Raughbard (Fallen) Paladin Mod Idea for BGTutu (and more?)

[Qwallath]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this community as a member (though not as a user), but I couldn't get the idea out of my head to try and start an NPC Mod Project. As I toyed with the idea in my head, a concept quickly formed, and I've already got the basic outline of the character and plot in my head at the moment.

 

So, without furder ado, an outline:

 

Raughbard Leanling [working title] - A Paladin in Doubt

 

Raughbard is gruff young man (around 30), who had been on the path to becoming a Paladin, but was consumed by a quest for personal vengeance and closure with the past along the way. When the PCs meet him, he is a NG Fallen Paladin, yet who still has the support of his deity Tyr, in the form of limited powers. He is torn by a mental struggle: on the one hand, Raughbard is mentally unstable, has a thoroughly pessimistic outlook on life, and everywhere around him, he sees innocents being oppressed by opportunists and tyrants. On the other hand (unlike Xan, hehe) he still feels a deep desire to do good and fight for justice, and he hopes that his "quest will not be vain."

 

Some features I'd like to include:

 

-A multiple-path plotline with romance/friendship, with plenty of roleplaying opportunities for various types of characters:

--Redemption path: a romantic partner or friend can help Raughbard to refind his Paladin path.

--Static path: He remains as he is, a NG fighter with some extra abilities, perpetually torn between two opposing views of life.

--Indifference/Faithless path: Raughbard becomes further consumed by vengeance and violent urges, eventually losing his faith, and the side of him that still hopes and fights for good, essentially becoming (Chaotic?) Neutral.

--Corruption path: An evil romantic partner can gradually corrupt Raughbard, turning him into a remorseless, nervous wreck, continually seeking to punish the world for his own suffering. Near the end of BG1 (?), he can be pushed to commit atrocities that make him become evil - or even a blackguard(?).

 

-Complete voice acting, with a set for each character stage

 

-Some custom items

 

-Quests as part of the storyline

 

-A custom kit for the evil path / or compatibility with current evil paladin mods (I seem to recall reading about that?)

 

===

 

I hope there is some potential in this idea! Now, a lot of work needs to be done, and I'm not experienced enough to tackle this on my own. I was wondering if some people would be willing to correspond with me about the project, and see if it worthwhile to work together on it, and see if we can make something nice out of it.

My indication of the workload:

 

Stuff I'd be able and willing to do:

-Design

-Dialog writing and scripting

 

Stuff I'd like to do, and might be able to:

-Voice acting

-Banter design

 

Stuff I don't have the knowledge for:

-Game scripting, quests, items, etc.

 

Finally there is a particular Modding challenge that I'd like to see implemented. I envisioned Raughbard as having lost his hand through torture in the past. This means he fights one-handedly. I'd like to give him full specialisation in single-weapon style (**), which won't be a problem, of course. However, is it possible to prevent items from being placed in the off hand, without having him lose his single-weapon style bonuses and/or him using two-handed weapons? In other words, does filling up the off hand with an invisible item make his main hand bonuses disappear, and if so, is there a way around this?

 

I'm looking forward to your response!

 

-Oscar

[Sorrow]

Sounds nice .

 

I think that you could give him an invisible item that would grant him the bonus as skill would.

[Qwallath]

Cool. Is it also possible to add the "critical on 19 & 20" effect that single weapon specialisation has?

[Sorrow]

Yes . The only problem would be that unarmed attacks would get the bonus too.

[Qwallath]

Not necessarily a problem in my book: he packs a mean punch in that one hand of his

 

No but seriously, this looks like good news.

 

I'm currently fleshing out more plot elements in my head. Is it common practice in Mod Ideas to post story snippets for comment? I'm really enthusiastic about this idea, and if people are willing to help, I believe it can be brought to a satisfying finish. I realise making an NPC mod is a long and arduous road, but I'm willing to give it a shot nonetheless.

[Icendoan]

I can help with the items, but not much as I am working on a mod at the minute, as well as learning to script and write .D files

 

Icen

[Qwallath]

Thanks! Any help is appreciated of course.

 

At the moment, I think it would be best for me to keep this topic as a base of operations and post my ideas as they develop. Later on, if things work out, and I'm ready to tackle concrete issues, perhaps I should request a development subforum?

[Qwallath]

First (modest) progress report!

 

I've started writing some of the dialogues, in particular the first one and the later friendship talks.

 

Currently, you start out by meeting the Fallen Paladin in the Bandit Camp. He was captured by the Black Talon while serving as a merchant's guard on a caravan that was raided. He's being kept inside a tent, wounded and without any posessions. Obviously, you'll need to free him if you want him to join the party, and, obviously, get him out of the camp alive.

 

Currently, the next steps for me are:

 

-A run through BGTutu (incl. many mods) with my regular party, making notes along the way of thing the character should be interacting with.

-Continue writing dialogues.

 

I'm currently roleplaying the Fallen Paladin character under the name of Raughbard on a freeform roleplaying forum. That way, I hope I will really get into his head, and be able to develop his personality believably. Thinking outside the box (it's a non-FR and non-D&D setting) will hopefully provide extra inspiration for his incarnation in BG.

 

Some further item issues:

 

Off hand / Maimed hand:

The invisible hand item idea still stands. The idea is - thanks to Sorrow! - to make the hand give the single weapon style bonus. I think that'll work just fine. Filling up the off hand with an invisible item (counting as shield?) should keep him from being able to use 2-handed weapons, but still allow the use of slings, and more importantly, the 1-handed crossbow (see below).

 

My girlfriend also had some nice suggestions. Later in the game, as a result of quests, he might be able to 'equip' things like a buckler (strapped to arm, so no hand needed) or even a custom hook (how piratey) or punch dagger. The idea is to do this by way of dialogue-powered item switching, i.e. you talk to the guy and 'say': "(switch FP's off-hand equipment)" > "(equip buckler)"... Obviously, the other items will not give the single-weapon style bonus, so this should work fine. Suggestions about the feasability of this approach are very welcome.

 

One-handed Crossbow:

This is one that I'd really like to do. First it had me stumped, then I thought, hey this'll be easy. Now I'm stumped a bit again.

 

The idea is to introduce a mini-crossbow into the game, that can be used in one hand. It would be faster than regular crossbows (2/round, like a bow), but do less damage. I was thinking of having it fire 'darts'. This would perhaps be easiest when it just fires bolts, but applied a damage penalty. 1d8-4, for example, gives it an effective damage range of 1-4 when using regular bolts, correct?

 

Anyway, the real problem at the moment seems to be animation. If you are only using the crossbow, there's no problem: a small crossbow animation as it is currently used would do just fine. The thing is, you could arguably combine this crossbow with shields, just like a sling. I do have a nagging suspicion that this will cause a crash, though, because of conflicting animations. Any suggestions?

 

---

 

That's it for now. Back to the drawing board!

 

-Q

[Qwallath]

Small update on the one-handed crossbow:

 

I managed to whip one up using NearInfinity, but it's not functioning correctly yet. I simply took a basic light crossbow and removed the 2-handed flag, to see what would happen.

 

Well, the new version is equippable with shields or without, so no problem there. The trouble is, the weapon is basically unselectable by the character (not unusable), either in the inventory screen, or in the main window quick select. Any ideas on why this could be? Don't crossbows enjoy being 1-handed?

[Sorrow]

There are no 1 handed animation for 2 handed weapons.

[Qwallath]

There are no 1 handed animation for 2 handed weapons.

 

Aha, so that's why it just chooses to not be equippable at all?

No it wasn't - I forgot to equip bolts!!! D'oh!

 

New problem: I've tried adding a preliminary version of the character to the game, but apparently there's a syntax error in my dialog file. I'll be damned if I can find it though. WeiDU says there's something wrong on the second line of this:

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NoBandit

SAY ~You are not? Tyr be praised! Would you be so kind as to release a prisoner from his bonds?~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Of course.~ GOTO Release

 

Apparently, the error is located in "SAY ~You...". Call me stupid or whatever, but I can't see what's wrong with that...

[Icendoan]

Hmm. I cannot see a problem with that either. Perhaps someone else who is a bit better at WeiDU than me can sort this out.

 

Icen

[jastey]

Give more of the .d, please. WeiDU sometimes counts the lines differently.

 

It's great to see an NPC mod for BG1 (Tutu), btw.

[Qwallath]

Alrighty, here is the entire thing so far:

 

WeiDU says it's a parse error on line 17, column 6-8, near "You".

 

BEGIN QWraug

 

IF ~NumTimesTalkedTo(0)~ FirstMeeting

SAY ~(You see a tall, gruff looking man standing in the corner of the tent. He is wounded, and his arms are tied behind his back.)~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Greetings.~ GOTO Conversation

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~(Ignore him.)~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Conversation

SAY ~Hah! I see Taugosz has recruited some new cronies.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No. To tell you the truth, we're not working for Taugosz.~ GOTO NoBandit

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Aye, and we've come to check on the prisoner.~ GOTO Bandit

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Perhaps, who wants to know? GOTO WhoAreYou

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NoBandit

SAY ~You are not? Tyr be praised! Would you be so kind as to release a prisoner from his bonds?~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Of course.~ GOTO Release

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No, I don't think Taugosz would be pleased if we released his prisoners.~ GOTO NotReleaseScared

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No, I don't think I shall. You're fine where you are.~ GOTO NotReleaseContempt

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Bandit

SAY ~Well, do your worst. I've nothing to say to the likes of you.~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN WhoAreYou

SAY ~Me, I'm just one of those people who got in the way of the Black Talon. They're probably keeping me here until they can find some gruesome use for me.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No, I won't allow that to happen. Let me undo your bonds.~ GOTO Release

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~What did you do to anger these mercenaries?~ GOTO WhyPrisoner

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Well, you're probably here for a reason. I'll leave you to your misery.~ GOTO NotReleaseContempt

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Release

SAY ~I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My name is Raughbard, and I am greatly indebted to you. Might I ask what you are doing in the camp? I take it you are not on the bandits' side?~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Indeed we are not. We're looking for more information on where Tazok gets his orders from. Hopefully this will shed some light on why the bandits are plaguing the Sword Coast.~ GOTO NobleCause

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Our business here is our own.~ GOTO OwnBusiness

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NotReleaseScared

SAY ~No, I do not believe he would be. Well then, get your cowardly selves out of here, and leave me to my misery.~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN WhyPrisoner

SAY ~I was in the service of a merchant's caravan as a guard when we were ambushed near Ulgoth's Beard. I slew several of the bandits, but we were quickly overwhelmed. Apparently they saw some use in me, and decided not to kill me on the spot, though I can't fathom why. No doubt they have a worse fate in store for me.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Aye, a tale we hear more and more nowadays. A merchant's life has become forfeit in these lands. Allow me to release you from your bonds.~ GOTO Release

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~We will leave you to suffer that fate then. Farewell.~ GOTO NotReleaseContempt

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NotReleaseContempt

SAY ~A curse upon you. Leave me be!~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NobleCause

SAY ~A noble cause. I'd be willing to help you if you can get me out of here alive and allow me to travel with you. Though I have but my one hand, I can swing a mace with no small strength, and shoot a bolt in a bandit's eye from fifty paces.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Yes, we could always use a pair of hands... or half a pair.~ GOTO Join

++ ~No, you're free to go, but we've no use for you in our party.~ GOTO NoJoin

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN OwnBusiness

SAY ~Fair enough. Will you help me escape the camp? Though I have but my one hand, I can swing a mace with no small strength, and shoot a bandit in the eye from fifty paces. I could be of aid to your party.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Yes, we could always use a pair of hands... or half a pair.~ GOTO Join

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No, you're free to go, but we've no use for you in our party.~ GOTO NoJoin

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Join

SAY ~Hah, don't bother with the hand jokes. I've heard my share of them. Let us be off then. Perhaps they still have my equipment stored somewhere in the camp.~ DO ~SetGlobal("RaugJoined","LOCALS",1)

JoinParty()~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NoJoin

SAY ~Very well. I will try to make my own way out of the camp, then.~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~NumTimesTalkedToGT(0)~ THEN BEGIN SecondMeeting

SAY ~Have you returned to gloat over me?~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No, we've decided to free you after all.~ GOTO Release

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~That depends. Who are you?~ GOTO WhoAreYou

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~How could we resist? Gloating over prisoners is what we love most.~ GOTO NotReleaseContempt

END

 

BEGIN QWraugP

 

IF ~Global("RaugJoined","LOCALS",1)~ THEN BEGIN KickOut

SAY ~You are now kicking me out.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Oops, I meant to boot that twit Anomen, not you. Sorry~ DO ~JoinParty()~ EXIT

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~That's right, I don't want you in the party.~ DO ~SetGlobal("RuntyJoined","LOCALS",0)~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~Global("RaugJoined","LOCALS",0)~ THEN BEGIN Rejoin

SAY ~You want me to rejoin?~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~That's right Stumpy, get back in formation.~ DO ~SetGlobal("RaugJoined","LOCALS",1)

JoinParty()~ EXIT

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Of course not. Haha!~ EXIT

END

 

Pay no heed to the clumsiness of the whole thing - especially in the end! I just want to get a working version ASAP to test certain things.

 

Thanks a lot for your comments! I'm obviously at the absolute beginner stage, but reading all these tutorials and fiddling around gives me hope and inspiration.

 

BTW, I've dropped the 1-handed X-bow idea for now. Making the thing one-handed and equipping bolts just crashes the game, as I might have expected. For now, I'm thinking of settling on a sling fixation instead, as recommended by my girlfriend, who's always a great help with these things. The character will probably have a decent strength bonus, so it might not be all that weak anyway. I hadn't thought of warriors toting slings before, but it might just work... Especially if you've only got one hand, hehe...

[jastey]

What I spot:

 

There is a missing tilda here:

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Conversation

SAY ~Hah! I see Taugosz has recruited some new cronies.~

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~No. To tell you the truth, we're not working for Taugosz.~ GOTO NoBandit

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Aye, and we've come to check on the prisoner.~ GOTO Bandit

IF ~~ THEN REPLY ~Perhaps, who wants to know?~ GOTO WhoAreYou

END

 

And, for a normal state that EXITs directly, the syntax woud be:

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN statename //THEN BEGIN can be skipped

SAY ~blabla~

IF ~~ THEN EXIT

END

 

Let me specify, in your .d, you have to change

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Join

SAY ~Hah, don't bother with the hand jokes. I've heard my share of them. Let us be off then. Perhaps they still have my equipment stored somewhere in the camp.~ DO ~SetGlobal("RaugJoined","LOCALS",1)

JoinParty()~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NoJoin

SAY ~Very well. I will try to make my own way out of the camp, then.~ EXIT

END

 

to the following:

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN Join

SAY ~Hah, don't bother with the hand jokes. I've heard my share of them. Let us be off then. Perhaps they still have my equipment stored somewhere in the camp.~

IF ~~ THEN DO ~SetGlobal("RaugJoined","LOCALS",1)

JoinParty()~ EXIT

END

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN NoJoin

SAY ~Very well. I will try to make my own way out of the camp, then.~

IF ~~ THEN EXIT

END

 

And all other cases accordingly ("Bandit" and "notRealeasedScared")