Your favorite NPC for personality alone? + NPC mods discussion
Quartz
Member Posts: 3,853
Not a power-gaming discussion.
Which Baldur's Gate 1 NPC is your favorite for their personality, character, et cetera? You can list out, say, three or even five if you want. Explain yourself and your reasoning if you'd like!
[ This is for research purposes, to be real. As the BG1 NPCs are rather shallow (not flat, but shallow), I am finding it rather difficult to write inter party dialogue for my NPC mod without breaking the character of existing NPCs, which is the last thing I wish to do. I will likely be private messaging people about the characters that they like, in the assumption that they are familiar with the characters they like. I have no preference discussing such things with people who have played the BG1 NPC Mod and those who haven't. ]
Which Baldur's Gate 1 NPC is your favorite for their personality, character, et cetera? You can list out, say, three or even five if you want. Explain yourself and your reasoning if you'd like!
[ This is for research purposes, to be real. As the BG1 NPCs are rather shallow (not flat, but shallow), I am finding it rather difficult to write inter party dialogue for my NPC mod without breaking the character of existing NPCs, which is the last thing I wish to do. I will likely be private messaging people about the characters that they like, in the assumption that they are familiar with the characters they like. I have no preference discussing such things with people who have played the BG1 NPC Mod and those who haven't. ]
Post edited by Quartz on
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Comments
Kivan - Basically Clint Eastwood with a bow.
Viconia - Probably my favorite persona in the game - a charming, mysterious, and even somewhat seductive veneer, but with flashes of something sinister underneath (I hate how BG2 basically turned her into just a nasty, loud-mouth b*tch).
Shar-Teel - The man-hating ultra-feminist.
Dynaheir - I can't exactly explain why I like her - something about her arrogance and dominering personality I suppose (ironically, the very reasons that most people dislike her).
Although I do play using certain components of the BG Project (i.e: relocating NPCs, certain romances), I don't like the main component that adds banters to all of the NPCs, because I prefer that many of them remain mysterious and allow you to form your own interpretations of them.
I love tons of the other NPCs, but Eldoth stands apart as a special kind of sleaze.
I love that Viconia is in a really dire place. Yes, she's evil. Yes, she's a Drow. But she isn't actually guilty of anything which I feel is a very important qualifier to be summarily executed. Then in the second game she's romanceable and redeemable, I love taking her with a human paladin. (+20 Double Entendre Points)
Alora has this adorable bubbly personality and she's fun to have around and her banters play off of Viconia.
Alora - her cheerfulness often lifts my mood
Minsc: Come on. It's Minsc. Do I really have to explain?
Mazzy: Her unfailing nobility and politeness is kind of inspiring, honestly.
Lots of spoilers ahead for first-time players--just FYI.
If I didn't have any knowledge of BG2, I'd say the following NPCs are my favorites:
Xzar
When I first played original BG, I thought Xzar and Monty were some sort of side-show circus/carnival joke. He's an partially-insane, clownlike, CE human necromancer with a psychopathic, diminutive sidekick. However, after a few playthroughs, I realized that there's a much deeper character in Xzar. The Zhentarim obviously trust him enough to put in him charge of their mission, so he could have a very interesting backstory. What events led up to the unraveling of his sanity? Being a necromancer, maybe his research as an apprentice led him to uncover some sort of forbidden or lost knowledge that twisted his mind. His high Wisdom is the only thing that saved him from going completely mad (which is one of the reasons why necromancers require a high Wisdom score). I think a lot could be done with his biography that leads up to meeting the PC right out of Candlekeep. The fact that Xzar and Monty cannot be perma-deathed (outside of their fight with Khalid and Jaheira) seems to indicate that the developers intended them to have a special significance in the game.
Shar-Teel
Being Angelo Dosan's daughter, and the fact that she's a bloodthirsty misandrist, she obviously has an interesting, untold backstory. I know the NPC Project mod fills out some of those details, but I wasn't very satisfied with its "Valeria-from-Conan-the-Barbarian" characterization of her. A lot could be done with her biography, especially how she ended up in the wilderness right next to a basilisk habitat.
Eldoth
Like @st_live418 , I think Eldoth is probably the most distasteful NPC in the game, but the fact that he's so slimy is what makes him so interesting as a character. His bio provides a few details of his history of using and manipulating people, and the PC happens upon him while he's concocting his latest scheme, so there's lots of room to further develop his personality and interactions with the PC and party members. I still wonder why the developers gave him the minimum INT and DEX for a bard.
Viconia
Obviously, BG2 fleshed out her biography and personality considerably, which IMO was very well done. I thought her portrayal in BG2, after having played BG1, was pretty consistent, although I'd argue that she seemed more evil in BG1 than BG2. I wish some of her classic random dialogues from BG1 were in BG2, such as when she tells Xan or Tiax, "IN the Underdark, YOU would be fodder for the Kuo-toa." I also think there's lots of room in BG1 to develop dialogue that highlights her new-found devotion to Shar in light of her past as a priestess of Lolth.
Looking back at what I just wrote, I realize that all of these NPC are evil-aligned. I seem to find the non-EE evil-aligned NPCs the most interesting.
On second place comes Ravel Puzzlewell. Closely followed by Nordom Whistleklik.
But if we're stricktly speaking about the Baldur's Gate franchise here, then my vote for the NPC with my favourite personality traits goes to Narcillicus Harwilliger Neen.
For clarification, I am making a NPC mod … the character is going to have a few discussions with the existing NPCs, thus what I said.
I personally am definitely in the Xzar, Kivan, Xan boat.
Keldorn: it's good to have a battle hardened old wise man by your side.
Jan: I like his stories.
But if I'm asked which character is the closest to what I think is my own personality, I'd say ... Haer'Dalis.
Haer'Dalis has a view on life that could be described as, "If the world is destined to one day end, why not enjoy it while you can?"
As a lover of flight and freedom Haer'Dalis hates slavery and being enslaved with an unholy passion.
So, a bard, a poet, a vagabond, constantly wandering from one place (in his case, one plane) to another in search of fun, adventure, chaos, and entropy...
I guess I'm still a child at heart.
Jaheira is awesome, but if you need reference for that, I would look to Baldur's Gate 2, and then remember that she was probably even more hard-line and less self-reflective about her views in BG1 because she hadn't faced the hardship of losing her husband.
That said, all the BG1 NPCs are pretty much silent, like an empty canvass, without the BG1NPC mod and/or what you learn about them in BG2.
But focusing on BG1 here and taking the BG1NPC mod content into consideration, my favourite companion is probably Yeslick and his interaction with Imoen. I know some people find Imoen to be annoying, immature, playful etc... but that is how I think of her at the start of BG1. She is a sheltered (in some respects) teenage girl who hasn't undergone the life threatening and traumatizing events about to unfold. So Yeslick being a "grandpa" figure and generally being grim (he has experienced a lot of crap already), determined and wise (he is the oldest in the party by quite a margin) seemed to fit very well.
Also, @Jarrakul mentioned Mazzy , @toolarg mentioned Keldorn and Jan here:)
Shar-Teel, for example, is very much the "man-hating she-beast", but then you find out her father is Angelo and you wonder if she might actually have a reason to think the way she does, but you never find that out. Xzar and Montaron seem to hate each other almost as much as they hate Harpers, but if you take Xzar's "I never loved you!" at face value (which, admittedly, it's Xzar) then there's something more to that dynamic. Edwin comes off as pure cliche - pompous, blustering, full of himself - but the encounter with the Red Wizards in the eastern forest shows you how low in the food chain he really is.
Also, I've always had ambivalent feelings about Imoen: mechanically, she's the flattest character in the game simply because she was implemented last and has the fewest opportunities to really express herself (this is where the value of BG1NPC can't be overstated). At the same time, I feel like she could've been the hero of her own story if not for CHARNAME; and, in fact, if you were going to canonize "Baldur's Gate" as a linear narrative, she would've made a much better protagonist than Abdel Adrian...
Branwen: Warrior cleric who is in admiration of her God. Embraces Violence, but still level headed with a good redemption plot woven in.
Coran: mostly because he is one of he most fleshed out characters already in the original with a couple of quest, but he is definately a swashbuckling adventurer. He is Garrick after a few misadventure years.
(Sidenote: @bengoshi , why follow suit with people who were too lazy to read the first post? :P )
I guess another problem is regarding the BG1 NPC mod. Some people are ardently in favor of its use at all times, while others go without because it interprets a character in a way they do not like, and others still like both with and without. Point being: I want to craft my mod such that I include a few interactions between my character and the other NPCs -- and I want to do it such that if someone downloads my mod without the BG1 NPC project installed, it is not glaring. On the other hand, I want to do it such that if someone has the BG1 NPC project installed, my character doesn't seem like the quiet one.
So I'm looking for some input on this front. What does the happy medium look like? What would people like? Should I just go along with the BG1 NPC project, assuming most people who will download my NPC mod will have that installed as well? (I must admit I don't like the idea of leaving "vanilla" players in the dark.)
(Sidenote: this thread http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/33414/thoughts-on-npc-project-mod is veryyyyy interesting, thank you @SharGuidesMyHand )
He's suffered so much, but he really takes it in stride. He warns against senseless violence, refuses to directly attack Rieltar (even though that one man personally betrayed him), likely because it isn't the wise thing to do. He never complains, wines, moans, or publicly feels sorry for himself. He is just there, helping his friends and comrades, and offering sage advice (and some mining songs) when needed.
A must for any good-aligned party!
Personally I think that the canon party should be:
Imoen (you are forced to meet her)
Jaheira and Khalid (Gorion, his note, and Elminster all tell you to go meet them!)
Xan (you find him in the Nashkel mines, and his plot is about uncovering the iron throne)
Yeslick (you find him in the cloakwood mines, and he has more than enough reason to take down the iron throne)
So, any hints on the class of the NPC you're making?
Yes, I am definitely considering the two-version approach. This would allow me the most artistic freedom, I suppose, while still having a good result that doesn't rub people the wrong way. Filling in a few holes. There isn't a Good-aligned bard. Two bard kits are not represented.
Ahem. On-topic:
I really love Khalid and Jaheira in BG1. Jaheira's got that no-nonsense attitude and the whole champion of nature thing. She's a very confident and experienced character--often to a fault, as she can be very condescending and arrogant at times too. But I like that about her; I like seeing a woman character who isn't 100 percent perfect or a fragile daffodil.
And everyone makes fun of Khalid because of his low morale and nervous stammers, but I think he's actually one of the nicest and bravest of all the NPCs. Despite his aversion to fighting, he still charges into battle to protect his wife and friends. He wasn't forced into the adventuring life like Charname--he chose that path against all odds in order to do some good in the world.
Put them together, and you've got a pretty badass married couple. ^_^