Mod for NeJ3: Erevain Blacksheaf NPC Options

[Bill Bisco]

Getting something done every day. I have a lot of respect for people who mod. It takes a lot of time to even put one NPC together. I'm pacing myself and setting this effort up for success.

[Vlad]

[Bill Bisco]

I've been looking for a dialogue, but I've been having trouble. Before you leave the journey for Kuldahar, Hrothgar informs you that Accalia is willing to go with you on the journey. I want to add an extra dialogue to indicate that Erevain may be willing to go on the journey as well.

Where is this dialogue? I can't find it in HROTHJ or HROTHP

Thanks.

[Vlad]

DHROTH

[Bill Bisco]

Just finished the initial join dialogue. Need to test this as well as write a kicked out dialogue. Amazing how 25 days have passed and I have still worked on this a little nearly every day.

[Vlad]

Good

Bill, I'll make scripts and in-game dialogues once you finish them all. No need to test all separately. It won't work this way.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Vlad: Jun 27 2015, 07:29 AM

[Bill Bisco]

Thanks Vlad. I'm trying to understand something from Hrothgar's rejoining dialogues:

CODE

SAY ~Then together it is <CHARNAME>, let us continue as we were.~ [HROT_L02]
  IF ~~ THEN DO ~SetGlobal("KickedOut","LOCALS",0)
SetGlobal("VP_Break_NeJ_Plot","GLOBAL",0)
JoinParty()~ EXIT
END

I see several instances of bracketed code like [HROT_L02] or [HROT_L13]. What does this code do exactly?

Thanks,

Bill

[Vlad]

This is sound, Bill.

[Bill Bisco]

I have enter and exit dialogue mostly finished. The only piece of exit dialog to be done is the exact coding to return to Kuldahar tavern; I'll leave the area code to you Vlad.

I've finished descriptions for Erevain's custom items. I have 2 banters or banter outlines for most NPCs except Leina, Taffic, Melora, Xan, and Irenicus. I have the travel to Kuldahar interjection done.

Other Major Things to Do:

Finish Charname banters
Finish Remaining Event banters
Change remaining NPC outlines to written dialogs.
Write out Guthic and Yalatheniel dialog and encounter information.
Finish playing NeJ and write interjections along the way.
Write ToB Enter and Exit Dialog
Write ToB Epilogue.

[Vlad]

Excellent!

[Bill Bisco]

Getting closer to finishing banter dialogues.

Looking through the files, I cannot find any ND.2DA files. These normally contain the epilogues for NPCs. Are there no epilogues for NEJ? No ToB content either?

[Vlad]

Unfortunately, no. Jan has come back, but still needs time to get these things done.

Hey, it's Never Ending Journey.

[Bill Bisco]

I would hope that name is not literal! The Neverending Story did have an actual ending.

Well, if she is back perhaps she can give some thoughts on improvement for the NeJ NPC banters I've written and will soon finish, when she has a chance of course.

Also, is there a plan to ever implement the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster content as well? Or is that out of the mod's scope?

[Vlad]

Well, back in 2003, the name was actually literal.

HoW and TotL have always been on the list, but since everything takes a lot of time, I'd say no for now. As you understand it would require writing a tremendous amount of new content including dialogues, banters, interjections and to incorporate the new story in the main NeJ plot. I'm open for suggestions anyway.

[Bill Bisco]

I will probably add some ideas/suggestions when I get that far.

I am glad to say that all NPCs have at least 2 dialogues with Erevain. I would like to create a third dialogue for those missing it to so that there will be 2 SoA and 1 ToB dialogue. Since there is no ToB content for NeJ NPCs, I will hold off on those. I"ll get to the fabled 3 dialogues for the remaining NPCs later in development.

I also wrote 1 epilogue. Ooh boy!

This post has been edited by Bill Bisco: Aug 9 2015, 06:48 AM

[Vlad]

If you want to see Erevain in action - watch Episode 4 of my walkthrough. Xan is there only level 5/5. Imagine such Erevain at level 10/10 - unstoppable killing machine.

This post has been edited by Vlad: Aug 9 2015, 07:16 AM

[Vlad]

Bill, I made Erevain character as a fighter/enchanter/thief. There will be no kit but I'll give him some cool items with special abilities. Rings, amulets, belts can increase his thieving stats and add magic protection, as well as double the amount of his spells. His personal sword can give him better THAC0 and AC, for example, with some other cool effects. Boots of speed and bonuses to move silently. Check two attached characters and think what would you like to add.

Attached are two Erevain's characters at level 7/7/7 and 7/8/9. Put them into your characters directory and import in the new game.

 Erevain.zip ( 1.73k ) Number of downloads: 2

[Bill Bisco]

I wouldn't mind a Fighter/Enchanter/Thief as an alternate version selectable at install or as a placeholder until the kit is coded in fully. I'll happily code this myself. I'm fairly firm on this. Some of the points that went into this decision

1. Although Xan is an exception, elves have a long history of being expert Generalists, with the Elven Generalist racial substitution levels from D&D 3.5. Erevain has been written as a Mage not as an enchanter in his dialogues and as a generalist in his Edwin dialogues already.
2. Infiltrator is an Elven Only Thief Kit from the Complete Book of Elves. Although the abilities do not match. It's a nod to the classic 2E kits.
3. Infiltrator sounds better than Thief. Kind of like how Bilbo Baggins preferred to be called an "Expert Treasure Hunter". Erevain has been written to be a little more respectable than a petty thief and already written dialogue references himself as an infiltrator.
4. I'm trying to do something different with Infiltrator, trying to reduce thieving points in exchange for thieving related spells and trying to find out if there's an interesting balance point

Spell-wise I'm ok with what was included. He needs to have the strength spell. The purpose of this was so that his 18/50 can be boosted to 18/00 with the price of a spell.

Stat-wise, I put the following originally:

Str: 18/50
Dex: 17
Con: 16
Int: 17
Wis: 7
Cha: 11
Total attribute points: 86 (same as Dar and 1 less than Imoen).

Knowing that the Mage trials in Harluaa require Wisdom, we could try to pop that up a bit. Perhaps:

Str: 18/50
Dex: 17
Con: 16
Int: 17
Wis: 15
Cha: 11

You don't actually need 18 Int to cast level 9 spells and Erevain won't be able to do so unless someone includes the mod to remove the level cap. Erevain can use a potion of genius, a tome, and/or Watcher's Keep bonuses to get to 18 for that.

I want to try to avoid Erevain impossibly outshining a Fighter/Mage/Thief CHARNAME. I think 18/17/16 Str, Dex, Con is ok. Parting with lower Con is a no go. Triple class has HP problems to begin with. Watcher's Keep can increase all these stats by 1 anyway.

I intend to keep Erevain's alignment as Chaotic Good.

Weapon Proficiencies: The original Erevain started with his Broadsword and his bow and arrows. My intention was to have the starting proficiencies be:

Longsword: **
Long Bow: **
Single Weapon Style: **

That goes in line with the traditional elf who favors longswords and long bows and gives the flexibility to choose either fighting style and is not a pain to switch between melee and ranged (ala two weapon fighting and a bow or sword & shield and a bow).

It could possibly be:

Longsword: ***
Long Bow: ***

The issue with that is that a regular PC could not do that and Erevain becomes more of a Mary Sue than he already is.

Yeah, I noted in my notes the items I want to have for him, scroll there for details:

1. Elven Plate +2
2. Erevain's Broadsword
3. Blacksheaf Family Amulet


I was thinking about him having a Cloak of Elvenkind and Boots of Elvenkind to start out with. These could be boots of Elven Speed. I think it might be nicer to have a speed upgrade via Conlan the Smithy, Cromwell, or Cespenar.

As I also noted in my notes, I am planning for Sword and Armor Upgrades as well.

A final note: I do know that you have graciously volunteered for help and to code. I would like to do some work myself here as I want to learn to mod, and many things can only be learned through the pain of actually doing them. I go into this process, expecting to implement this mod myself, and whatever assistance you provide is always appreciated

[Vlad]

Ok, Bill. Up to you. I can make a kit if you want or anything else. No problems. Your baby - your call.

[EDIT] Considering his stats, there will be some tomes in NeJ, so you can boost some stats, as well as different girdles. But what's the most important is to put his dex to 18. There is an internal bug in IE that doesn't take into account the dexterity bonuses when calculates AC in combat. So, dex 18 is a must. Constitution may be any, yes you can roll to get better HP, it's again a bug but it allows to roll as high HP as possible, and you know that after level 8 you stop getting HPs more than 3 for anyone. So, it really doesn't matter if your character has con 12 or 16 at level 7. He can get max other 10-12 HPs and that's all. Strength in NeJ is not a problem at all, as you'll have enough str tomes and items raising str of at least 3 NPCs to 19-21. So, you can start with 16 easily. There is no XP cap in NeJ with Baldurdash, so no worries.

This post has been edited by Vlad: Aug 13 2015, 04:59 PM

[Bill Bisco]

Well, I will admit as far as the coding for the Infiltrator kit, if you're willing to help/implement that I would be grateful. Thank you kind sir.

I did find the following from Baldurdash.org

Character's Armour Class incorrect/changes.

Programming; happens when char. has high Dexterity or item that changes Base AC ie Bracers or Mage Robe, and several AC improving items.

Remove all AC improving items from character. Wear the Base AC item (ie Bracers of Defense or Robe of Vecna/Archmagi) first, then add all modifier items. AC should then be correct.

I did some testing, but I was unable to reproduce any errors for my 17 Dex man test.
The advantage of 16 Con vs. 12 Con is 18 HP. 17 Con vs. 12 Con is 27 HP. 18 CON vs. 12 Con is 36 HP. Erevain is going to remain a Glass Tank for quite awhile. Stoneskin and High AC items will be a must. Let's look at the stats again:

Str: 18/50
Dex: 18
Con: 12
Int: 17
Wis: 15
Cha: 11

This is a total of 91, but his low HP will be a factor in the feeling of his actual balance. I"m ok with that. It is true that there are some more tomes out there, but I would not want the player to use Wisdom tomes on a non-Divine Caster for just one part of the game. Best to let those go to CHARNAME or another Divine caster NPC. Erevain would definitely want to benefit from a Str Tome later on. The rest are nice but not necessary for him which is good for the player.

I did some research, and apparently two weapon fighting is quite good. I didn't realize that +APR weapons like Belm and Longswords of Speed actually increase the APR of the main weapon. Moreover, I did not realize that the game artificially limits you to a base 5 APR except by using Improved Haste which doubles all your attacks, granting you 10 attacks per turn! That's why improved haste exists! I never understood why a lack of fatigue was worth a 6th level slot. Now, I get it! So, if we see the base APR, we get the following

High APR Methods
1: Base
2: Base, 13th Level Fighter
2.5: Base, 13th Level Fighter, Specialist
3: Base, 13th Level Fighter, Specialist, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Weapon Specialization
4: Base, 13th Level Fighter, Specialist, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Weapon Specialization, Offhand Weapon
5: Base, 13th Level Fighter, Specialist, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Weapon Specialization, Offhand Weapon of Speed
10: Base, 13th Level Fighter, Specialist, Gauntlets of Extraordinary Weapon Specialization, Offhand Weapon of Speed, Improved Haste


So, it wouldn't be the end of the world for Erevain to wield two weapons, but I'd like to think of creative ways to allow Erevain to get that blessed 5 base APR with only a single longsword and nothing in the other hand! Would it be possible to code a longsword that when equipped, prevents equipping a shield or other weapon in the offhand slot?

I'm thinking we can create an Artifact Longsword, perhaps a famous Bladesinger Blade of Striking Speed crafted by the God of Bladesingers, Tethrin Veraldé. Give it +2 APR, and prevent another weapon or shield being installed in the opposite slot. This would be ideal as it would be the most flavorful. Yalatheniel would use this against Erevain and would be using these same massive APR tactics. If not, then we may just settle for one of those +4 Longswords of Speed and move on.

This post has been edited by Bill Bisco: Aug 14 2015, 04:54 AM

Attached File(s)

 000000024_Dex_Test.zip ( 40.64k ) Number of downloads: 2