The ho-bag with Balduran's cloak is non-pickpocketable (one of the few tweaks they made that I was not happy about), all you need to do is charm her and have her walk up to Kristin, then lead Slythe away and initiate the battle. When Kristin casts Cloudkill you get the cloak with no rep loss.
Ummm...I just pick pocketed her fine. What was your pick pocketing?
Laurel the lady paladin - north of the Knoll stronghold she always seemed cool to me and unlike a lot of other paladins you meet she's actually doing something worthwhile
Silke - she has got so much character for such a minor npc plus she's a bard
Endar sai - seems cool to me
BG2
Trademeet tavern bard - she has quite a lot to say and it would be nice to have a proper bard in bg2
Mook - any shadow thief would be cool I just said Mook because of her awesome name the thief that goes to Spell hold with you would be a good one too.
TOB - Illasera the quick she seems cool and under utilised
In honor of @enqenq and his bloody brilliant posts on the "If BG were a game of DnD" thread, I say Kangaxx. Romanceable, of course.
I guess you could say that Charname... really loves the dead.
God I just got smacked on the head for that terrible pun. The truth is whenever I played a rogue or a cleric they always did something like that. Offer to sell off party members to raise funds for the church!
The ho-bag with Balduran's cloak is non-pickpocketable (one of the few tweaks they made that I was not happy about), all you need to do is charm her and have her walk up to Kristin, then lead Slythe away and initiate the battle. When Kristin casts Cloudkill you get the cloak with no rep loss.
Ummm...I just pick pocketed her fine. What was your pick pocketing?
It usually says I am not high enough level. Is the new pickpocket rules consistent with AD&D 2nd edition? If so that is pretty cool. Maybe I just didn't try at a high enough level. I think this started with the last patch
Anishai is a very good one. They put a lot into her character compared to Renal's other lackeys and it never really amounted to much. I'd prefer her as neutral Swashbuckler, Shadowdancer or even F/T though (already have a NE thief)
i've control Qed her more than once. She's not bad as a monk, once I even got her a "custom" portrait (somebody photoshopped a pic of a minor Xena villain I think?) .
Gandolar Luckyfoot, anyone? It'd be nice to have a good halfling besides Alora on the team. (No offense to Alora, of course.)
And what about Meilum? There are plenty of parties that could use the "best swordsman on the Sword Coast." Who knows, maybe by traveling with you he might actually take that title.
I feel like Cabrina might have been an interesting late-stage replacement for Hexxat, especially if the vampire's ToB storyline ends a certain way. She wouldn't even need a quest, but I could see her having some interesting exchanges with the party.
Going back to the originals, I'll second Durlyle/Delainy and Original!Solaufein (the modded version just feels "off" somehow, and that's setting aside the arbitrary alignment/class change and the Over 9000 empowerment) - they always felt like loose ends to me, like the story was building towards giving them a larger role that never materialized.
Ender Sai. Actually I was pretty surprised he wasn't recruitable during my first run - I can't remember who my charname was, but I remember him, that says a lot.
Tamoko. One of my favourite background NPCs, because she added more human feel to the final opponent, confirmed in ToB (and even more in Sarevok's ending).
The Surgeon.
Do I need to say more? I stumbled upon him yesterday by pure accident; unlike Tamoko and Ender Sai somehow I managed to forget him completely and he made quite an impact. I think I'll model my neutral aligned charname for the final BG run after him.
Laurel the lady paladin - north of the Knoll stronghold she always seemed cool to me and unlike a lot of other paladins you meet she's actually doing something worthwhile
Good pick. IIRC, the journal entry for her quest even hints that you'll likely meet her again, but you never do.
I'd also nominate Gerde, that ranger that you meet in the ankheg area.
As for BG2, I always wished that there could've been more development for Ehlastra, the slave woman that you free from Yaga Shura's lair. According to her story, she was a renown warrior from the northern lands (seemingly a barbarian, although EE keeper shows that she is considered a berserker), who came down to join Yaga Shura's army, but was instead chained up and used as a pleasure slave. IIRC, there's even a dialogue option for you to offer to let her in your party, but she will refuse and then leave to return north. I always wished that there could've been a dialogue option for her to accept your offer.
Tamoko, seconded (thirded?). Having her run into Yoshimo after he's already been geased by Irenicus (and thus will be forced to betray her if she joins the party) will be interesting, as well as her interactions with Sarevok in ToB.
On another note; Mellicamp. I can understand Thalantyr not wanting him around, and a high rep party might convince the old mage that he won't cause any problems when he'd travel with them. His process from bumbling apprentice to serious wizard could be interesting.
Ribald from the Adventurer's Mart, he's a Fighter/Mage, that class that the game lacks for NPCs, he's cool and he has a Ring of Regeneration plus all the equipment from his store, probably he'll agree to help you on your journeys and go back to adventuring if you convince him, this Half-Elf has slayed some dragons and cleaned some dungeons, why not?
I must say, I am very partial to having Ribald behind a counter for the duration of BG2. Whatever he could do for me in a party is not as essential to my fun as having the Adventurer's Mart.
Silke from the first game trumps both of the present Bards, and obviously if she were a joinable character she wouldn't also be level 10. Even so, I would definitely have her along on more than one playthrough. Garrick and Eldoth have yet to make the cut. Anishai from BG2 is a cool choice for Thief, or even a Monk as per her character model. I will eternally defend the fact that due to the lack of thieves available, a non-kitted Thief is the best choice for the developers to make (pity it was Hexxat). Anishai certainly is no Swashbuckler, I might add. The guy whose name I can't remember that you can meet immediately east of Xzar and Montaron, whose party fell to a nasty Ogre Mage, seemed like a totally legitimate companion. His story was as developed as most BG1 NPCs, to be frank. That said, I do like those random wandering characters that chat to you and then take off in BG1 that make the Sword Coast feel inhabited, so perhaps it is a slippery slope to try and get this guy into your party... The Halruaan transmuter in the Thief Guild of Baldur's Gate seemed like he could be a late-game Mage, to match the late-game Thieves that spill out of the city and into your party. It would have been a nice option. I can see him being a TN Transmuter, no? Besides, if the original theory behind all the NPCs in BG1 was so that you had replacements for all the fatalities you would accrue playing through the game, it seems there is a shortage of Mages relative to their mortality rate.
Laurel sounds like a good idea to me. Larry the Kobold, as a Bounty Hunter since Kobolds like setting traps. One of Shandalar's daughters, perhaps, though only after resolving the thief guild mission without getting caught. Kirinhale, only joins an evil party and has various succubus powers once or a few times/day. Not sure if she should otherwise work as a fighter or thief.
BG2:
Maybe one of the dryads in the Windspear Hills, and they could have some sort of druid kit. That other Dao Djinn in Khan Zaraa's tent, but he'll only join if you offer him a sizeable bribe after delivering Ihtafeer's head. Fighter/Mageish, probably. Sime, although not the cheesy Cleric/Ranger version that Tortured Souls had (game always bugged out if I tried the Kara-Tur sidequest, so I never got the full measure of things, but that mod just struck me as so munchkiny) Coran, who could have been a second female romance for the game. Surely better than Anomen, and fighter/thieves are powerful.
A bit of an old thread, but I think Reynald de Chatillon in BG2 deserves a special mention. I'm actually surprised no one's made him into a mod yet. He has a decent background to work on - he can start as a good or neutral Fallen Paladin, and you can work your way up to redeeming or corrupting him.
You know who I would actually like to make joinable? One of the Sverfneblin in the Underdark. Like that kid of the shop owner who you save from being trapped in a mirror.
Rock gnomes are kinda cool, and would be fun to see a young adventurer make his way to the surface. It would also make for cool dialogue in the Drow city and I'm sure he would have a fun rivalry with Jan. Plus he could say "you wouldn't hurt a gnome now, would you?" when fighting.
Maybe I'd make him a fighter/illusionist (no fighter/mages exist in the vanilla game) or maybe a shadowdancer or something to make use of the new kit.
Well, I would want the Candlekeep collection that I've started working on now as a mini-mod in production. :-) Though it will merely install the files needed to play a MP game with them.
One day as a future project I might try to get some further practice with mod-making by taking the next step with this, and add the characters I created as joinable NPCs. More on that here.
It would be great to add Ehlastra, Yaga-Shura's sex slave, to the party for Yaga-Shura's takedown. She has some astonishing proficiencies (axe+++++!) and stats. But these NPCs need portraits and paper dolls to make adding them to the party pay off.
He's a dwarven warrior! Who is asking you to enter the tower of his father's comrade to fulfill a family oath. He should have volunteered to go with you, hammer in hand, to clear Durlag's Tower out with steel and honor.
He'd have made a great dwarven defender too. You know he would. Combine him with Yeslick (fighter/cleric) and you've got the perfect front line defense. Make a dwarven fighter/thief or bounty hunter Charname and you can have a perfectly balanced all dwarf party.
Got traps and locks taken care of Got healing taken care of Got tanking taken care of And more beards than any enemy can handle.
Yes, I want this to be a reality. And it'd be hard to do any playthrough except the above.
I think it was the Dark Side of the Swordcoast that makes him joinable, but it comes at the cost of ridiculously overpowered items added to the game plus Bub doesn't have any voice or banter.
Comments
Hendak
Solaufein (Weimer's mod didn't work for me)
Laurel the lady paladin - north of the Knoll stronghold she always seemed cool to me and unlike a lot of other paladins you meet she's actually doing something worthwhile
Silke - she has got so much character for such a minor npc plus she's a bard
Endar sai - seems cool to me
BG2
Trademeet tavern bard - she has quite a lot to say and it would be nice to have a proper bard in bg2
Mook - any shadow thief would be cool I just said Mook because of her awesome name the thief that goes to Spell hold with you would be a good one too.
TOB - Illasera the quick she seems cool and under utilised
God I just got smacked on the head for that terrible pun. The truth is whenever I played a rogue or a cleric they always did something like that. Offer to sell off party members to raise funds for the church!
And what about Meilum? There are plenty of parties that could use the "best swordsman on the Sword Coast." Who knows, maybe by traveling with you he might actually take that title.
Going back to the originals, I'll second Durlyle/Delainy and Original!Solaufein (the modded version just feels "off" somehow, and that's setting aside the arbitrary alignment/class change and the Over 9000 empowerment) - they always felt like loose ends to me, like the story was building towards giving them a larger role that never materialized.
Tamoko. One of my favourite background NPCs, because she added more human feel to the final opponent, confirmed in ToB (and even more in Sarevok's ending).
The Surgeon.
Do I need to say more? I stumbled upon him yesterday by pure accident; unlike Tamoko and Ender Sai somehow I managed to forget him completely and he made quite an impact. I think I'll model my neutral aligned charname for the final BG run after him.
I'd also nominate Gerde, that ranger that you meet in the ankheg area.
As for BG2, I always wished that there could've been more development for Ehlastra, the slave woman that you free from Yaga Shura's lair. According to her story, she was a renown warrior from the northern lands (seemingly a barbarian, although EE keeper shows that she is considered a berserker), who came down to join Yaga Shura's army, but was instead chained up and used as a pleasure slave. IIRC, there's even a dialogue option for you to offer to let her in your party, but she will refuse and then leave to return north. I always wished that there could've been a dialogue option for her to accept your offer.
Having her run into Yoshimo after he's already been geased by Irenicus (and thus will be forced to betray her if she joins the party) will be interesting, as well as her interactions with Sarevok in ToB.
On another note;
Mellicamp.
I can understand Thalantyr not wanting him around, and a high rep party might convince the old mage that he won't cause any problems when he'd travel with them. His process from bumbling apprentice to serious wizard could be interesting.
Silke from the first game trumps both of the present Bards, and obviously if she were a joinable character she wouldn't also be level 10. Even so, I would definitely have her along on more than one playthrough. Garrick and Eldoth have yet to make the cut.
Anishai from BG2 is a cool choice for Thief, or even a Monk as per her character model. I will eternally defend the fact that due to the lack of thieves available, a non-kitted Thief is the best choice for the developers to make (pity it was Hexxat). Anishai certainly is no Swashbuckler, I might add.
The guy whose name I can't remember that you can meet immediately east of Xzar and Montaron, whose party fell to a nasty Ogre Mage, seemed like a totally legitimate companion. His story was as developed as most BG1 NPCs, to be frank. That said, I do like those random wandering characters that chat to you and then take off in BG1 that make the Sword Coast feel inhabited, so perhaps it is a slippery slope to try and get this guy into your party...
The Halruaan transmuter in the Thief Guild of Baldur's Gate seemed like he could be a late-game Mage, to match the late-game Thieves that spill out of the city and into your party. It would have been a nice option. I can see him being a TN Transmuter, no? Besides, if the original theory behind all the NPCs in BG1 was so that you had replacements for all the fatalities you would accrue playing through the game, it seems there is a shortage of Mages relative to their mortality rate.
BG1:
Laurel sounds like a good idea to me.
Larry the Kobold, as a Bounty Hunter since Kobolds like setting traps.
One of Shandalar's daughters, perhaps, though only after resolving the thief guild mission without getting caught.
Kirinhale, only joins an evil party and has various succubus powers once or a few times/day. Not sure if she should otherwise work as a fighter or thief.
BG2:
Maybe one of the dryads in the Windspear Hills, and they could have some sort of druid kit.
That other Dao Djinn in Khan Zaraa's tent, but he'll only join if you offer him a sizeable bribe after delivering Ihtafeer's head. Fighter/Mageish, probably.
Sime, although not the cheesy Cleric/Ranger version that Tortured Souls had (game always bugged out if I tried the Kara-Tur sidequest, so I never got the full measure of things, but that mod just struck me as so munchkiny)
Coran, who could have been a second female romance for the game. Surely better than Anomen, and fighter/thieves are powerful.
Rock gnomes are kinda cool, and would be fun to see a young adventurer make his way to the surface. It would also make for cool dialogue in the Drow city and I'm sure he would have a fun rivalry with Jan. Plus he could say "you wouldn't hurt a gnome now, would you?" when fighting.
Maybe I'd make him a fighter/illusionist (no fighter/mages exist in the vanilla game) or maybe a shadowdancer or something to make use of the new kit.
One day as a future project I might try to get some further practice with mod-making by taking the next step with this, and add the characters I created as joinable NPCs. More on that here.
He's a dwarven warrior! Who is asking you to enter the tower of his father's comrade to fulfill a family oath. He should have volunteered to go with you, hammer in hand, to clear Durlag's Tower out with steel and honor.
He'd have made a great dwarven defender too. You know he would. Combine him with Yeslick (fighter/cleric) and you've got the perfect front line defense. Make a dwarven fighter/thief or bounty hunter Charname and you can have a perfectly balanced all dwarf party.
Got traps and locks taken care of
Got healing taken care of
Got tanking taken care of
And more beards than any enemy can handle.
Yes, I want this to be a reality. And it'd be hard to do any playthrough except the above.
I think it was the Dark Side of the Swordcoast that makes him joinable, but it comes at the cost of ridiculously overpowered items added to the game plus Bub doesn't have any voice or banter.