Tiax is front of the Flaming Fist compound. Shar-Teel is where she is because she's out to challenge passing male adventurers to a duel (whether it's necessary to be in that particular wilderness is questionable, but dueling to the death generally is not accepted by "civilized" people. Further, I would think bloodthirsty CE personalities would feel safer away from places where the Flaming Fist roam, as they probably have bad reputations).
EDIT: Oh yeah @Tresset. What level necromancer are you? Maybe I'll recruit you into my next play-through...
I think the late-coming NPC's are for those who are more disciplined than I and don't reload to undue chunked NPC's that died...
It's not so much discipline as it is wanting a thief with useful skills... Except for Quayle, all late game NPCs are thieves - Skie and Alora pure class, and Tiax' cleric side is nothing to write home about. Thief skills are the one thing you can't easily fix - 100 in pickpocket is 100 in pickpocket. You can't just buy some scrolls and memorize the spells you want, or grab the weapon to match the prof. If you want a decent thief, you have to get one early. When it comes to Durlag's, a chunked thief gets you exactly as far as a thief with 100 pickpockets, 10 traps, 15 locks.
If the late game folks were not thieves, it wouldn't be such a problem.
@KidCarnival completely agree. I'd like to see a revised thieving system for BG. Hopefully they at least fix the Hide in Shadows/Move Silently bug (although, they bug is beneficial).
Yeah, and even if the bug wasn't there... Pure thieves can do a lot damage with the skill points they get for one more level. I often play as assassin, so I do need a second thief (unless I go the painful, tedious, BG2 route and depend entirely on Knock and/or Invisiblity), but I need specific skills. It's often a gamble - "will Alora already have silly skills or is it enough to handle it with potions - OH NO don't level up, she'll be higher level and play skillpoint roulette!"
Well i almost forgot of Eldoth in skie plot line, which seems to harder the fix, but then we could simply remove eldoth from cloakwood mines, there's no problem at all in moving eldoth from cloakwood anyway.
So in terms of solution for skie lack of use by being an late NPC (the latest in fact) would be:
1° - replace the boy in the broken caravan at the north of Beregost (whom is the son of Entar Silvershield) by Skie (whom is the daughter of Entar Silvershield).
2° - give her 2 lines of banter, one to be spoken to any passing group and other to be spoken to kagain when doing his quest or to a party that accept kagain's contract (but didn't include him on the party).
3° - make Skie move to Kagain's shop after kagain's quest is done (being him on the party or not).
Obs: Now we already fixed kagain's quest at least, and moved skie to his compound, where she would wait for an escort to be send back home.
Obs2: She should stay in kagain compound until act 6 (when the party is able to enter baldur's gate), if Skie wasn't recruited until this point she would move to the Silvershield estate.
4° - Move or not Eldoth from cloakwood mines. No matter what, after meeting Eldoth and with him in the party we should be able to recruit Skie in Kagain's shop.
Obs: Put some employees inside Kagain's shop if possible for aesthetic purposes.
5° - When the party with Skie inside visit the Area where is located the Silvershield estate, Skie should leave the party for a while, going to her orignial recruiting spot. If the player go there to recruit her again, she should trigger the old banter lines with some new ones to fix any incoherent speech on the banters.
Only then Eldoth periodic ransom should start.
I like Skie (until an limit, her voice is a bit annoying but i like to roleplay her in my party), but atm is pretty boring to play with her knowing that the game will soon end. Besides, is pretty stupid we get a naive girl that doesn't know nothing about the world with an extreme high level in reason of my high level party when we recruit her.
Yeah, her voice is a bit annoying, but it can fit in roleplay easily. It just contradicts her personality a bit that she's SUCH a good thief.
Why Eldoth is in Cloakwood is another really good question. I'd probably put him in the Jovial Juggler or another tavern. Sure, Beregost may be a bit crowded with NPCs if both Eldoth and Skie move there, but it's supposed to be a trade hub. Makes sense to have all sorts of people there. In doubt, you could still move Neera elsewhere. There's no specific reason why she's in Beregost; could as well be in FAI or Nashkel. Though, with her backstory and Edwin in Nashkel, I'd probably go for FAI and have her appear after the first visit (i.e. returning for Landrin's quest) like Dorn triggers later.
Comments
EDIT: Oh yeah @Tresset. What level necromancer are you? Maybe I'll recruit you into my next play-through...
If the late game folks were not thieves, it wouldn't be such a problem.
So in terms of solution for skie lack of use by being an late NPC (the latest in fact) would be:
1° - replace the boy in the broken caravan at the north of Beregost (whom is the son of Entar Silvershield) by Skie (whom is the daughter of Entar Silvershield).
2° - give her 2 lines of banter, one to be spoken to any passing group and other to be spoken to kagain when doing his quest or to a party that accept kagain's contract (but didn't include him on the party).
3° - make Skie move to Kagain's shop after kagain's quest is done (being him on the party or not).
Obs: Now we already fixed kagain's quest at least, and moved skie to his compound, where she would wait for an escort to be send back home.
Obs2: She should stay in kagain compound until act 6 (when the party is able to enter baldur's gate), if Skie wasn't recruited until this point she would move to the Silvershield estate.
4° - Move or not Eldoth from cloakwood mines. No matter what, after meeting Eldoth and with him in the party we should be able to recruit Skie in Kagain's shop.
Obs: Put some employees inside Kagain's shop if possible for aesthetic purposes.
5° - When the party with Skie inside visit the Area where is located the Silvershield estate, Skie should leave the party for a while, going to her orignial recruiting spot. If the player go there to recruit her again, she should trigger the old banter lines with some new ones to fix any incoherent speech on the banters.
Only then Eldoth periodic ransom should start.
I like Skie (until an limit, her voice is a bit annoying but i like to roleplay her in my party), but atm is pretty boring to play with her knowing that the game will soon end. Besides, is pretty stupid we get a naive girl that doesn't know nothing about the world with an extreme high level in reason of my high level party when we recruit her.
Why Eldoth is in Cloakwood is another really good question. I'd probably put him in the Jovial Juggler or another tavern. Sure, Beregost may be a bit crowded with NPCs if both Eldoth and Skie move there, but it's supposed to be a trade hub. Makes sense to have all sorts of people there. In doubt, you could still move Neera elsewhere. There's no specific reason why she's in Beregost; could as well be in FAI or Nashkel. Though, with her backstory and Edwin in Nashkel, I'd probably go for FAI and have her appear after the first visit (i.e. returning for Landrin's quest) like Dorn triggers later.