in the new NPC content.
And if this wasn't bad enough, then even go out of their way to spit on the old NPC's which we know and love. A laugh out loud moment for me was when Hexxat threatened Korgan, (to suck his blood and whatnot) and he actually cringed in fear. Like, what? That isn't Korgan at all!! They neutered him in an attempt to make Hexxat oh-so-scary, edgy, and even more badass.
Power Word: Disgusting.
As for the romance portion... making her a lesbian was definitely a mistake, but not for the same reasons every one else states. I don't mind that the choice is more "limited." That she's a lesbian makes her more interesting, at least on paper. In practice... I'm assuming all the writers for this game are male. As a man, I can safely say that I don't really understand women. And I certainly don't understand women who want nothing to do with either my or anyone's else's cock. What the hell do most men know about a lesbian relationship outside of what they see in porn? No wonder the romance dialogue is filled with little more than one liners. Yes, that definitely came off as out of character. Especially since Korgan can easily chunk her into little undead pieces.
I understand that if they had less content some people would have felt ripped off and that they did not get what they pay for, so I understand the desire of the developers to make them have "more" than the other NPCs, especially with contractual limitations. So therefore they had to make EVERY character romanceable and EVERY character have big sideplots, including big Throne of Bhaal sidequests that nobody else got. As understandable as it is it doesn't really change the fact that they tend to "take over the game" in many ways. After trying an initial run with them, I decided for this reason to take only one of the new NPCs at a time in a playthrough.
I understand why they did it yet I still don't like the end result all that much. I understand that this is a *Personal Preference* (that quite a few other seem to share, though far from the majority), so I realize that you can't please everyone, and the decision they made was probably to the liking of most BG fans. However, if I like the character (like I do Rasaad and Neera) I can live with them sticking out a little, as long as they don't make clowns of existing NPCs and they have decent stories that mesh well with the Bhaalspawn's quests without being too tangential.
Yet Hexxat DOES make clowns of existing NPCs, and often their reactions do no tmake sense. @Edwin_Odesseiron already mentioned the Korgan issue (the first banter I had with Hexxat in my party and I felt the same way). It was a pathetic attempt to make a new character seem badass (reminds me of Sylvester Stallone's line in Tango and Cash where he says that "Rambo is a pussy"). Oh man, if even the unshakeable Korgan (who was completely unperturbed by Sarevok of all characters) is scared then she must be like, really really really extra super-duper-cool, huh?
I also don't like how heroic characters (even Minsc with favored enemy:Vampire!!!!) did nothing after Hexxat ate Clara. This is just a horrible omission, along with the fact that, from what I hear, Bodhi is completely oblivious to Hexxat's vampirism.
It seems like while putting all that effort into all the extra content (which helped to make her seem out of place among the existing NPCs) they left some big holes in the main content through lack of interjections/reactions that made her stick out even *more*.
When considering whether the devs were 'trying too hard' to make Hexxat 'exotic', you might consider taking a good, close look at some of the original NPCs.
-Avariel who's had her wings cut off
-Red Wizard of Thay
-TIEFLING bard
-Drow cleric (who, by the way, doesn't suffer any penalties of any kind in bright daylight)
-Halfling fighter with granted paladin-like powers from Arvoreen
I realize that these are old friends and don't seem that exotic anymore, but they certainly aren't your run-of-the-mill inhabitants of Amn or the Sword Coast.
Let's face it, the developers of the EEs were in a no-win scenario. If they didn't do anything extremely different, people would complain that it's just the same-old. If they did something extremely different, people complain that they're trying too hard. Could just as well have named it 'Baldur's Gate 3: Return to the Kobayashi Maru'. There's no way they were going to make everybody happy.
Everybody has their own opinion and take on the games. The good thing about the approach that was taken is that you can ignore any of the stuff you don't like. Hate Hexxat? Don't recruit her. Like Neera? Bring her along. The core story hasn't changed.
Well, that, and the whole "exotic" thing was said rather sarcastically. As it has already been mentioned, the idea of a homosexual vampire isn't exactly breaking new ground. But that has already been gone over by other posters.
Fair point for the most part. In particular a Drow Cleric of NOT Lloth who lives on the surface (a great character though... certainly more interesting that Hexxat by a mile). I don't see why an outcast Red Wizard is that exotic though. Keep in mind these are adventurers, so they wouldn't always be locals. A halfling holy warrior I dunno about (I know they are allowed in 3rd edition, Pathfinder and 4th edition). Also don't really know how uncommon tieflings are, but I doubt they'd be running around Amn left and right.
The difference is, I guess, that Avariel and Tieflings are "exotic" because we as an audience hadn't seen much of them. The vampire market is saturated beyond belief, so they may be "exotic" in terms of the game-world, but in terms of the audience (dunno if that is the right word to use for video-games) a vampire is simply run of the mill, if not boring. A vampire "unahppy with their vampirism" is even less interesting. Totally agree. This is part of the reason I'm not "upset" about it, just disappointed (the other part is that its a video game!!!). They did a good job with a great game, I just don't really like how they handled every character (but I didn't like how bioware did either with one or two) True, but unfortunately ALL the new story content seems to be linked with the new NPCs
For example, with should have been able to deny her request to join you at the start of the Wild Forest but later upon reaching the campsite she would have let you in. Instead you are forced to take her along to gain access to the campsite. Within the campsite she should have become the passive quest giver that Nalia becomes if you don't take. So you get to do all her quests revolving around protecting wild mages, just without having to take her along. An evil path would be possible where you side with the Red Wizards and willingly give the wild mages to them.
Same with Rasaad, you should have been able to deny him at Trademeet but later see him pop up at the amphitheatre. There you could choose to let him join or make him stay behind while you go investigate the temple. At the temple the quest would split into either siding with the dark moon, sun soul or the heretic cult. Whoever you side with has repercussions.
With Dorn, you should have been able to ignore him and go straight to the Temple of Helm where one of the guards signs you up to the garrison of the Helmite Camp. If Dorn is in your party, they would rescind the offer. When you reach the campsite you have to fight a series of battles where the undead seemingly come from nowhere. Eventually Dorn shows himself to assassinate the camp's leader. There you have to fight him to the death. You then take his sword back to the Temple of Helm where they purify it.
As for Resurrection Gorge, it would be a region you stumble upon via a Dryad's request. You are tasked to defeat the invisible demon within its' depths but also to heal a mother's heart. By obtaining the three summoning stones, you then use them to bury the druid's body via a portal to the beastlands. Afterwards you destroy the circle.
As for Hexxat's content, you could choose to team up with either the church of Lathander or Talos to investigate the tombs. Eventually you stumble upon Dragomir's tomb where you defeat him and find Hexxat's coffin. Either the Clara sacrifice happens and you get Hexxat, or you can drive a stake (given to you via a Lathander priest) into the coffin freeing Clara from the curse. From there on you can entrust the treasure of the tomb to either Lathander or Talos. Lathander's temple would use it to purify various tombs, while Talos' temple would use it to unleash chaos within the tombs. So you do the same tomb jumping just with different motives
These are just some rough examples, but it could have been done.
So basically you get the same content just with the option of taking the NPCs for their insights and the option to complete the quests in a good, neutral or evil manner. One important thing they forgot was to give the player options and not have the NPC quests go so linear. In this case Anomen or even Viconia and Sarevok should have been the guideline for non-linear NPC development. No matter what dialog option you gave Hexxat, the result was largely the same either she dies or she stays the same. Funnily enough the same with Dorn, either he fights you to the death or he stays the same.
I really don't understand why they didn't do something like this. Surely isolating the content into new areas available on the world map with optional links to the new NPCs would have worked.
I'd have liked to see a corruption path for Rasaad (like Anomen, the opposite of Sarevok/Viconia) where you can make him a Dark Moon Monk! Not really related, just a random idea I thought I'd throw out there.
It's something you could just see coming by knowing human nature, or even the nature of the fans. The developers had a decade of consumer feedback to go from.
Just look at the parts of the series most beloved and the most divisive. ToB is very divisive because it is extremely linear as the player is forced down a specific path with no influence on the story's events. Even the Spellhold questline can be divisive, but luckily you can choose to side with the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi, with the Sahuagin king or rebel, and lastly to choose many different ways of escaping the Underdark. With the new NPCs, it's just going through the motions when it should have been all about nonlinear exploration. The very least they could have done was give us options to complete the new content in different ways.
It's understandable that the developers have an intense affection for the new NPCs but the fans sharing that love was never going to happen. This sort of thing has played itself out so many times that it should surprise nobody.
I mostly agree with Hexxat though. Aside from her personality issues, one thing that bothers me the most is the Larloch bit. I know quite much about him since I did some extensive research with guidebooks, books and some obscure info given by Ed Greenwood himself and I simply don't like him there. It reminded me of Elminster who never should've appeared in person in BG1.
As for the NPC quests: can someone specify for me (because I always had them for their quests) if Keldorn's, Anomen's, Korgan's, Edwin's, Jaheira's, Jan's and Mazzy's quests can be done without them?
Imagine if you couldn't do the Unseeing Eye without Keldorn. Or if you could only do the De'Arnise Keep in Throne of Bhaal and only with Nalia in your party.
I don't know if they HAD to link them due to legal matters but I personally try to find a spot for at least two new NPC's in my party. Mostly because that is why I bought EE and I mean both, new quests and NPC's.
What is funny that apparently no one would bat an eye if those new quests were minor addition but apparently when they are made bigger, suddenly there is a problem. I do realize that everyone would want a bigger quest without strings attached (me included) but still, I don't know if it could've been done.
Hexxat though... didn't play her to ToB but even her SoA quests were...just plain weird. Visiting tombs only, teleporting away through a strange item and her total inability to grow a spine despite me pushing her on and on. Ugh.