Help me theory-craft this character!
Heindrich
Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
I asked this question, or something like it, on the Chinese forum... but there's no one active in there at the moment so I'll throw it out to everybody!
What class(s) would best represent the popular Wuxia character, Xiaolongnü (literally: Little Dragon Girl).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolongnü
Obviously Wuxia and Western fantasy are not quite the same, so some imagination and interpretation is going to be needed.
In summary:
She is a skilled martial artist (which in Wuxia, means some advanced techniques look essentially like magic) who wields a longsword, wears no armour, though she uses long strands from her robes almost like whips or magical binds to strike/disarm/trap enemies. She has gloves that are impenetrable and allows her to grab enemy weapons by the sharp end without fear of injury.
She plays 'guqin', an ancient musical instrument, and can use the music to control a swarm of magical bees to attack her enemies at will. She uses darts (needles) tipped poison from the bees and also has a good knowledge of antidotes to a range of poisons.
My current ideas:
1) Dragon Disciple was the first obvious thought. But that's primarily just playing on her name. She has no association with dragons or exhibit skills like breathing fire. I am tempted to make her a half-elf, because although she is technically human (there are no elves/dwarves in that Wuxia setting), she is portrayed in an almost ageless manner.
2) Druid: the way she uses her robes can kinda be replicated by Entangle, and of course the bees are ideal for Insect Plague, in addition she can heal and counter poisons, which is kinda reflective of her original fictional skills. However, druids cannot use longswords or darts, which is a bit of a shame.
3) Blade/Bard: to play on her guqin skills, and allow her to wield swords, throw darts etc... downside of course is no druid spells.
Edit: A video demonstration of her typical fighting style. Comes to think of it, she isn't depicted using swords very often...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kROucA3a-E
This is the opening scene where the character makes her appearance in a popular TV series based on "Return of the Condor Heroes", and it depicts her arrival at the Daoist Temple, to find that her elder mentor and companion of the Tomb Sect is dying due to wounds sustained whilst defending a boy who had run away due to bullying. After 'Granny Sun' dies, she demands that the priest who (accidentally) fatally wounded the elderly woman to commit suicide to atone for his crime. When he refuses she attacks him in the heart of the Daoist temple.
What class(s) would best represent the popular Wuxia character, Xiaolongnü (literally: Little Dragon Girl).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolongnü
Obviously Wuxia and Western fantasy are not quite the same, so some imagination and interpretation is going to be needed.
In summary:
She is a skilled martial artist (which in Wuxia, means some advanced techniques look essentially like magic) who wields a longsword, wears no armour, though she uses long strands from her robes almost like whips or magical binds to strike/disarm/trap enemies. She has gloves that are impenetrable and allows her to grab enemy weapons by the sharp end without fear of injury.
She plays 'guqin', an ancient musical instrument, and can use the music to control a swarm of magical bees to attack her enemies at will. She uses darts (needles) tipped poison from the bees and also has a good knowledge of antidotes to a range of poisons.
My current ideas:
1) Dragon Disciple was the first obvious thought. But that's primarily just playing on her name. She has no association with dragons or exhibit skills like breathing fire. I am tempted to make her a half-elf, because although she is technically human (there are no elves/dwarves in that Wuxia setting), she is portrayed in an almost ageless manner.
2) Druid: the way she uses her robes can kinda be replicated by Entangle, and of course the bees are ideal for Insect Plague, in addition she can heal and counter poisons, which is kinda reflective of her original fictional skills. However, druids cannot use longswords or darts, which is a bit of a shame.
3) Blade/Bard: to play on her guqin skills, and allow her to wield swords, throw darts etc... downside of course is no druid spells.
Edit: A video demonstration of her typical fighting style. Comes to think of it, she isn't depicted using swords very often...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kROucA3a-EThis is the opening scene where the character makes her appearance in a popular TV series based on "Return of the Condor Heroes", and it depicts her arrival at the Daoist Temple, to find that her elder mentor and companion of the Tomb Sect is dying due to wounds sustained whilst defending a boy who had run away due to bullying. After 'Granny Sun' dies, she demands that the priest who (accidentally) fatally wounded the elderly woman to commit suicide to atone for his crime. When he refuses she attacks him in the heart of the Daoist temple.
Post edited by Heindrich on
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Comments
Basically, for the robes part, robe of vecna on any arcane casting fighter would work. Protection from Magic Weapons for the immunity part, and Use Any Item for the poisoned throwing daggers. That means your either doing an Elf F/M/T or blade for the agelessness part.
I don't think her magic is quite on the level of an FMT so I think the Blade fits better, but a Fighter/Mage/Assassin with Keeper could be the best combination.
Then again, a Berserker Druid could probably work and gives you a reason to have 18 CHA roleplaying wise. You would have a hell of a time rolling a high enough roll to have 18-19 Dex, 18 CHA, and probably at least 16 Con (ageless) as well as enough INT or WIS for casting though... (probably 18). Also to be true to character I'd think she would need at least 15 strength unbuffed. Iron skins works well though to simulate occaisional weapon immunity.
The druid can use a Scimtar which is pretty much a chinese single edged sword anyway, and I bet you can find some canon fight where she picked one up to use at least once.
I still say F/M/Assassin specialized in longsword and darts though, maybe wakizashi too because a few of those resemble more asian longswords.
lol... I'm sure she's lovely
Thanks for your advice thus far. I should've clarified that my primary intention is to use her as part of a BP 1 and 2 party. I may use her for a core game playthrough one day, but not any time soon.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/29032/black-pits-questions#latest
So that probably changes some calculations, as 3 classes will probably take too long to level up in a full party,
Hmmm... I'm afriad she really doesn't fit an assassin's persona very well. Yes she uses poisoned weapons, and she does start off as a fairly 'cold' person. But well... for her start, she's wearing all white...
Oh yeah and the other reason why I thought of druids... which is currently my preferred option, is that she also spent most of her early life in seclusion in her sect's cave-complex with only one companion.
As depicted in a popular TV serial:
I really don't think blackguard works though so assassin would work the best for poison darts...
Wow I didn't know that u knew something of the lore.
To be honest, I've only watched the TV series, and haven't read the books. But as far as I am aware, the Tomb Sect is not considered a 'heretical/evil' sect, though the use of poison in some of their techniques is normally thought of as dishonourable.
It's hard to say because it's also a tiny sect, with only 3 notable characters (that I know of). Xiaolongnu herself, Granny Sun (who died to defend a boy she met only recently) and Li Mochou, who certainly is evil, but then she got expelled from the sect for some transgression.
Actually I am not sure about Xiaolongnu's alignment, I didn't ask here cos I didn't think many people knew much about her in the English forum.
Based on what I know, she would fall somewhere within Neutral => Chaotic and Good => Neutral.
She cannot be Lawful because she breaks one of the biggest taboos in Chinese tradition by having a romantic relationship with her pupil. She also shows hostility to the 'establishment' and even attacks the Daoist Monastery (Daoist Priests are kinda like the Paladins of the Wuxia world) to avenge Granny Sun. She neglects her duty to her country (except in a few specific interventions, driven by personal reasons rather than national ones) and doesn't actively participate in resistance against Mongol invasion. On the other hand, Chaotic might be a bit harsh since she clearly abides by a code of honour and keeps promises as much as possible. In fact she only accepts Yang Guo initially to satisfy Granny Sun's last dying wish.
She exhibits some altruism (I remember a scene where she fed the poor, who thought she was a goddess sent by Buddha), clearly a capacity to love, and a desire to confront evils that she comes across. But she is not a 'do-gooder crusader' like Yang Guo or Guo Jing, and does not wander around looking for people to help. Also, as I said, unlike Guo Jing and Yang Guo, she shows no interest in the political strife of the period, and resisting the Mongol invasion. I also remember that she initially did not want to help Yang Guo at all, because the Tomb Sect does not accept male disciples, and she also initially tried to kill the Daoist Priest who accidentally killed Granny Sun, because (to paraphrase) "a life for a life, that is the eternal law, either you kill yourself, or I shall do it for you." And did not care whether the killing was intentional or accidental.
As a MC? I guess that has to be done with EE Keeper? I can't see a legal option to multiclass with a Kensai.
Edit: I just tried to do this in EEkeeper. I don't think I can do it... I can't see Kensai/Druid as an availabe option from the dropdown menu...
Yea... that's what I did... created a MC Fighter/Druid, and then went to EEkeeper and added Kensai to the Kit option.
It doesn't seem to work, not only does it not show up in character screen, I just tested in Winthrop's, and she cannot use swords, but can wear armour. Are there any steps that I missed?
I guess it's not a huge issue... I am slightly tempted to just make her a simple druid. As u can see in the video I just uploaded, she doesn't actually use swords all that often, and her abilities, if they were implemented in a D&D setting, would probably be as a spellcaster.
Kensai/Druid seemed like a good idea, but I don't know how to implement it. And I've just thought of Cleric/Mage... which would allow her to wear robes, and I can EEkeeper in Insect-related spells as Innate abilites... given the balance of my party, I could do with a Cleric anyway.
If I was doing it though I think I might do a neutral monk but with mastery in long swords and poison weapon to replace quivering palm. I think maybe also a minor heal or something because I think I remember that.
You'd have to keeper every other level up though.
Also as an hla I'd put in energy blades.
You'll never get it just right with a legal class but you could EEKeeper a fighter/mage/assassin, cut off the spells above level 4, and give her insect plague as a special ability.
Or like a Chinese Baldesinger (F/M P&P kit) :P.
RIght now I was tempted to start a BG:EE solo run with a PC named Kvothe (Bard, obviously :P) with lots of edited stuff (like a Summon The Wind spell (with random replies of course
EDIT: and you can make a whip by giving it 2,5 APR and 1d4 piercing damage, long range
Ah... yes, Near Infinity, we meet again... lol
I need to learn how to use it eventually, cos I plan to either create Celestial Fury equivalent as a longsword, or edit Celestial Fury to be a longsword.
However, I had not planned on resorting to Near Infinity so soon for this BP playthrough, but I guess learning how to use it would be handy. If I could create an item that has 1 charge of Insect Plague, that'd be ideal (though OP for BP 1) for the magic bees. Her robes can be AC7 with charges for Entangle, the gloves... not sure...
Is this what people use to create new classes/kits? If so, I could create a custom kit for Otori Takeo as well, rather than having to manually EEkeeper in his innate abilities.
Do u have a Near Infinity for dummies guide somewhere? :P
Well, about kits, I want to create one, but with the last patch and how the hell can I add strings I fall Imprisioned, if I find a way I'll tell you, still in the hole by now.
I'll attach you an edited Celestial Fury as a Long Sword, it will replace the current one in the game (if the description/name if wrong let me know, I am using BG2 vanilla values for everything), just drop it in the override folder (it should be where the chitin.key is), I only changed the proficiency to Long Sword, it will surely look like a Katana and say it is from the Katanas category in its description (I can make a WeiDU for it if you want those things to show up correctly).
Adding spells to items is not easy, you can see how it is done in Celestial Fury, it has two different spells.
Feel free to send me PMs/name drop me/whatever.
Druids CAN use darts and there are Asp's Nest in the game which are poison darts.
For the longsword, you can always "fub it" a bit and just use scimitars instead. Same damage dealt.
First, create a character with the kit you wish to multiclass for reference.
And save.
Then create the base multiclass character, this will be edited into a kitted one.
Open both files in EEKeeper.
Both files open.
Change the "kit" field.
Change the innate spells.
Copy the effects and you're done.
Save the new kitted multiclass, reload and you're good.
When you level up, it should function normally.
No offense intendended
Anyway, she sounds (and looks) a bit like a monk - monks can also use bladed weapons and darts...
You might also want to try out an avenger perhaps (to emulate little armor). Can you dual out of avenger to fighter for instance?
Also, your description sounds like typical chaotic good alignment for me. She follows her own moral code, with little regard for what society regards as proper behavior (I think most chaotic good characters would heed someone's dying wish - especially if it was someone important to them).
EDIT: It's also very easy to use EE Keeper to change her avatar to a mage - it won't affect her character class, and she'll appear on your game screen to be wearing white robes even if she puts on a suit of ankegh plate mail.
None taken :P Chinese shows tend to have much lower production value, so less fancy effects :P
I've decided against the monk because the party in which I plan to use her is already pretty weak, and has no divine casters at all.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/29032/black-pits-questions
@BelgarathMTH
The reason I didn't want to have a normal Fighter/Mage is because then I'd feel strongly incentivised to wear armour, which she never did.
Thanks for the tip about EEkeepering the avatar, now I don't need to worry about her as a mage to keep the 'look' that I want!
Hey man, thanks for that guide!
I've managed to more or less achieve what you suggested. Her character sheet now shows as Kensai and Druid, and she's got a -2 AC bonus, presumably from Kensai kit.
There is only one problem though... her Kai ability. I added it in for the innate abilities, but it doesn't show up in the game. I think it's because it doesn't show up in 'Memorization' like for the Kensai. I am not sure how to add 'Innate' into Memorization... I can't seem to be able to copy and paste.