Caelar NPC mod (Can contain SOD Spoiler)
nysi
Member Posts: 60
Hello all,
I'm currently working on a mod that add the possibility to recruit Caelar into your party in BG2 (SOA).
I'm a beginner in mod conception, but on holiday and get a lot of free time to work on it.
Regarding the mod :
- You can recruit Caelar in the Planar Sphere, on the abyss layer (MAP 0414).
- She a Lawful good Lv15 fighter. I plan to add a quest that could change her to a paladin (Probably a Morninglord of Lathander)
- Reason for her to be in the Abyss :
She was held prisoner by a Devil (Thrix the profane, the devil that propose a bargain at the end of SOD) but for unknown reason, this devil tried to exchange her with a Daemon and sent them to the abyss (It's the reason why you encounter her in the Abyss). A fight occurred and Caelar manage to flee.
I know it could be done better, but as I'm beginner, I prefer to start simple, and if needed to update it later when I'm more confident with weidu.
- As she was a prisoner, she do not held any weapon or item, and is in a bad state when you encounter her.
I would like to let her obtain his shield, sword and armor during a quest. (Not the helm, as the Unofficial item pack add it to the game already).
- The mod assume you let her live and join you during Sod final battle. But I tried to add dialogue option that also imply the contrary.
- So far, she only have two banter with Minsc and one with Imoen at the moment. I'm working on adding more and interject too.
- She's only available in SOA at the moment, but I will add an option to recruit her in TOB.
- She is fully voiced with her original voiceset. Remark : I'm almost sure the dev plan to add her as a DLC one day. There is a lot of unused voice in the game (Reputation happy/unhappy, a sound where she said she will avenge her sister..). If Beamdog release such DLC, I will no longer support this mod and stuck with the official version.
- I may add a french translation later, but no guarantee on it. (As it's my natural language).
I will not provide a download link for the moment (Not until I'm sure the mod is well written enough and that the code won't break the game..), but if some are interested to test it or to have a look at the files they can MP me.
For the moment, it's a very early "beta" version.
If someone has banter/interject idea, please submit them !
Any comment, critics, suggestion are welcome.
I'm currently working on a mod that add the possibility to recruit Caelar into your party in BG2 (SOA).
I'm a beginner in mod conception, but on holiday and get a lot of free time to work on it.
Regarding the mod :
- You can recruit Caelar in the Planar Sphere, on the abyss layer (MAP 0414).
- She a Lawful good Lv15 fighter. I plan to add a quest that could change her to a paladin (Probably a Morninglord of Lathander)
- Reason for her to be in the Abyss :
She was held prisoner by a Devil (Thrix the profane, the devil that propose a bargain at the end of SOD) but for unknown reason, this devil tried to exchange her with a Daemon and sent them to the abyss (It's the reason why you encounter her in the Abyss). A fight occurred and Caelar manage to flee.
I know it could be done better, but as I'm beginner, I prefer to start simple, and if needed to update it later when I'm more confident with weidu.
- As she was a prisoner, she do not held any weapon or item, and is in a bad state when you encounter her.
I would like to let her obtain his shield, sword and armor during a quest. (Not the helm, as the Unofficial item pack add it to the game already).
- The mod assume you let her live and join you during Sod final battle. But I tried to add dialogue option that also imply the contrary.
- So far, she only have two banter with Minsc and one with Imoen at the moment. I'm working on adding more and interject too.
- She's only available in SOA at the moment, but I will add an option to recruit her in TOB.
- She is fully voiced with her original voiceset. Remark : I'm almost sure the dev plan to add her as a DLC one day. There is a lot of unused voice in the game (Reputation happy/unhappy, a sound where she said she will avenge her sister..). If Beamdog release such DLC, I will no longer support this mod and stuck with the official version.
- I may add a french translation later, but no guarantee on it. (As it's my natural language).
I will not provide a download link for the moment (Not until I'm sure the mod is well written enough and that the code won't break the game..), but if some are interested to test it or to have a look at the files they can MP me.
For the moment, it's a very early "beta" version.
If someone has banter/interject idea, please submit them !
Any comment, critics, suggestion are welcome.
7
Comments
There is one thing I'd suggest, though: given the different ways you could've influenced Caelar at the very end of SoD (including turning her into a blackguard), if you want her to stay Lawful Good throughout you're going to need a convincing scenario as to why she might have "turned back" if she sided with Belhifet. It's probably something you can explain through dialogue...
I do not plan to add the blackguard version of Caelar at the moment (But may be later, if EET become a thing, the game could remember your choice and allow the mod to put the right version of Caelar).
The mod otherwise imply she stayed Lawful good and fighted alongside the PC. Otherwise, she should be dead and not appearing.
I've added some dialogue saying that the PC do not believe her to be the real Caelar.
I realize that modding Caelar is difficult as it's not my "NPC" but a property of Beamdog, then to the community. I will try to make everyone satisfied with the result, if possible.
Oh thanks for this info.
In this case, I can create both version of Caelar (Good and Evil) and spawn the right one depending of this variable?
That's a very good news.
I just need to find a correct explanation, about how the evil caelar may have survived.
I like this idea. I will focus on the "good" version of Caelar first. I think the banter need to be completely different for the "evil" version and it's already a lot of work to do the banter for one NPC.
About Caelar class.
I'm not sure about how to handle it. I see two possibilities :
- First, Caelar is a warrior as the Lawfull good NPC in sod.
Then a quest allow her to become a paladin again.
She could help the Temple of Lathander, thus becoming a Morninglord of Lathander
Or she could help the radiant heat, and become a Cavalier being killing some Daemons.
- Second choice, you choose the class/kit at the installation. Either a warrior with some sacred innate ability.. or Cavalier / Morninglord
As the second possibility is the simple one, I tend to it.
One thing you might want to keep in mind is that practically every NPC in BG2 has at least one special ability that's outside their pure class - Mazzy's a Fighter who can heal and haste, Sarevok has his Deathbringer Assault, Jaheira has Harper's Call, etc. You'll want to give Caelar a similar trait, maybe some form of aasimar racial bonus?
Aasimar should also have a slight elemental resistance (5%)
I will stick to the class choice during the installation. Thanks for the advice.
It occurs to me, though, that there might be a happy medium between these points: what if you recruit Caelar as a fallen paladin? That way she functions as a Fighter initially, with Shining Bolt as her NPC bonus, but you can give her a redemption quest without having to swap .CRE files (since the game already has ways of triggering and undoing "fallen" status). Complete the quest, Caelar gets redeemed and becomes a true paladin. Fail, she stays fallen. A bit similar to Anomen's quest structure, perhaps, but it would certainly take less work to accomplish...
Because I could change her from fighter to a hidden fighter kit matching the paladin style. Of course, she won't have the turn undead..
For example :
Shining Lady of the Aster
Pros :
- May use Lay on Hand like a Paladin of the same level once per day
- May use Detect evil and Protection from evil like a Paladin of the same level
- May use Paladin weapon and item
- May achieve Grand Mastery (5 slots) in any weapon class
- May achieve specialization (two slots) in any fighting style and allocate three slots in Two-Weapon-Style
- Gain the Shining Bolt ability at level 8, and another use at level 16 and 24
SHINING BOLT :
Channel a bolt of divine energy to the target. Instant cast.
Creature stuck suffer varying damage, depending on their plane of origin :
Creature type Damage
Material plane 6d6
Elemental 3d4
Undead 8d6
Demon 10d6
Cons :
- Cannot Turn Undead
- Cannot cast spell
- Restricted to Aasimar
Using the fallen Paladin kit is also a good idea. It would allow me to turn her into a normal paladin.
I'm having a break for some days, and will get back to the work on the mod next week.
Also, I really love the idea of having a mod of her. She was probably my favorite new character in SOD.
Caelar Class :
- She will be recruited as a fallen Cavalier, with Shining bolt and cure serious wound as innate ability (Like in SOD).
- Her personal quest may allow you to return her to paladinhood, and get her the Cavalier kit. I think this kit suit her the most, with remove fear to inspire the other and bonus against daemons.
Caelar Quest :
- After spending some time with the group, she will talk to the PC and explain she need to redempt for her act during the siege of Dragonspear.
- She will ask you to bring her to the temple of Lathander.
- Once there, she will talk with High Mornmaster Arval. He will said redemption is difficult, and doubt Caelar will be able to do so. He will explain he heard rumors about an old temple of Amaunator plagued by undead. Cleaning it may restore Caelar before Lathander.
- You will need to clean the Amaunator temple (including Thaxx'syllia) and return to Mornmaster Arval, Caelar will be restored to Cavalier upon completion. She will not keep the Cure serious wound, it will be replaced by Lay on Hand.
Dark Path :
I've scrapped the idea for the moment.
I would have liked to allow her to become evil and a Blackguard during the quest. But there is some issues, first, there is already Dorn available as a blackguard. While it may prove interesting to see their interaction, the class is redundant. Seconds, and most important to me : Caelar sounds do not match a Blackguard at all. She speals of honor, light and righteousness in almost every sounds.
Caelar level :
Giving her regular NPC Scaling may seem strange no? Newly created party in SOA start at lv7. A lv8 Caelar feel less epic for the Shining Lady.
The fallen paladin kit may balance her level, so I could probably do something like this
PC level Caelar level
8-9 10
10-11 12
12-13 14
14-15 15
15+ 15+
I could also add a new boss in the temple after it had been cleaned by the PC, which would only spawn for the quest.
It may be a problem with the ranger quest though, as Umar can also appear there.
Also a pack of demons or a dragon sounds a bit cheesy. I know Caelar is a rather epic character, but a pack of deamons? Less taking charname's spotlight, more analysis of the character. I believe she cannot be redeemed before she settles her stuff with the one she wanted to free from Avernus.
I will reconsider the quest, doing something with Aunt Argent first make sense. But we do not know a lot about him.
From what we saw in SOD, I guess he would not forgive Caelar but rather show her his disappointment, though also being glad to see her well.
But as Grim state, it may be simpler for me to start with a simple item on Thaxll'ssillyia. (And thay may not prove incompatible with Lava Foundling mod)
I tend to overwhelm myself with too much ideas for my projects and never finish them. Keeping it simple and reasonable is probably the best to start
Although I also agree it's more than you need to do at the moment, it's food for thought.