Fight the Heavens

[morpheus562]

This is a simple mod to allow an evil player to assault the heavens and perform Dorn's ToB quest without Dorn in the party. To start the quest, be of Evil alignment with a disliked reputation (8 or below) and venture to the Oasis. Once leaving the Oasis, you will begin the quest as normal.

Please Note: This mod took me a couple hours to throw together, and I am awaiting if G3 wants to take this in and accept it as their own (NO RUSH PLEASE!). It simply works far sooner than I anticipated (Jon voice here), and I understand there are approval processes and such. I use the G3 exe launcher as it is convenient, so apologies if this is frowned upon by the admins for doing this prior to approval.

You can download the latest version of the mod here.

[megrimlock]

Neat idea! Are there any other EE NPC quests you think can be subjected to the same treatment?

[jmerry]

It comes down to "would someone other than that NPC have a reason to be drawn in?" For Dorn's ToB quest, the inciting incident is Dorn getting on Tyr's bad side to the point that a hit squad gets sent out against him. It's certainly easy to imagine an evil Bhaalspawn ending up on the hit list based on their own deeds instead of just their association with Dorn.

Running through the EE NPC quests ...

Dorn crashes a wedding: no. You really have no reason to get involved without him.

Dorn raids a Helmite camp: no. Another mission from his patron, that the protagonist wouldn't have any reason to get involved in. And the camp would probably have just moved on anyway if not for Dorn's primary target knowing he was coming and wanting the fight.

Resurrection Gorge: actually, this one I could see adventurers getting into without Dorn. An incomplete ritual and a loose demon slowly corrupting the land is absolutely do-gooder bait. Dorn's plan of completing the ritual and summoning the demon he wants to kill is definitely not a do-gooder-approved solution, though.

Hexxat's tombwalk adventures: no. She's being sent after random trinkets in distant lands by her employer who you have no relation with. Plus the last one virtually requires her in order to complete, as there's a death zone that shreds any living party member through massive damage and life drain. Hexxat can go through and turn it off, but a party without her would likely be stuck unable to complete the dungeon.

Neera gathers up wild mages and helps them out: no. Too strongly tied to her character. Though you don't need her in the party anyway, at least for most of it.

Neera and the Thayan enclave in Waukeen's Promenade: sure, why not? You've already gone after one bunch of slavers just because they were slavers, and the evils of these Thayans include slave-trading. It just needs a hint to clue the protagonist in, really. But without Neera, this loses out on the personal touch. It just isn't the same if you're not rescuing people you've gotten to know recently.

Rasaad investigates a cult: a lot rests on his personal relationships and motivations, but the setup is standard adventurer bait. Find a way to fill the gaps that removing Rasaad leaves in the story, and there you are.

Rasaad liberates a dwarven fortress: the enemies are tied into Rasaad's story, but the scenario is a self-contained "stop the bad guys from setting off an apocalypse" story. Rasaad's just there to incite the player finding out about the place, and even that's a fortuitous accident in lore, as one of the assassins the bad guys send after Rasaad just happens to have a map pointing out the fortress. Very easy to imagine some other hook drawing the PCs in.

[megrimlock]

I don't know the BG2EE content for the EE NPCs very well, so that's a useful rundown. I was thinking actually about Adoy's Enclave in BG1EE. The German mod Shuk the goblin has a lot of cute content in that area, but obviously that is all behind a Neera "paywall" at the moment.

[jmerry]

Ah, another point. The EE NPCs and their quests are paid DLC in some versions of the game. Which is not something I'd be willing to bypass for a mod like this; either you have the NPC's DLC, or you don't get to do the area from their quest.

On that note ... I recommend adding the condition HasDLC("Dorn") to this mod's trigger script in AR6300. That way, if this mod gets installed on a mobile version that doesn't have the DLC, the game won't try to go to an area that might not even exist.

[megrimlock]

I was using the term paywall somewhat tongue in cheek, referring to the opportunity cost of having to take Neera in party. I have the EEs (and the originals).

[morpheus562]

Where are the list of DLC and DLC names located? I checked the .ids but was unable to find it there.

[Graion Dilach]

Look for Infinity_AddDLC in BGEE.LUA.

[subtledoctor]

3 hours ago, jmerry said:

Running through the EE NPC quests ...

Resurrection Gorge: actually, this one I could see adventurers getting into without Dorn. An incomplete ritual and a loose demon slowly corrupting the land is absolutely do-gooder bait. Dorn's plan of completing the ritual and summoning the demon he wants to kill is definitely not a do-gooder-approved solution, though.

Neera and the Thayan enclave in Waukeen's Promenade: sure, why not? You've already gone after one bunch of slavers just because they were slavers, and the evils of these Thayans include slave-trading. It just needs a hint to clue the protagonist in, really. But without Neera, this loses out on the personal touch. It just isn't the same if you're not rescuing people you've gotten to know recently.

Rasaad liberates a dwarven fortress: the enemies are tied into Rasaad's story, but the scenario is a self-contained "stop the bad guys from setting off an apocalypse" story. Rasaad's just there to incite the player finding out about the place, and even that's a fortuitous accident in lore, as one of the assassins the bad guys send after Rasaad just happens to have a map pointing out the fortress. Very easy to imagine some other hook drawing the PCs in.

These are great ideas. I didn't look too hard at the instant mod, only because I tend to play N/G parties who would not assault Mt. Celestia. But if it was a broader "here are some more quests that you might not otherwise see" mod, I think I would love that. Not for nothing, this is very similar in concept to my own "BP-in-BG" mod. (I would be happy to contribute it to a collection if it came to that, though some may not like the quality and/or design choices.)

Heck, I might even pay for the DLC just to get access to these quests. I generally have little interest in the EE NPCs, but doing these quests without them sounds fun.

[morpheus562]

I've not done Neera's ToB quest before, and I don't see it in your list above, @jmerry. Is that one that can easily be given to a PC without Neera, or is she heavily tied to it like Rasaad's quests?

[Allbrother]

4 hours ago, jmerry said:

It comes down to "would someone other than that NPC have a reason to be drawn in?"

 

Adding a questgiver where no personal stake exists would make the answer yes to all, no?

Edited October 6, 2023 by Allbrother

[morpheus562]

There is a bug in the original game I just identified going through the Lunia scroll dialog (OHDSCROL.DLG). Initially when removing names you can only remove Dorn's name if he is valid for party dialog; however, if you remove your name first you can then remove Dorn's name without performing a check if Dorn is valid for party dialog. The same check should be done in both instances except the one time.

@CamDawg EE Fixpack maybe?

Edited October 6, 2023 by morpheus562

[jmerry]

Forgot to mention it ... but yeah, she's heavily tied to it. Neera's ToB quest is incited by finding out that the same Thayan group that targeted wild mages before is still at it, and active in her area. Then you go to a clearing, call them in with a wild surge, and get whisked off to Thay when things inevitably go wrong. You could probably get away with triggering it if the party has a wild mage other than Neera, but that's as far as I'd go.

[mickabouille]

4 minutes ago, jmerry said:

You could probably get away with triggering it if the party has a wild mage other than Neera,

I was about to point exactly that

Or some other similar kit (like chaos sorcerer)