Kits for NPCs
VanDerBerg
Member Posts: 217
In my last run or two, I have started playing with the SCS option to assign different classes/kits to NPCs. Sometimes to make my life easier (while still respecting all the restrictions in terms of races and attributes) and sometimes because story and personality wise, some of the default choices don't make sense to me. I have just started SoA after finishing SoD with kensai -> druid, so I plan to make some changes to the NPCs. Primarily
- Minsc to berserker. This is purely because personality-wise I see him as a berserker running mindlessly into the battle. I cannot depict him sneaking around or charming animals, so this kit looks much more natural to me for him than ranger (or any ranger kit)
- Nalia to swashbuckler. Firstly, it doesn't make much sense to me for her to be a mage, considering her upbringing and rebelious nature, together with growing up in De'Arnise keep which is a fighter stronghold. So, some combination of a thief and fighter sounds right for her. Which is precisely what swashie is. Secondly, that's the only way I can see to utilise her, because she is really Imoen v2 and I always have Imoen in the party
- Keldorn to cavalier. This is purely so I force myself to deal with mages, liches and rakshasas in some other way than just using inquisitor dispel magic and then slaughtering them.
Other things I would do is, for example, have Anomen as a paladin (because, after all, he is a squire in the order and taking a good path, which I always do, becomes a full member of the paladin order).
In BG1, I had Kivan as an archer and Ajantis as undead hunter.
So, what other changes to the NPC classes/kits would you do for personality or ease-of-life reasons? And do you find the game loses a bit of a balance if you tweak classes/kits of NPCs?
- Minsc to berserker. This is purely because personality-wise I see him as a berserker running mindlessly into the battle. I cannot depict him sneaking around or charming animals, so this kit looks much more natural to me for him than ranger (or any ranger kit)
- Nalia to swashbuckler. Firstly, it doesn't make much sense to me for her to be a mage, considering her upbringing and rebelious nature, together with growing up in De'Arnise keep which is a fighter stronghold. So, some combination of a thief and fighter sounds right for her. Which is precisely what swashie is. Secondly, that's the only way I can see to utilise her, because she is really Imoen v2 and I always have Imoen in the party
- Keldorn to cavalier. This is purely so I force myself to deal with mages, liches and rakshasas in some other way than just using inquisitor dispel magic and then slaughtering them.
Other things I would do is, for example, have Anomen as a paladin (because, after all, he is a squire in the order and taking a good path, which I always do, becomes a full member of the paladin order).
In BG1, I had Kivan as an archer and Ajantis as undead hunter.
So, what other changes to the NPC classes/kits would you do for personality or ease-of-life reasons? And do you find the game loses a bit of a balance if you tweak classes/kits of NPCs?
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Comments
also ironically i think mage suits nalia well, she is of a noble class and she would have the time and resources to become one, plus in ToB she makes many references on how she is an archmage so im not quite sure swashbuckler fits that all that well, plus when it comes to swashbuckling i think more of a jack sparrow type character as a swashbuckler, safana for instance in my opinion would fit that bill more
i like your anomen idea and it fits well, my only guess as to why the original devs didn't do that is because perhaps they didn't want too many paladin joinable companions ( plus keldorn and anomen both have horrendous DEX, which isn't good for melee combat )
kivan as an archer makes sense and fits him well
kagain is screaming dwarven defender and that is always how i imagine this guy to be
for garrick, i suppose he acts more skald like, since it seems he is really into telling grand tales and what not
even though he is a fighter/thief, assassin fits montaron better RP wise, although i would say making him an assassin would make him weaker, since he cant climb to a high level to really take advantage of the assassin class
faldorn could be an avenger, she seems quite aggressive in saving the forest and what not from civilization
and for the rest, even for the kitless classes, i dont think they really fit into any kit - except for the ones you and i mentioned above - (also for example i can't imagine khalid being a berserker, no evidence that he has a grudge against mages, and i dont think kensai fits because in his portrait he is using a shield )
Curses. I never played with her in ToB so didn't catch this. Now I cannot possibly make her a swashbuckler. The fact that she refers to herself as an archmage in ToB will always loom out there. She will be a specialist mage. Luckily, her stats are good, so she can be a conjurer or illusionist. But that leaves the problem of her being duplicate Imoen. Now, Imoen starts clearly as a thief, with spying on Gorion's papers in Prologue of BG1. Disregarding the SoD part where she trains to be a mage, because the whole SoD should be disregarded anyway, are there any references to her being a mage? She could be a shadowdancer, they are kind of illusionist/thieves.
I actually made him a barbarian in one of the SoD runs, but that made him even more squishy than usual (and, for some reason, he is the squishiest of fighter overall - he dies almost constantly in my runs), what with all cannot-wear-proper-armour stuff. So I thought he could get a pass as a berserker.
As for the others, I could imagine many of the BG1 NPCs as kitted. For example, Yeslick could be a dwarven defender. I generally have trouble imagining dwarves as anything other than fighters. I blame LoTR for that. As for swashbucklers, Coran could have been one. He looks swashbucler-y to me, his avatar has him dual wielding swords. Maybe also Shar Teel (she can dual into a thief, after all), but her avatar has her wearing helmets, so that's a no. Safana is more of a shadowdancer to me. Alora would be a bounty hunter (I think when you meet her, she is on a bounty mission kind of).
Eldoth could be a blade. Skie...Heck, I don't know, Skie is annoying. It would be the best if Skie didn't exist at all.
As pointed out by Sarevok, besides the dual classed ones, pretty much the only NPC I couldn't imagine as kitted is Khalid. None of the kits really fit him at all.
Minsc is berserker in my mind, but can be barbarian as well both fits better than ranger for him.
And - to stick with mage-killing - I could easily see Valygar as a wizard slayer, given that hatred towards mages is his most recognizable trait.
I also think that Dynaheir has somewhat mystical vibe, as a witch rather than a scholar, and she would be fine as a sorcerer. Also, Faldorn should be an avenger, and Shar-Teel - a berserker (given how angry she is all the time).
Agree. I have changed her to Bard in the past and it seems to fit well for me. It's subjective ofc but imagining her being brought up to play music, speak well, read verse etc kinda fits prejudice about nobility. She retains the ability for magic up to max bard level 6, but of course can't be an arch mage. For me it doesn't matter though, I never played ToB. The only thing that doesn't fit great is her referencing how she sneaks out, but you could RP that she used an invisibility spell or potion instead. She's a pretty crappy stealth thief anyways.
- Minsc : Rashemi Berserker (kit from @AionZ Artisan's Corner https://artisans-corner.com/)
- Imoen : Rogue Archer (kit from Artisan's Corner https://artisans-corner.com/) / Mage
- Nalia : Burglar (kit from Song & Silence) / Mage
- Valygar : Dark Hunter (kit from Artisan's Corner https://artisans-corner.com/)
- Kivan : Archer
- Ajantis : Cavalier
- Faldorn : Shapeshifter (her BG1 NPC Project banters show her very fierce, as her portrait)
- Xan : Dragon Disciple (still primary a spellcaster but can use a little more safely his Moonblade in melee)
- Garrick : Troubadour (kit from Artisan's Corner https://artisans-corner.com/)
- Skie in BG2 (from @LavaDelVortel Skie, the cost of a girl's soul mod) : Magekiller (she became one for hunting Irenicus)
- Eldoth : Nightsinger (kit from @AionZ Artisan's Corner https://artisans-corner.com/)
- Alora : Burglar (kit from Song & Silence)
- Safana : Bounty Hunter (she's not the frontline type like a swashbuckler would be, and bounty hunting fits well with her attitude in BG2)
- Shar-Teel : Berserker
- Kagain : Dwarfen Defender (he leads a bodyguard company)
- Yoshimo : dual class Kensai / Thief (he presents himself more like a frontline fighter than an archer when met)
Nalia as a bard is an interesting concept, I will probably try it one day (with the Rogue Rebalancing Mod which allows bards to cast up to 8 level spells).