[v1.61] Drake, a human priest of Tyr NPC for BG:EE and SoD

TheArtisan

Introduction

A rather crude, cynical and sarcastic cleric of Tyr who serves the Order of the Radiant Heart in Amn, sent to investigate the iron crisis. You'll find him drinking in the Burning Wizard inn of Beregost, seeking adventurers for the task of eliminating the mad priest Bassilus. He's a man of many vices and often blasphemous, but is regardless devoted to justice and a strong hatred of all things evil.

Race: Human
Class: Priest of Tyr
Alignment: Neutral Good

Strength: 17
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 10

Mod includes:

– One new party member, voiced by BillyYank

– Plenty of dialogues with the PC throughout BG1 and SoD

– Banters with every joinable NPC

– Small quests in BG1 and SoD

– A romance with a non-evil PC of any race or gender in SoD with 16+ Charisma

– Crossmod content

More details on the mod can be found here.

LavaDelVortel

Can't wait to see the mod released!

SoulF

I really like the idea of good, but-not-so-nice cleric. And the dialog lines and bio seems really interesting and well written also.

Cahir

Nice bio, I wonder if his unorthodox views would get him in conflict with Kelddath Ormlyr. He seems to be a guy who could be turned evil with a bit of effort, but this would be appropriate for BG2EE. Anyway, from the bits of dialogue you have shared I can say the writing will be great and I would be interested to have Drake in my party when the time comes to play EET.

TheArtisan

@Cahir

Becoming evil is very, very unlikely for him. Drake's a bit of a smug jerk with an attitude problem but his reasons for it are largely personal and has little to do with his beliefs. He's also old enough (i.e. older than Anomen and Ajantis, but younger than Keldorn) to have a bit of perspective. Then again, he admits at a few times that he keeps an open mind so, who knows.

LavaDelVortel

@Cahir @Artemius_I - I think we got big portion of "alignment changing NPCs" in the mods, so I guess making this one stay as he is sounds more than fine

Cahir

Yeah, he strikes me a someone with an open mind. That's why I wonder if he's willing to team up with the likes of Dorn, Viconia and maybe later Hexxat. I can definitely see him using Hexxat for the greater good.

And I don't know why, but I keep calling him Dante instead of Drake

TheArtisan

@Cahir

He will work with Dorn, even if he makes it clear he despises him. Viconia, he's surprisingly cordial to. Hexxat... well, I haven't gotten there yet, but it's on the very edge of tolerable.

megamike15

male healers are rare in rpgs so it's nice to have one in bg1. and he kinda reminds me of a male viconia from what little there is but that might just be me.

is he only gonna be bg1 or is sod content on the table as well like with sirene?

TheArtisan

megamike15 said:

male healers are rare in rpgs so it's nice to have one in bg1. and he kinda reminds me of a male viconia from what little there is but that might just be me.

Mmm. I don't really see much of Viconia in him, but maybe you'd need to read more into his dialogue to know for sure.

megamike15 said:

is he only gonna be bg1 or is sod content on the table as well like with sirene?

I am planning on expanding to SoD... but I'll probably make the BG1 content available first.

Mirandel

Could you please finish him ... I don't know... yesterday?

With all seriousness, he sounds very interesting. Hope to get him soon.

LavaDelVortel

@Mirandel Hah! I wish that was possible!

TheArtisan

Patience.

agb1

Looks great! Suggestion: maybe drop the final sentence "he kind of sustains me" post-Bassilus. Sounds a bit off to me, and the previous sentence is enough to make the point.

Oh, and a further suggestion -- there are lots of mod NPCs out there. What would be unique and interesting would be one that doesn't just stick with you forever once they join your party. Bassilus dead? OK - Drake gets new mission from his Order related to the iron crisis investigation ... a side-plot (something related to Zhentarim, perhaps). But instead of the party going along with Drake, he leaves you for a certain period of time and you can find him later, with a bit more experience, and he'll tell you about his adventures and rejoin you. Etc.

And another suggestion - to make his departure seamless, have him announce his intent to leave the next time the party rests at an inn, giving ample warning and opportunity to recover any treasured items from his person. For extra credit, when the party actually enters an inn after that, have him remind the party of his plan.

TheArtisan

@agb1 Your idea, while unique, will not happen for one reason - it goes against the whole reason I made the mod to begin with. I created Drake because the game lacked an early healer that wasn't female. You can get Viconia, Branwen, arguably Jaheira almost from the start of the game, while Yeslick, Quayle and Tiax are only available halfway through the game. Because of that, I can't have an unavoidable situation where your healer straight up walks out on you. It would also mean there's less time to go through with the talks I have already written and screws up the entire pace of the dialogue.

LavaDelVortel

@agb1 - Also even though it would make sense in a story - characters have their own life etc - the problem in a game is that you (and any other player) would be forced to look for a new party member, equip it, change spells, and then change him again and... you would mostly lvl up a character that you don't even want to travel with; a character that is a substitution of the NPC you want to stay with you.

agb1

Having forced breaks where an NPC leaves you means that the content can be written around those breaks, so there is no loss of content from the player's perspective. It's a reason to bring other NPCs into your party that you might otherwise leave behind.

I understand the argument from @Artemius_I but I think my idea could still work if you delayed the side mission to happen later in the story, when you have the option to recruit other male clerics. For example, when the party meets Yeslick or first enters BG city could be a good milestone. Drake could "receive the letter" (only after resting at an inn, or passing through a town - in case the party doesn't rest at inns) telling about his new mission earlier than that, giving plenty of warning that he will have to leave...

And when Drake finally is ready to leave you, he announces that he will leave for now (delay his actual departure by an hour, perhaps, giving time to reclaim any valued items) ... but he hopes to meet again, and he can rest easy knowing that you can rely on OtherCleric to look after you in his absence // (or, if you haven't met any of the other clerics - suggesting that you go to X or Y place where you might find a suitable temporary replacement for him). Etc.

You could even set it up as a rivalry thing where if when he comes back you are running around with Tiax or Quayle (who are fairly annoying personalities), Drake suggests you kick them out and take him along again instead. Not forcing, of course... just a suggestion. On the other hand if you have Yeslick, Drake might get along with him better and just ask to team up again...

In short, I think with a bit of creativity this could be made to work. Just organize the banters etc. to fit around the gap period, and make sure the gap period happens at a certain point in the story.

With all that said, if you've already written content for Drake covering the entire BG1 plot and don't have any places where a gap period could fit, consider it a suggestion for your next NPC mod.

agb1

As for the other points by @LavaDelVortel - with mods there's plenty of extra XP to be had, so I don't see the temporary loss of XP invested into one character as a real problem. Yes, a forced departure does cause some disruption in your party setup, but even if you don't like any of the vanilla NPCs, there are so many other mod NPCs you could recruit to fill the gap, so again I view this as a benefit, not a problem.

LavaDelVortel

You know, some people get attached to some characters... especially when they are romanceable.

agb1

You'd hope so, that's a sign of a good romance. But brief separation doesn't have to end a romance; it brings an additional dimension to the story - how each side deals with it, what happened while they were apart, etc.

TheArtisan

@agb1 I can agree, but honestly BG1's not suitable for a subplot like that. Now, BG2 on the other hand... you might like what I have in mind.

Also, there's like one other male cleric mod I can remember off the top of my head for BG1 and that's Gavin, so, well...

LavaDelVortel

@Artemius_I - I think those characters are sooooooo much different. Huh.
@agb1 - I wouldn't like it. Many people hated the fact that Thane is a love interest in ME2 and is not available in ME3 + what happens with him later. Many people hated the fact that you could romance Kaidan in ME1, then you couldn't in ME2 and then again could in ME3. I got scolded for not letting Yoshimo stay in Yoshimo Romance... I have quite much experience when it comes to in-game romances and I think you can trust me there that more people would dislike it than like it

agb1

You're right, there's just Gavin for mod-added male clerics in BGEE, but who says you can't take a female cleric for a little while? I've already conceded that you could wait until you have access to the male Bioware clerics too, so it's not a case of being forced to take a female cleric.

There are several female mod-added clerics in BG1, you have Finch Bloomwhiffler, Tenya Thermidor and Helarine, Doomguide of Kelemvor. No shortage of options there if you dislike the Bioware NPCs.

There are a couple of old non-EE male cleric NPC mods that maybe someone would like to revive too:

Biddekelorak -- http://www.baldursgatemods.com/forums/index.php?board=93.0
Wikaede - http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=25535.0

Not a lot of content though.

TheArtisan

@agb1 I think it's pretty common for people to dislike shifting party members around or losing them (look how many people are annoyed by weak Spellhold Imoen). BG1 is honestly also too early to develop an attachment where "whoops, gotta go for a while, cya" has any real impact. Like I said, wait for BG2. I do have something in mind for that.

agb1

@LavaDelVortel - I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing now; Artemius has already ruled. But, you could always please both crowds by (A) writing a variation of the story where you go along with the NPC for the sub-plot or (B) letting the player ask the NPC to stay and the sub-plot goes away (e.g. Drake informs his superiors of a major recent plot point and they reassign the other mission to someone else so Drake can continue with the party). And you could also write in the gap period as an optional variation later, if you're going to support both paths. More work for the modder, but more interesting for the player... especially if you make each path have a mutually exclusive consequence.

agb1

Weak Spellhold Imoen is annoying particularly because you're immediately facing challenging encounters with a weak NPC, with no opportunity to go to other areas first and gain a bit more XP, or to swap in a different NPC that you've previously leveled.

If the need to reshuffle the party happens during a rest period, I think it's less disruptive in that sense. I'll cite Syvishtar's Journal as evidence that there are a large number of players (the readers) who enjoy the concept of a game with a lot of party swapping. Granted the readers aren't actually doing the party shuffling, and it's more fun to read about it than to do it.

I look forward to seeing what you have in mind for BG2, and to playing this mod, even without my pet idea.

LavaDelVortel

Perhaps I was wrong about being scolded for Yoshimo as I know there are many who really enjoyed the mod, but also I got some messages like "why won't you let him stay alive" (I suppose that after all those years it's not a spoiler anymore). People just like to start and finish the game with the same characters. Even now you can see posts like "Make White NPC for SoD and BG2" or "Make Verr'Sza available for BG2"... so it would mean MUCH MUCH MUCH more work for a modder to code something that many would skip or dislike... I don't think I know any players who would on purpose let a NPC go away to join him a chapter later....

agb1

I cite myself and Usurper (Syvishtar's player) as evidence that such players exist. We may be few but we are growing in number...

LavaDelVortel

Perhaps. Anyway, while making a sandwich I thought for a while longer and decided that all I want is to hear the story @Artemius_I wants to tell us and no matter how it evolves, I just want to experience it the way he imagined and wrote it...

TheArtisan

Aaah, can we please stop going back and forth on this it's really getting us nowhere. I'm open to all sorts of ideas but I try to implement whatever I think fits in well. I do have ideas for both a temporary companion and a forced break but those are other ideas entirely.

agb1

We now return this thread to its regularly scheduled broadcast.