Relocate NPCs that are only available in later chapters
Kore
Member Posts: 245
Copy pasted from reddit: - http://www.reddit.com/r/FriendsOfBaldursGate/comments/rakr3/request_npc_locations_in_bg1/
Many NPCs; Eldoth, Coran, Fladorn, Skie, Alora, Quale, Tiax, Yeslick etc are not available in BG1 during prime party development and building time, i.e. early game.
Eg: I would love to be able to build my party around Yeslick, but I feel as though I have to take Branwen or Viconia instead since doing the first half of the game without a healer is a little rough.
Eg: It would be much more ideal to take Coran or any other thief earlier in the game so that you can tailor their abilities to suit your parties needs.
Various mods fix this already but it needed mentioning.
The discussion in the subreddit is a little off topic, so I won't copy paste that, but feel free to take a gander or post it in a different thread.
Many NPCs; Eldoth, Coran, Fladorn, Skie, Alora, Quale, Tiax, Yeslick etc are not available in BG1 during prime party development and building time, i.e. early game.
Eg: I would love to be able to build my party around Yeslick, but I feel as though I have to take Branwen or Viconia instead since doing the first half of the game without a healer is a little rough.
Eg: It would be much more ideal to take Coran or any other thief earlier in the game so that you can tailor their abilities to suit your parties needs.
Various mods fix this already but it needed mentioning.
The discussion in the subreddit is a little off topic, so I won't copy paste that, but feel free to take a gander or post it in a different thread.
8
Comments
Some of them could be found earlier without it being too far from the actual BGI but it's another story for a NPC like Yeslick. He joins you after you helped him clean his mess in the dwarf mines, why would we meet Yeslick earlier in the game? It would be a drastic change in the story.
But it's true that being limited to the initial build of some NPCs is quite frustrating because you can't have a more polyvalent party like a multiplayer game with 6 customized characters.
I much prefer the BG2 method of distributing NPCs. A few a scattered about, but there are loads that require you to go on an adventure like Mazzy or Valygar to find.
It would break the personal stories a bit for characters like Yeslick and Skie to have them available earlier, but Skie could quite easily be in a hunting lodge or townhouse elsewhere for her safety if her father didn't think her safe in the Gate or just for a holiday and Yeslick could easily be held in a different Iron throne location or even as a slave mining advisor in nashkel mines. I don't think that it's inconceivable to have them in more quickly reachable locations.
But I am always little sad about the poor choice for elves / dwarfs / halflings NPCs...
It's great to have characters scattered around, and some them requiring you to embark on a quest before they join you - but I'd like to get my party done before I'm halfway through the game, so that I have enough time left to develop them and fully enjoy them.
Also, I don't like my party members to exhibit significant differences in character level and overall prowess / effectiveness / usefulness, but I realize that may be just me.
I wouldn't mind seeing that happen, as I'm very willing to run a game with Alora or Tiax in the party (both? Why not!) but I'm not willing to drop partymembers that I've had for 2/3 of the game, whom I've probably started personal quests with, to get them.
Eldoth: It has always seemed weird to me that a bard like Eldoth would be hanging out in cloakwood when he's on his way to Baldur's gate to capture his lover. I wouldn't mind to see him being relocated. Maybe in a tavern where a bard ought to be instead of the dangerous forest next to a big bear. Maybe the tavern in nashkel? Not the one with the crazy bitch cleric but the one southward with Volo in it. Although I wonder if that doesn't make too many NPC's too close to each other (Minsc Edwin and him) Maybe some other spot but I definitely see him hanging out in a town and not in the jungle.
Ski: @Kore made a nice suggestion to have Ski out of the city maybe in a house of Duke Entar out in the woods protected by many guards and servants. You could then take Ski out to a tavern in Beregost for the ransom money. As it is Ski is the most useless NPC in the game but if you could get her on level one she would be on par with Imoen.
Coran: I don't see him moving out of Cloakwood 1 because he's already strong enough when you get him (too strong actually) and because he actually fits nicely on that bridge in that forest. What do you all think?
Faldorn: I would say the same thing as for Coran (Minus the too strong part she's way too weak.)
Alora: @Drugar made a nice suggestion to have her be in Gullykin I think she would fit perfectly there. Also I find Gullykin to be way too barren, it needs some more stuff. Obviously her script would need to be rewritten for it to make sense however. I agree with @AndreaColombo that there is no point recruiting Alora that late in the game since Imoen is pretty much maxed out as a thief by the time you can recruit Alora. If you could get her on level one on the other hand she could be Imi's equal (More thief points but less health points than Imoen).
Quayle: I agree with @sarevok57 to say that the oldest NPC should be recruited at higher levels otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense. For that reason I say Quayle should stay in Baldur's Gate but he needs a better wisdom score to make him a useful character. As it is he's a terrible Cleric... a terrible mage too actually when compared with Edwin. Also I think that there should be at least one NPC to stay in Baldur's Gate.
Tiax: He could be relocated pretty much anywhere. The fact that he can summon a Ghast would make him VERY useful at the beginning of the game and that would be a good thing because as it is he is not useful at all which is side because I love Tiax.
Yeslick: Just like sarevok57 said and just like I said of Quayle, Yeslick is old and needs to be got at an higher level otherwise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Some of you won't agree but I think he's perfect right where he is. He's part of the mine chapter and I think his personality and the way he speaks and everything fits perfectly as an ex. slave so I couldn't really see him anywhere else. I agree that it sucks to not be able to have him at the beginning since he's a really cool character but still there's a choice of two clerics and one druid right from the beginning so it's not so bad. I suppose he could be relocated though but I just don't see where. One of the new zones maybe? Any ideas?
Very good topic @Kore
The readme is in the spoiler:
BG1 NPCs at Beginning
A mod for Baldur's Gate Trilogy-WeiDU, by Anomaly
Introduction
Baldur's Gate has many NPCs available for recruit (as many as 25), but some of them are very far from the roads or can only join the group really late without real reasons, and because of that they are rarely used ; players already got their well-rounded party when they meet them.
BG1 NPCs at Beginning is a mod for Baldur's Gate Trilogy designed to move many NPCs that are far away from the main road to Nashkel to allow them to join the party at the early stage of the game, except of course NPCs that are prisonners.
The 11 moved NPCs are : Quayle, Kivan, Viconia, Ajantis, Faldorn, Alora, Tiax, Eldoth, Safana, Coran, Shar-Teel.
The mod also takes care of altering the joining dialogue if the original dialogue cannot fit with its new location or the knowledge of the PC at that stage of the game. It also takes care of the timed quests, making sure they are still doable by increasing the allowed delay or pausing the timer until PC seems really on the road to do the quest.
NPCs locations
Here are the new locations for the moved NPCs :
Quayle is on Crossroads, between Friendly Arm Inn and Beregost, next to the obelisk, wondering what direction he should follow.
Kivan is on the same area, but more to the east, thinking about an ogre trophy.
Viconia is at the Friendly Arm Inn, south to its walls and east of the Ring hide. Of course she is still followed.
Ajantis is on the road at the Friendly Arm Inn, at the south west, and he is waiting for you.
Faldorn is on the woods at the north west at the Friendly Arm Inn, looking toward Cloakwood.
Alora is in the highest floor of the Friendly Arm Inn, stealing, of course.
Tiax is in Beregost, near the town crier, the perfect place for the next world dominator.
Eldoth is in the Red Sheaf in Beregost, trying to recruit someone to rescue Skie, and also to taste the local wine.
Safana is in the Jovial Juggler in Beregost, looking for (or to) men in the tavern.
Coran is at the exit of the Song of Morning Temple in Beregost. He has just be given a quest about Wyvern to hunt.
Shar-Teel is on the road just south of Beregost, looking for rumble with a male.
This mod is sloppy and I don't like it.
Quayle - can continue on Baldur's Gate Brigde, but does he need to be on the inacessible side? Just put him a little more down on the bridge and problem solved, but put him in carnival would be a lot more consistent.
Alora - I like the Gullykin idea for alora, you can find her on early chapters there, or in chapter 6 (if i'm not mistaken) on the original place on baldur's gate. (same for any suggestion here).
Tiax - I never made a playtrough with him, but find a crazy servant of cyric on the doorstep of the flaming fist... that's a lot strange. However, i dunno where to put him. But if ppl don't flame me for a little joke, he could be on the farm north of baldur's gate preaching to the zombies there the will of cyric and boasting himself as everyone there agrees with him with a "huhhhhh" (after all he's a stupid megalomaniac EVIL PRIEST cyric follower, what means he can control undead) some fun lines about that would be a LOT FUN
Ex: "... Tiax: aahhh more faithfull followers come to learn the will of the might cyric, they probally heard that the might Tiax was spreading his word on these lands and come for the lore, don't you agree Brian?", "...Zombie: huhhhhhh".
Skie - If i'm not wrong the caravan that Kagain had under his protection was carrying her brother or relative, if they fix the quest we can maybe find the boy and someone of the family would appear on kagain office in beregost to take the brat, someone of the family like Skie (the same relocation suggestion i made for Alora). After that they could stay on Beregost until chapter 6, when they shoud go back to Baldur's Gate if the main char don't recruit her (what can only be done by have Eldoth on the party)
There's one NPC that should be relocated to preserve game consistence, and he's Eldoth (Nashkel Tavern would be nice, but a beregost tavern could develop some consistency if my suggestion for skie come to be used).
Yeslick and Faldorn must stay where they are to preserve the consistency of main history.
The reason I suggested Eldoth to be in Nashkel's tavern is because there's already one bard in Beregost. If there's a new town in one of the new zones I say that's where Eldoth should be hanging out in a tavern. Firewine bridge could work too instead of that bard who tells stories.
So when I get to Baldur's Gate I'm not looking for new party members as the game speeds towards the inevitable showdown with Sarevok. The finish line is in sight, why would you pick up a new guy for the last few feet? In order to consider using them for anything other than an emergency replacement, I'd need the BG city guys earlier: Quayle, Alora, Tiax, Skie.
Do you guys do things much differently? Maybe rush to BG first? You've still got to go through several main quest areas to get there that are going to be somewhat difficult if you try and get to them without branching off on some sidequests.
With mods people are free to ignore the way developers wanted you to play but in the game itself asking this is ripping a piece of BG own soul away.
edit: I did say "a piece of" but ok we are not that off
I mention Quayle because he's an obvious case where moving him wouldn't have much of an effect. Tiax is another example.
Other NPCs don't really have a reason to be where they are. Eldoth being in Cloakwood doesn't really make sense, a Bard alone in the forest when he already has plans for stuff to do in Baldur's Gate?
Moving some NPCs would require some rewriting to be done (Alora and Skie for example), but it wouldn't be something that would rip the soul out of BG's story.
We always take for granted a party of 6 characters because that's the maximum the game engine allows and the number we're used to play. However, it is not mandatory to play the game with 6 characters. You can either solo it, or play with any number of recruitable NPCs.
Let's assume you're soloing. You get to Baldur's Gate and suddenly find yourself in need of a thief for something. You could go find Imoen wherever you left her, OR you could simply recruit Alora instead. Just an example.
In this case, Alora would be there mostly for convenience, and certainly not for plot related reasons. If the same can apply to all characters that can only be recruited later in the game, my epiphany probably makes sense. Or does it?
Monks can detect traps but not disarm (and for me it's a code fail, cos the game use pickpocket button as a base command to all thieve related actions, detect traps foresee the ability to disarm them, but with no comand to do this you can't disarm the trap). Priests also can detect traps by spell, but the game engine don't allow us to trigger the trap from afar, jump/avoid it or even use a summoned creature to trigger it.
Wait until baldur's gate city becomes avaliable to recruit alora is impracticable.
The questions above explained also are valid to difficults in make a solo playtrough.