Who's the Easter Egg NPC this time?
Gallowglass
Member Posts: 3,356
Maybe there has been speculation about this before, but if so, then I missed it.
Beamdog have a habit of including one more NPC than they announce - Baeloth in BG1ee and Wilson in BG2ee were both unannounced surprises for the players to discover.
So do we think they'll include an unannounced fifth new NPC in SoD? And if so, what do we guess about this possible Easter Egg?
From their post-release comments on the previous occasions, the devs seem to have really enjoyed these surprises, so I reckon they might well do it again. However, rather than another completely new character, I suspect it might be that another of the original BG1 NPCs might after all turn out to be available in SoD, in spite of not yet having been mentioned at all.
Considering that the known list of SoD characters is quite short, I reckon it'd be very welcome to have another option or two, particularly if one or two old favourites could be brought back.
Beamdog have a habit of including one more NPC than they announce - Baeloth in BG1ee and Wilson in BG2ee were both unannounced surprises for the players to discover.
So do we think they'll include an unannounced fifth new NPC in SoD? And if so, what do we guess about this possible Easter Egg?
From their post-release comments on the previous occasions, the devs seem to have really enjoyed these surprises, so I reckon they might well do it again. However, rather than another completely new character, I suspect it might be that another of the original BG1 NPCs might after all turn out to be available in SoD, in spite of not yet having been mentioned at all.
Considering that the known list of SoD characters is quite short, I reckon it'd be very welcome to have another option or two, particularly if one or two old favourites could be brought back.
6
Comments
As for an easter egg NPC, I predict they will make Noober a joinable NPC... or Darryl (no, the other one
What may not yet have been so widely noted is how few might be continuing. The current list of original BG1 NPCs available for SoD (except momentarily at the start until scripted departures kick in) consists of only Jaheira + Khalid, Minsc + Dynaheir, Safana, Edwin, and Viconia, just those 7, plus (of course) Beamdog's own-brand NPCs. There's nothing in any of the pre-release clips, interviews, VO list, wherever, to confirm any beyond those 7 who are prominently visible in the clips. Either those 7 really are all there is (and the other 16 are all leaving us), or Beamdog has actually been pretty careful to avoid any accidental revelation of whatever other(s) are available. If the latter, then that'd now qualify as an Easter Egg because they've gone to all the trouble of keeping it secret.
Even with the addition of the 8 own-brand NPCs, that's still a pretty short list. I've been considering how to construct a balanced party in SoD for various protagonist classes and alignments, and in some cases the current list of known-available characters (coupled with the assumption that those who are paired will remain paired) doesn't leave a lot of sensible choices about who to include. That's what set me wondering about whether there might actually be hidden extras not yet revealed.
Also, just because the NPCs are in the demo clips doesn't mean that those NPCs will be around until the end either. They could be including Safana in the demo clips even though she will get whisked away to Tethyr with Coran mid-way through SoD.
Maybe you will be joined by a strange mage named On-jay Enicus-Iray.
EDIT: Sorry, forgot the standard BG convention for disguised names...
His name will be: Noj Sucireni
Since there are quite a lot of clips and announcements and interviews and tweets and so on out there, it's now a fairly good bet that either there are no other joinable NPCs except the ones we all know about already, or Beamdog have been deliberately concealing the other(s). The latter is certainly possible, since Baeloth and Wilson were hidden surprises in BG1ee and BG2ee. They haven't said when the non-continuing NPCs will leave, true. But their entire absence from any glimpse or mention falls within what I said above - either their absence is because they're indeed absent, or it's because they're being deliberately secretive about them - else by now we'd have seen something.
Note also that they haven't actually said that all of them are available in the same run, they've instead been careful to say only that all can be imported. Thus the "other" characters which aren't part of your imported party will probably not be found elsewhere in SoD. If any of the "others" (except perhaps Skie, since we know she has some sort of role in SoD) turn out to be available other than by being imported, then I'll be surprised (and therefore regard it as an Easter Egg).
We do know (from Chris Avellone's interview) that the story structure includes a prologue chapter (revealing which was itself probably an unauthorised slip) in which we tidy up some loose ends from the campaign against Sarevok, before the main SoD plot starts. It's a good bet, both for story convenience and for resource economy, that all of the characters who are going to leave will be doing so before the end of the prologue. The writers may have been able to get away with insisting for verisimilitude that these departures occur at various points during the prologue, rather than all happening together immediately after importing, but if any of them (again except perhaps Skie) are still around when the main plot gets underway, then again that'll be a surprise. I reckon it'd be an Easter Egg for any hitherto-unrevealed character to have such a large potential role.
However, what you suggest is unlikely, because if you're going to invest the resources into writing a character into 2/3 of the game, then it's a waste not to let him see it through to the end unless there's some major plot reason (as with Yoshimo), and such a late loss would upset players whose party was settled and relying on that character. Well, yes, they might conceivably force-fit the canon party for the start of BG2 by creating some story reason why everyone else compulsorily leaves ... but if so, then that'll have to happen close to the end, because otherwise they'd infuriate all the players for whom the canon party isn't suitable. But apart from the possibility of some such plot device near the end, then of course we can rely on most of the characters in the clips being available throughout. I've pointed out elsewhere that it could be a good explanation for Safana's cameo in BG2 if she is angry at being replaced (perhaps compulsorily) by Imoen eventually returning to the party. But probably quite late in the game (because some of the clips appear to be fairly well advanced in the story), and Coran will probably have left for Tethyr much sooner. I think you mean Sucineri Noj, but I doubt we'll meet him. Since David Warner has done a voice-over, there must be some appearance for him, but I suspect it'll be only a cutscene with his henchmen (with the party absent or unconscious) because he's a stranger when we first see him in BG2.
I'm eagerly awaiting the release to find out what's what =D
Once you do Minsc's personal quest, Boo will be a spawnable critter that attacks for 1 hp of damage and causes blindness.
For BGEE we get Baeloth, tie-ing into the Black Pits sub-game, and giving us an overstated, overpowered drow sorcerer with a few neat lines, but mostly not part of the main script. He is the original easter egg, high on the power scale, although not as high as he first appears. Character stats mean little to a sorcerer, although drow MR is nice, as is the super-versatile spell selection. He also also over-levelled for the party, if you grab him as early as possible.
Nice touch is that with Mark Meer around, you get some top notch voice acting on the easter egg.
For BG2, we take a different direction, and end up with an underpowered attempt at a Kensai. No voice-over needed nor a bear NPC, clearly very flavorful and another race not selectable by the player. The stat-raises with level are interesting, and the total lack of kit is an annoying, but interesting to the determined, restriction. As much as Baeloth was overpowered for BGEE, I feel Wilson was underpowered. Partly, that might be an intentional kick-back from Baeloth, or it could still be the game makers understanding the power-curve of their easter eggs.
In both cases, we are filling a hole not occupied by other NPCs, as a Sorcerer and a Kensai respectively. In both cases, we get a non-playable race with its own benefits/restrictions. The other gaping holes in the class roster were already filled by full-fledged NPCs: monk, wild mage, and half-orc, with a new kit added as a bonus - Blackguard.
For SoD, we know that we also have Jennifer Hale on board if we want to sneak in some star voicing again, so I'm going to call a female easter egg NPC this time (Baeloth is Male, is Wilson ever gender identified? Time for a clear female.)
Of course, with the idea of playing an interesting new class with a non-player race, and a female model, I am pre-empted by M’Khiin Grubdoubler who is anything but an easter egg. Maybe that was her initial plan, but she worked out so well that she was promoted to a fully fleshed out role? That said, we got another interesting non-human thief in BG2EE, so it is not a surprise to see M'Khiin here either.
So time to start designing - female NPC, non-player (interesting) race, and an unused (by NPCs) kit. I am calling a power level somewhere between Wilson and Baeloth. Luckily, SoD is in the sweet-spot of levels where pretty much every class plays well. Possible interesting kits might be Dragon Disciple, to fill the Sorcerous hole left by Baeloth, without as much spell-spam, or Shadow Dancer as an interesting thief kit that rewards a little effort learning to master it, and is clearly a BeamDog enhancement of the game. However, I am going with plan C, after Evil and Good, it is time for a Neutral easter egg, so let's have a druid kit. Druids are on an exotic enough power curve with their crazy xp table, and have some delightfully odd kits - I'm going to call the Avenger in this case. (Also, Kobold Dragon Disciple was done in NWN, no need to repeat.) Also, after a bear and a drow, I'm calling out a shorty for the role, a gnome-like or halfling-like race, or why not go all the way? I'm calling a pixie Avenger druid, voice by Jennifer Hale.
And that is why you get when painting the role by numbers - filling in patterns to produce the 'obvious' answer. Naturally, BeamDog will do something entirely unexpected, or else our egg is not a surprise (which is most of the point!) But that's what I will measure them against, what can they come up with to beat Jennifer Hale's pixie Avenger?
[Edited post-script] Of course, there are no pixie models in the game at the moment, so a dryad may be a reasonable alternative.
I can say with certainty that she was never planned as an easter egg character, which is probably more on-point for the thread. Yeah, but then I remembered there are people in the world who've met me and would probably be willing to talk to the media about it, the treacherous swine. After some deliberation I concluded I'd be better off just continuing to manipulate world events from the shadows.
I was thinking if some NPC will be avaiable as treacherous Joshimo. Perhaps Bodhi... She's one of the interesting characters which could appear manipulating the SoD plot within the party as puppet master.
People keep suggesting, in various threads, that we'll somehow meet various BG2 characters in SoD, but I'd have thought it should be obvious that we can't be meeting anyone who is clearly a stranger when first met in BG2.
Female, Dragonborn (heritage of Gnome or Halfling), Dragon Disciple, Neutral Good.
I think that covers all the bases: Gender, New Race, Class unused by existing NPC and can fit into the suggested power curve =D
(I've always been a fan of Chromie in that game that shall not be named, even though I really enjoy playing it every now and then).
Vala of the Silver Blades!