Fighting Faldorn for Trademeet quest

[Qwinn]

Hello all I'm posting here because I presume this is an issue with the multiple stronghold mod, but I can't be sure.

 

I know that in previous playthroughs, without that mod installed, when I reached Faldorn in the druid grove I was given the option to fight her in single combat with either Cernd or Jaheira. Now, the -only- option I have is to fight her with my main character, who isn't even a druid. I really don't want to do that, I would much rather fight her with Jaheira or Cernd, but no matter what I do, I can't.

 

Even if I bail out of the triggered conversation and then actually initiate conversation again with Faldorn using Jaheira or Cernd while my PC is out of line of sight, I only get the "maybe we can make a deal for Trademeet" option, she demands that only a druid can fight her. If my PC is in range, then I'll get the option to challenge, but only with him. I've gotten Faldorn to recognize Jaheira or Cernd for the purposes of banter, but she won't recognize them as fit for the fight.

 

Note that this is just to do the Trademeet quest, -not- to challenge for the stronghold, so I wouldn't expect there to be a level 14 restriction (and my PC isn't 14 yet anyway). I don't want the druid stronghold. I just want the mage and fighter strongholds (cause I'm a berzerker mage) and the playhouse (cause it's fun

 

Is this intentional, and whether it is or not, is there a known way I can get Jaheira or Cernd to fight that fight? My PC can win it, but bleah... I just dislike knowing this isn't the way it's supposed to be.

 

EDIT: Another oddity. For the time being, I figured I'd just do the fight with my PC so I can move on, and reload if a fix is offered up anytime soon. Faldorn didn't cast a single spell, or even pick up her staff. She didn't turn into a panther either. Her script got butchered somehow. Any ideas what mod might've done that? I've got a fairly limited number of 'em: G3Fixes (including beta as of 11/27/07), G3Tweaks, Quest Pack, Dungeon Crawl, EMaD, Ascension, Turnabout, Banterpack, Unfinished Business and G3Anniversary. That's it.

 

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Just thought I'd add, sort of in the same vein:

 

The "More Interjections" tweak was one I was most looking forward to, as I would often get that issue of NPC's not recognizing people in my party. I do have it installed, but I still had the issue several times where, walking through the druid grove, the only way Cernd would have the longer cool interjections with the NPC's is if I happened to have him be closest to the NPC when the dialogue triggered. Shouldn't More Interjections have fixed that?

 

I also get that result when approaching Faldorn, btw... if Cernd or Jaheira aren't pretty darn close when that dialogue triggers, she won't even banter with them or offer the option to mention them in the conversation.

 

Oh - and Merry Christmas all! Thanks so much for all the great work you guys do

 

Qwinn

[CamDawg]

It's probably a bit more technical detail than you'd like, but More Interjections works by replacing a very common trigger, IsValidForParytDialogue (IVFPD), with a simple in-party check. However, in many cases BioWare actually uses stricter and more sensible triggers, and this appears to be true throughout the Druid Grove dialogues. Almost all of them are a stricter check that requires Cernd/Jaheira to be seen (i.e. in visible range and not invisible), in the party, and not asleep/dead. The first condition is probably why you're not seeing the extra dialogue and it's not, unfortunately, something that More Interjections changes.

 

As for allowing Faldorn or Cernd to challenge, this seems to be a combo of two other things going on. First, if the PC is qualified to challenge for the druid stronghold then you do not get the option to use Jaheira or Cernd--with Multi-Stronghold, you're qualified, hence no option. If you don't want the stronghold, the Multi-Stronghold tweak has added a dialogue option to turn it down if it's offered (you have no option to decline in the unmodded game).

 

As for Faldorn not doing anything, no idea. Neither Tweaks nor Fixpack change anything in the encounter.

[Kulyok]

I can definitely tell you that Dungeon Crawl doesn't change it, either.

[Qwinn]

Almost all of them are a stricter check that requires Cernd/Jaheira to be seen (i.e. in visible range and not invisible), in the party, and not asleep/dead. The first condition is probably why you're not seeing the extra dialogue and it's not, unfortunately, something that More Interjections changes.

 

Fair enough, and yes, visibility does seem to be the issue. Which is irritating due to all the twists and turns in the terrain in that area, that seem to make it close to 70% odds that when your leading PC first gets LOS, Cernd won't have it. But it's not that big a deal - if you really want to see the dialogue, you can just by having him lead in that area.

 

As for allowing Faldorn or Cernd to challenge, this seems to be a combo of two other things going on. First, if the PC is qualified to challenge for the druid stronghold then you do not get the option to use Jaheira or Cernd--with Multi-Stronghold, you're qualified, hence no option. If you don't want the stronghold, the Multi-Stronghold tweak has added a dialogue option to turn it down if it's offered (you have no option to decline in the unmodded game).

 

Ah, okay. It just seemed odd to me because that part of the Trademeet quest is something available to all characters regardless of their being a druid. It did indeed allow me to refuse the druid stronghold after that, which I did. Still, as a low priority, I'd recommend making the multi-stronghold mod ignore the PC's qualification as a criteria for that fight, so that you can still have Cernd or Jaheira fight it. Mostly because to do so would be in-line with the concept of having dialogue options that should in theory allow you to play portions of the game as if that mod wasn't installed, but also potentially because of my following point...

 

As for Faldorn not doing anything, no idea. Neither Tweaks nor Fixpack change anything in the encounter.

 

Hrm. I don't think any of my other mods do either, though, and it's a pretty limited number.

 

Let me take a stab here. Is it possible that in the unmodded code, Faldorn's abilities are scaled to match the person fighting her in the pit? Maybe she's scaled so that her maximum spell casting level is the same as the druid she's fighting with... and my PC's spell casting level is zero (he's a level 10 berzerker kit fighter), so hers is too. That could cause the multi-stronghold mod to create the observed behavior without anyone actually intentionally touching that encounter.

 

(BTW, is Faldorn female? His/her gender has always seemed very vague to me, heh. Not that there's anything wrong with that.... )

 

Qwinn