Sword Coast Stratagems: NPC Management Tweaks

Allow player to choose NPC proficiencies and skills

At the moment the various NPCs who join your party have their existing proficiencies, thief skills etc. determined for you according to what the designers of BG and/or Tutu had in mind. There's nothing wrong with this, but it can be interesting - especially if you've played several times - to have more flexibility.

This component gives you the chance to select each character's proficiencies from scratch. It does so in a slightly convoluted way (to get around game-engine difficulties): when a new NPC joins your party, they start at level 0. They immediately go up a level, so you get to choose their starting skills. As soon as you've levelled them, they gain enough experience to go up to about the level of the PC, and you can give them any remaining proficiencies.

This differs from the BG2 Tweaks version (which is overwritten) because you get to choose proficiencies even for 1st-level characters. The component only works for the "core" NPCs, not for any NPCs added by someone else's mod. It won't work for a given NPC if you install it after you've already entered their area.

Note:the patch takes a few seconds to come into effect. If there's a 3-4 second pause when your character's statistics (hit points, say) aren't right, don't worry about it.

Allow NPC pairs to separate

One of the more frustrating aspects of BG is that many of the more interesting NPCs come in inseparable pairs (Khalid and Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir, etc.) Of course, it's always possible to get round this by leaving one member of a pair in a building or getting them killed, but it does spoil the suspension of disbelief a bit.

This component allows you to separate the pairs. If you kick one member of a pair out of the party, then the other still leaves - but if you speak to one member of a pair and invite them to join up, you get a dialogue option to take them but not their partner.

NPCs go to inns

One of the nice features of BG2 is the ability to ask NPCs to meet you somewhere else, rather than just getting them to stand around forlornly. This component introduces this feature for the "core" BG NPCs. You can send them to the Friendly Arm inn, the Elfsong tavern in Baldur's Gate (from chapter 5), the Nashkel Inn (if you've been to Nashkel), or the Jovial Juggler in Beregost (if you've been to Beregost). You can't send them there from Balduran's Isle, the Ice Island, the Candlekeep dungeons, the lower levels of Durlag's Tower, or the Gnoll Fortress.

To send someone to an inn, first kick them out of the party. Then talk to them - you should be given the opportunity to ask them to go to an inn and await you there.

This component isn't compatible with the (forthcoming) BG1 NPC component "NPCs wait at inns". Install whichever one you want (you won't be allowed to install more than one). There isn't much difference between the two - the dialogue is handled a bit differently, and this version lets you send people to more inns.

Allow Yeslick to use axes

It seems appropriate that Yeslick, who is a dwarven fighter-cleric, ought to be able to use the traditional dwarven weapon; this component allows him to.

(There is a loophole here: due to the way the game engine works, this actually allows all fighter-clerics (not just Yeslick) to use axes. Yeslick is actually the only NPC fighter-cleric in the core game but it might affect third-party NPCs, or your primary character. If you want to take advantage of this then be my guest, but it wasn't the intended function of the component.)

Move NPCs to more convenient locations

Many of the BG NPCs are inconveniently located - either at places where you can't get to at all until late in the game (e.g. Baldur's Gate, the Cloakwood), or places where you in principle could get to but realistically wouldn't. This makes it annoying to experiment with varying your party: you have to leave extended gaps in your party until quite late, or unrealistically sneak into later-game areas to act on your Reload Knowledge of where someone is.

This component moves as many as possible of the NPCs to locations where you are likely to run into them fairly early in the game. Obviously it doesn't move all by any means (many have plot-related reasons for their locations).

See here for details of who has been moved and to where. Note that this component will only work if you start a new game.

BG1 NPC also moves some NPCs. If you've got BG1 NPC installed, this component will only move those NPCs (Shar-Teel and Viconia) whom BG1 NPC leaves alone.