[Mod Idea] Craftmaster/Techsmith of Gond, doable?

[El Diablo]

I have lately been thinking of trying to start modding a npc for bg2ee. i have long been thinking of a good story for an old character of mine in BG2, A half orc Priest of Gond. I think a neutral priest would be a very useful addition in many parties and think gond's faith is both very interesting, practical and fun. I also think given the Gondar affinity for mechanisms and gears he could fill the role of lick picker and trap springer that nearly every party needs.

The thing is then how would i work this in. The easy solution would be to make him a multiclass cleric/thief however i don't know how in-character this would be. Gondar aren't all that sneaky or subtle by trade and half orcs usually aren't either. So i was considering if i, as a complete noobie modder, could design a new priest kit for this character or if such is far far from a beginners abilities.

My idea for the kit are a few the simplest being a priest kit that grant the use of the Knock and Detect Traps spells as they level up.
More advanced a idea would be a priest kit that actually gains skill in Pick locks and find traps as they level up similar to how a ranger slowly get's points in hide and move silently. as a negative i was thinking they would lose the ability to Turn undead and maybe the ability to use shields or an offhand weapon. (IC reasoning would be that Gondar would need a free hand for their tools and don't really have the 'holy or unholy' zeal to ward of the undead.)

Can anyone enlighten me how difficult this would be to make? and does anyone else have any ideas or feedback on this mod idea? Do you think anyone would even want such a character in their game?

Thanks in advance for your attention.

[subtledoctor]

I see lots and lots and lots of NPC mods where the NPC has a special kit. This is great - it makes them different and interesting. But, it is also doing two things: adding a new kit, and adding an NPC who has that kit. I say, separate them! First design a cool kit for a priest of Gond. Innate Knock, innate Find Traps, maybe also the Set Traps thief ability! (It is possible to give that to non-thieves - my mod gives it to Stalkers.) Take away Turn Undead, sure - easy enough to simple disable the button. Barring the use of shields is trickier, but it can be done in the new EE 2.0 engine.

 

Second: (this is the selfish part) that sounds like a really cool priest kit. I say you should make it, make it available to the PC, and make it compatible with my priest kit mod.

 

Third: then make an NPC with that kit, and write up a cool NPC mod! Why a half-orc turns to Gond, I don't know, but I bet there's a good story behind it. This definitely sounds like a mod I would install in my game.

[Magus]

I'd probably avoid an NPC unless it was very well written, but could try a kit.

[Kulyok]

Storytelling 101: his abilities and his stats may be interesting, especially to power gamers, but they won't matter if he doesn't have an interesting personality; i.e. he's not someone you'd want as a friend in this game.

[El Diablo]

Thank you, Im looking into guides and the programs i need at the mo. to start with the quest, then start with the simple giving of innate spells several times a day, then explore what more i can and want do.

 

As for the npc, i have a fair amount of ideas for his character and story so i'll try and write up a fairly spoiler free character summarization to give an idea as to how i see him currently.

 

Name: Teos Redderton (name subject to change but should always be a simple but human and civilized name)

Race: Half Orc

Age: Early 20's, 22 to 26 i figure

Class/proffesion: Priest of Gond/ weapon designer and smith.

Allignment: Chaotic Neutral.

 

Bit of Background: Teos life started of the unhappy union between his human mother and a orc officer working for the Zhentarim. His mother however married a human smithy and Teos was raised by them without any contact to his orcisch heritage. His young life was one of hard work and humble rewards. The smiths life in a place like Zhentil Keep is not easy but war better then many in that wretched place. The warriors, mages and priests of xvim/cyric/Bane (need to look up exactly which evil god was in charge during the time frame before baldur's gate) but those all needs weapons, armor, warmachines, fortifications and much more so smiths and other craftsmen, while not celebrated always have work under the Zhents. As such the church of Gond always has a small community of followers in the keep, Teos's family being one of them. Teos was a rough child, while not as violent and aggressive as orc born children he certainly had his tantrums and aggressive streaks. He grew into a strong and creative young man though and in time he learned to channel his aggressive tendencies and violent thoughts into the weapons he made. His adoptive father was particularly proud as Teos become more involved in the gondar church community and eventually took on the full mantle as a craftmaster of the great inventor. The priesthood comes with different duties though, A gondar must travel the world and spread the the wonders and knowledge of Gond over the realms. And so Teos left his home, and while he would not miss the place, he would miss the people he left behind.

He traveled across the reams to the high hall of wonders in Baldur's Gate eager to arm as many people as he could during his journey as well as field test his own weapon designs in battle. he stayed in Baldur's gate for a time, designing new weapon designs to counter the problems the smiths of the gate faced during the iron crisis.

After the crisis was resolved he went south towards the city of Athkatla investigating rumors saying that the followers of Talos had made a great temple there with mechanical wonders very unlike the destroyers church to make.

 

Personality: Teos can be quite excitable. quick to cheer and just as quick to curse. He is bit bit mistrustful of people, likely the result of growing up in such a cutthroat city, but while he expects the worst of people he tries not to judge so long as they serve the path of progress. For example he would be thankful of Sarevok for creating the Iron crisis, giving people a reason to innovate in weapon design. While he is quite creative and believes in the progress of technology and civilization, his thinking patterns tend to naturally go towards a violent way of thinking.

 

possible story subject to adress: The Temple and church of Talos, smoke powder, Growing up in Zhentil keep, His orcish parentage and adoptive parents. The believes of Gond, and the craft of weapon smithing.

 

And that is a quick overview of what i have in mind without going into specific plots, any good?

[Grammarsalad]

Sounds interesting to me!

[El Diablo]

Thank you all.

 

i took your advice and started by making a new kit for priests of gond. right now it's really simple but i hope as i understand modding better and learn more codes i can make something more fitting and complex (Im gonna look into giving priest limited thief skills next)

 

hope someone likes this start and maybe gives a bit of feedback specially regarding game ballance and such, i don't want to make something to powerfull.

 

http://www.willetdesigns.nl/BG2Modding/Gond1.zip

 

PRIEST OF GOND: Gond (called Nebelun by the gnomes) is known as the Wonderbringer and Lord of all smiths. He is the god of invention, caring only for the act of creation. He pays little heed to the consequences or use of his and his followers inventions. Gondar are well versed in mechanical devices and most can make or break locks or traps with ease.

Advantages:

- May cast Knock once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and one aditional use every 3 levels thereafter up to six times at level 19.

- May cast Find Traps once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and one aditional use every 5 levels thereafter up to four times at level 20.

Disadvantages:

- Must have a minimum intelligence score of 10.

[Jarno Mikkola]

(Im gonna look into giving priest limited thief skills next)

That's not actually possible... the game has some very restricting class definitions that restrict this. The Graphical User Interface also restricts you from using the abilities as you would.

[subtledoctor]

Giving clerics limited thief skills is not possible. But, in a day or two I'll put up a post on how to make priest kits compatible with our upcoming mod, and one of the things you can do is designate your kit as available to cleric/thieves. So that would be one way to enable players to use your kit with thief skills.

[El Diablo]

Giving clerics limited thief skills is not possible. But, in a day or two I'll put up a post on how to make priest kits compatible with our upcoming mod, and one of the things you can do is designate your kit as available to cleric/thieves. So that would be one way to enable players to use your kit with thief skills.

 

That is quite unfortunate to hear. i might need to look into making a spell then to disarm traps similar to how knock opens locks. cause currently i don't feel find trap is a good fitting ability. Find trap is more about divination and sensing danger rather then handling mechanical devices. as to marking it available to cleric/thieves would that mean making it available in multiclasses? like how gnomes get Illusionist/thief ect.?

[critto]

 

 

That is quite unfortunate to hear. i might need to look into making a spell then to disarm traps similar to how knock opens locks. cause currently i don't feel find trap is a good fitting ability.

Sadly, I don't think that such spell (Disarm Traps) would be possible either. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.

 

 

 

Find trap is more about divination and sensing danger rather then handling mechanical devices. as to marking it available to cleric/thieves would that mean making it available in multiclasses?

Basically, yes. Subtledoctor's NPCEE mod already has the infrastructure in place to make this possible without too much fuss, as I understand.

[subtledoctor]

Oh, ha ha, I forgot about NPC_EE. Yeah, so that mod can do it already.

 

But our new cleric mod can do much, much more. If you want priests of Gond to allhave thief abilities, you can make the kit only available for multiclass cleric/thieves... and not available for single-class clerics. It's almost, almost ready. I'll have compatibility instructions posted this weekend.

[El Diablo]

Oh, ha ha, I forgot about NPC_EE. Yeah, so that mod can do it already.

 

But our new cleric mod can do much, much more. If you want priests of Gond to allhave thief abilities, you can make the kit only available for multiclass cleric/thieves... and not available for single-class clerics. It's almost, almost ready. I'll have compatibility instructions posted this weekend.

 

ah that is something to wait for then. what i could do is maybe yeah make that multiclass and give penalties or limits to things like backstab, stealth and pickpocket. possible make the multiclass something like Techsmith and the non multiclass just a priest of gond.