[Request] Animal Empathy
Lunever
Member Posts: 307
Current behaviour:
Animals in the wilderness attack regardless of what characters are in the party.
From the very first time of playing until late TOB with an AI script mod installed that makes animals less confrontational I always wondered why a party of fantasy druids and rangers roaming the wilderness would kill dozens of wolves, various bears, mountain lions etc..
Desired behaviour:
I'd rather have those 2 classes check for some ability - and similar to thieves disarming traps grant them a small amount of XP for successfully calming an animal.
Animals in the wilderness attack regardless of what characters are in the party.
From the very first time of playing until late TOB with an AI script mod installed that makes animals less confrontational I always wondered why a party of fantasy druids and rangers roaming the wilderness would kill dozens of wolves, various bears, mountain lions etc..
Desired behaviour:
I'd rather have those 2 classes check for some ability - and similar to thieves disarming traps grant them a small amount of XP for successfully calming an animal.
Post edited by Lunever on
13
Comments
(I'd guess the number of agrees indicates the priority of a request).
Actually, a while ago, I had imagined that the PC and his party could meet some druid on the first wildernest map, near the bears (they're on the top left of the map, close to the coast), who would explain that the bears would stay peaceful as long as you don't come too close to them.
I have nice memories from the Witch's Wake, an official mod for NWN (sadly stopped to the first chapter), where a ranger could get informations from a deer afair. Animals live in the wild so they can witness the things happening there... I don't mean "speaking" to the animals, something rather like a telepathic connection or so...
However, this does nuke a lot of combat encounters in BG1 into the ground, so possibly there are some exceptions (a rabid dog doesn't differentiate between friends and foes for example)
I've said this before and I'll say it again, if I have an 18/00, 18, 18 fighter, I lose out on content because of unnecessary stats to my build. I don't need CHA or INT, don't even need WIS except for saves.
By early in the game you have better equipment than you can even buy, which makes insignificantly cheaper goods unhelpful. will saves almost never come in handy (atleast not until BG2, even then there's equipment for help).
Implying that because I give myself a redundant advantage, I have no say in the difficulty of the game, is inaccurate at best, even a little uppity.
There is no comparison though, because giving myself extra points in those stats gives me such little advantage, I may as well just crawl in a hole until Sarevok finds me. I'm not prepared to spend hours of my day rolling, if people are that neurotic that's fine, but I'm not.
Animals pose quite a threat early in the game, especially if you try to kill the bears like I do for EXP. If rangers and druids were able to, atleast turn hostiles (wolves, bears) into friendly NPCs, it'd have to be difficult at first level and slowly get easier.
As far as this topic is concerned, the OP was simply concerning calming the animals, as in making them non-hostile (this is what I thought he meant by "calming" anyway), not necessarily charming them to fight for you/aid you. I wouldn't want the animals to actually turn friendly via a passive ability, I think this would be too much. Normal animals (normal wolves, black bears, etc.) starting as neutral to druids and rangers just makes sense to me and in my opinion doesn't make the game easier at all, but actually hinders you overall as you miss out on all the XP for killing them. For me, at least, this is supported strictly for RP purposes, as I do many things to make BG harder than it was originally (via AI enhancement mods, only saving and sleeping at inns, etc). And I'm not saying that to sound uppity or anything, just trying to make it clear as to why I support this idea.
My Idea is to raise the stats of bears and wolves, and modify druids and rangers, so the higher level they get, less is the chance that animals will attack you.
that way party with druid/ranger will have an advantage over a party without one.... after all a bear is a pretty fearsome animal.
I think animals being neutral to rangers or druids is a good plan. Bears are neutral to everybody unless you get close to them, maybe if you have a ranger in your party they should be neutral until attacked. Furthermore, when a pack of wolves attacks you, the presence of a ranger or druid could calm them depending on their level.
I don't know how it'd all work though because they'd have to put in all kinds of roll mechanics for that purpose. I doubt it'll happen. The reason it's not in BG is because Animal Empathy is a 3rd edition skill.
Well there's still no reason they can't change animal's behaviour towards druids or rangers. They don't have to worry about Animal Empathy, just make the game check the party for certain classes and adjust certain monsters accordingly. That couldn't be nearly as hard.
It's aaaaaallll about compromise. :P