NiGHTMARE

Sort of. The 12 kits mentioned above aren't all ready and most likely won't be released before anything else, but numerous other kits which were originally planned to be in LoI have been/will be featured in other mods instead (such as Cleric Remix and Song & Silence).

LoI is about more than just areas, quests and NPCs, so I thought I'd provide some stats for some of the other planned features: New types of weapon: 24 New types of armour: 7 New creature animations: 18 Improved existing creatures: 15 New kits: 12 Portraits for non-joinable characters: 115 New portraits for PC to join from: 41 The good news is that a sizable portion of the above has already been implemented - though all the above figures are most definitely subject to change .

You could apply a kit to a mage/thief multi-class, as long as you're willing to live with a couple of minor things (like it not having its own description).

Also, bear in mind there's a difference between the barbarian class and barbarian tribesfolk - the latter do not neccessarily have to be one of the former .

As has been discussed before, Minsc didn't always have a low wisdom, and there is nothing in the 2E rules which states Rangers will fall if their stats become too low.

LoI will explore Firkraag's motiviations, ambitions and backstory in considerably further detail. It'll make sense, trust me .

In this instance, the only real change is that he'll have quite a lot of extra backup (the rationale being he's recently taken control of another local monstrous tribe), though he'll have also captured and imprisoned Garren. Incidentally, none of Consequences will have much impact unless the party actually goes to the relevant areas.

From what I can tell, many of the benefits will be for mod makers rather than players. There are many things which are hard-coded into the engine which modders would like to be able to play around with, not to mention certain features that we'd love to have added to the game.

Sounds great! BTW is it a long term goal to eventually use every single one of Sporeboy's portraits for G3 NPCs?

Many of these look like Unfinished Business .

Acrobat: I'd say being limited to studded leather and not being able to place any proficiency points in certain weapons more than compensates for +1 AC and +1 AC vs. missiles per 8 levels Chorister: I don't see how he's overpowered. Those aren't innate abilities, only spells available in his spellbook.

Several pnp books feature an Acrobat, but IIRC we decided on this one's abilities ourselves. The Chorister is a new kit, but inspired by the 3rd Edition version of the Bard (which can cast healing spells, etc). I'm not sure whether the Diresinger is made up, or taken from the book this mod is named after, i.e. Song and Silence. The Gypsy is from The Complete Bard's Handbook, though with quite a lot of modifcation .

Q: Will LoI make use of WeiDU? A: Of course! Q: Will I need to have the ToB expansion in order to play LoI? A: LoI adds content to both SoA and ToB, but we will attempt to make sure you don't need ToB to use the SoA content. Q: What sort of content will LoI feature? A: Almost anything you can imagine; NPCs, quests, areas, kits, spells, items, etc. New music is just about the only thing which isn't planned. Q: That's a lot of stuff! Why not split everything into seperate mods? A: When I (NiGHTMARE) first concieved of the mod, the intention was to create something in the style of an "official" add-in expansion, with almost every aspect of the game expanded/improved. Also, some of the content is so intertwined (e.g. a new NPC (who uses a new kit)'s quest involves killing a new enemy in a new area. This enemy carries new items and casts new spells) that spltting it up into several mods would involve having a large amount of duplicated content. However, some of LoI's content is taken from mods which are/will be available in seperate mods. This includes the NPCs Kivan, Elai and Nasard, and a large number of the kits and spells. Q: Fair enough I suppose. But are you concentrating on a specific type of new content? A: Personally I consider Quests to be the most important aspect of the mod, though NPCs are a close second. Items and spells will probably recieve the least attention, though that's not to say that they'll be neglected. Q: Which mods are you planning to ensure compatability with? A: Quest mods are our main priority here. Unfinished Business, Sim's Quest Pack and The Plot Thickens should all work with no problems... and there may even be some additional content that's only available if one of those mods is intalled . We're aware of some possible plot incompabilities in certain NPC mods, such as Chloe and Kiara & Zaiya. Thse will be investigated and if possible resolved. We will also attempt to ensure that LoI is compatible with the Big Picture and Check The Bodies. Q: When will LoI be finished? A: When it's done.

Re: the LoI workrooms, whenever Camdawg gets around to it . BTW to see it, you'll need to first enter the public forum. You should see "LoI Team Discussion", "LoI Areas", "LoI Creatures", etc at the top.

Ellderon: It's not just a case of enforcing the rules: to me, most non-humans would simply not want to become a paladin (especially as they have their own somewhat similar classes and/or kits), and the majority of non-human gods would not support the idea of their followers being paladins either. Elven gods in particular are mostly Chaotic Good, and only LG, NG and LN gods have paladins - not because of a stupid rules thing; just as an Evil god would obviously not have a Good aligned order of knights, a Chaotic god would not have a Lawful aligned order of knights. Also, why is that everyone is absolutely fine with non-humans having dozens of prestige classes/kits which aren't available to humans (e.g. bladesinger, battlerager, etc), yet there are many people who don't seem to want there to be even a single class/kit which is exclusive to humans? This "making all the races even more human-like" thing is one of the biggest issues I have with 3rd Edition. Guest: your question has already been answered several times in this thread: the crusader. LG crusaders can even use holy avengers to their fullest effect, for crying out loud! .

In pen and paper 2nd Edition terms the crusader isn't a type of cleric; like the paladin it's an entirely seperate class. However, due to game engine limitations we're forced to implement the crusader as a cleric kit. Priest group: - Cleric - Crusader - Druid - Monk - Mystic - Oracle - Shaman - Speciality Priest* - War Priest - etc * technically many types of priest are speciality priests (even druids), but in this instance it refers to things like Morninglords of Lathander, Silverstars of Selune, etc. The reason elves can be paladins in NWN because the game is 3rd edition, whereas BG2 is 2nd edition. 3rd edition got rid of the crusuader (and many other classes, such as the shaman and mystic), so if you're converting a 2E character to 3E, a crusader would become a paladin . In fact, perhaps your character could be a crusader normally, but a paladin with "controversial tweaks" installed? Those portraits you sent me are a pretty nice selection . We need to have 210x330 versions for the ToB epilogues, but I've seen most of these protraits before and think I may already larger versions saved to my hard disk. Oh, and f_warM is already being used for a LoI NPC - my own female paladin, Jaina ;D. EDIT: I've definitely got a 210x330 version of the portrait you want to use for Thalia . We do have a private workroom, yes . I've asked the forum admin to give you access.

Elves and Chaotic-ness: Elves don't really have laws of their own, they mostly rely on their own inbuilt sense of what's right and what's wrong. They certainly don't seem to particularly go out of their way to respect the laws of other races. The player's handbook says "they concern themselves with natural beauty, dancing and frolicking, playing and singing, unless necessity dictates otherwise." - sounds a lot more like CG than LG . Crusaders and paladins: personality wise, I don't see all that much difference between a LG crusader and a paladin. Both are very religious, have knightly orders (though not all are members of such orders), fight enemies of their church, go out of their way to help people in need, are natural leaders, etc. In terms of abilities, both are nearly as skilled in combat as a fighter, can wield any type of weapon and wear any type of armor (crusaders are the only "official" class besides paladins who can wield holy avengers and gain their full benefits), can cast cleric spells (though crusaders gain access to higher level spells and gain spells more quickly), etc. Crusaders cannot turn undead or use 'lay on hands' like a paladin, but then again the inquisitor kit cannot do either of these things either; in fact, given the inquisitor's lack of spellcasting, I'd dare say a LG crusader is more similar to a kitless paladin than an inquisitor is . Subraces: I didn't mean to create new ones either .

Lots of NPCs: as long as they're all well developed, there isn't really a problem. Though bear in mind that for every new NPC added, we have to write not only that NPC's banters, but banters between the existing LoI NPCs and this character. Plus as Domi mentioned, each time a new character is added to the list, the number of new banters required increases . Having NPCs of the same class isn't really a problem (though I can't say I've heard of many people who have two or more rangers or paladins in their party); when I say we shouldn't really have similar NPCs, I'm talking more in terms of their backgrounds and personalities. Demonic ancestors: the commonly held theory by many inhabitants of the Forgotten Realms is that sorcerers inherit their innate magical powers from a demonic (or possibly draconic) ancestor. Elves in particular hate the idea of a "taint" in members of their kind, and some elves even dislike half-elves for this reason. Alternate subraces: sure, if you want to come up with all the stats and stuff, go for it . Crusader: Do you mean more paladin-like in terms of abilities, or in terms of their personality, duties, activities, etc? Paladins: Ah, another person who's fallen into the old "Lawful = never breaks the law" trap! The creators of D&D made a real balls up by naming the alignment 'Lawful' , as 'Ordered' would have been a far more accurate description. While a Lawful character is generally more likely to obey the law than a Chaotic person, it actually means they're a somewhat more logical thinker, far more self disciplined, less likely to make a hasty decision, and so on. All traits that should be required of a paladin in my humble opinion .

So, this "controversial tweaks" component could include: - Remove class-based weapon restrictions* - New armour damage resistance system - 3rd Edition style feats - Make Imoen a bard - Imoen rescue time limit - Kits selected via strongholds** * a note on the weapon restrictions: LoI will already alter weapon restrictions so all weapons are usable by clerics. However, this is only for technical purposes - "true-class" clerics (i.e. clerics without a kit) will actually have a kit applied to them which reinstates their proper restrictions. Doing this lets us set more accurate restrictions for other types of priest, e.g. the crusader and war priest can use any weapon. ** Another idea we discussed a while back: you wouldn't chose a kit for your character in the start-up screen: instead, you get to chose it once you recieve the stronghold appropriate for your class. Aquarillyane Starsunder: an elven sorceress would be pretty cool . I expect she'd be treated quite badly by most other surface elves who knew of her nature, as they'd probably assume her to have a demonic ancestor (a big no no in elven society). That would certainly prove quite interesting. Thalia: We're already going to be adding a female paladin to the game, so if both were included it would be repeating things a little bit. As for the sample banter, Bondari reloads can be good if done subtly, but this just an entirely "OMG this a game, stop getting so absorbed in it!!!" moment . For these reasons, would you perhaps be willing to consider having her be a crusader instead? If it helps make your mind up, here's the crusader's description and abilties: Elith: I'm afraid the position of chaotic good male elven ranger is already taken by Kivan . I wouldn't be quite so opposed if he were a she, since no other mod I know of has a female ranger in it, and I've always wanted to have one in the party . BTW we've already created all the new LoI ranger kits, and there are couple of elf-only ones, namely the Bowslinger and Wilderness, so s/he could perhaps use one of these. Echtellion: Although we already plan to include a fighter/mage, the current one is a half-elf and is entirely unique in his personality and abilities, so they shouldn't prove too similar. Radgast Spellstorm: A good aligned single class mage is certainly something the game could do with . One thing we could really do with is more evil NPCs, but I gather you prefer to write good aligned characters. If anyone else out there is willing to try your hand at something dark, I would really love to have an assassin monk (a new kit we're adding) character... devil: Regarding the files, you can send stuff to nickATfrad.org (replace the AT with an @), but I can only recieve attachments under 2 megabytes or so. If there's anything larger than that, I'm planning to set up my own ftp server sometime reasonably soon, so you'll be able to upload it there.

Well, the standard alignment for elves is chaotic good, and of course paladins are lawful good. Also, elves tend to be defensive in nature (they're content to leave most evil beings alone as long as such beings leave them alone), while paladins need a certain degree of offensiveness - a holy crusade wouldn't really appeal to the typical elf, but a paladin would be all for it . Dwarves do tend to be lawful good, but generally lack the charisma required of a paladin. As I said, we are going to add various "holy warrior" types of kit, some of which are unique to individual races . For example, the champion is a dwarf-only kit, and the war priest is only available to halfbreeds (half-orcs, half-ogres, etc). There's also a half-elf NPC in LoI who has paladin-like abilities, though these come from arcane rather than divine powers. Regarding the altered weapon/armour restrictions, have you taken into account the fact that certain classes aren't allowed to use certain items not just because they don't know how to use them, but because of their religious/spiritual beliefs? For example, druids' beliefs mean they aren't allowed to wear metallic armor or use most bladed weapons, and standard clerics are allowed to use bladed weapons either (though speciality priests' weaon and armor restrictions vary wildly). BTW, using WeiDu it's possible to automatically change item and weapon restrictions, damage resistances, AC, etc rather than edit individual .itm's, and you can even code it to affect items added by other mods . The reason many people would object to any changes of this nature is mainly because such changes are against the official 2nd Edition rules. While a lot of people wouldn't mind in the slightest if we bent or even broke the rules, many virtually worship the D&D system, and would virtually would hate us for such "blasphemy" . Plus I'm sure some of the people who don't mind us breaking the rules would simply dislike some or all of the changes. I suggested an optional "controversial tweaks" component in the previous post, and thinking on it further I believe it's a good idea. It would keep both the "don't screw with the rules!!!" and the "I couldn't care less about the rules" camps happy . In fact, I have a few things of my own that could be added to such a component. These include a 3rd Edition style feats system, making Imeon a bard rather than a thief/mage, and turning her into the Ravager if you don't rescue her in time. I can extract your text, though I'll have to make sure to backup the original dialog.tlk first . Paladin kit ideas are good - they're the one class we need a few more kits for. All the other classes have all the available slots filled up already .

Race/class restrictions: Personally I don't agree that all classes should be open to all races (just like not all kits should be open to all races), though I do think certain race/class combinations which aren't allowed should be. In fact, there are some combinations allowed in pen and paper 2nd Edition which aren't possible in BG2, such as elven druids (and halflings and gnomes both have priest kits which are so close to being druids they practically are druids), and so we'll be implementing these. Paladins are one class which I think should remain human only (for various reasons), but we are introducing various "holy warrior" types of cleric kit, such as the crusader, champion, and war priest. Allowing other races to become paladins would cause obvious conflicts with the whole "Mazzy can't become a paladin" issue, and from a purely technical standpoint we're running low on fighter kit slots . New armor system: It sounds intriguing, but we'd have to see it in action first. We're planning to add several new types of armor, such as padded armor, banded mail and chain shirts, so new stats for these would have to be worked out. We're also planning to include a quality and material system for non-magical armor, and combining the altered stats of these with an altered damage system could get very complicated . I'd imagine working out the bonuses/penalties each individual suit magical armor should grant you could get rather time consuming as well. Another worry is that including such a thing in LoI is pretty much guaranteed to generate complaints from people who preffered the old system. Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate II inconsistencies: technically these were created by TSR rather than Bioware, since the book (obviously) came out after BG2 . Sorcerer kits: BG2 doesn't allow kits for Sorcerers, Monks or Barbarians, but you can fake them by using scripting. Granting them extra or fewer spells and HP per level is certainly possible, but changing weapon/armor restrictions and maximum proficiency points is not. Sending stuff: if you could convert your dialog.tlk to a text file (easily done in Near Infinity) and remove all the original lines, that would be a huge help . As Andyr mention we're using WeiDU for this mod, and I heartily encourage you to try your hand at it - it isn't anywhere near as complicated as it first seems . All weapons for all classes: as with the new armor system, there would be many complaints if we included this . It's already part of an existing tweak pack (Ashes of Embers), so if anyone really wants this in LoI then they can simply install that. Come to think of it, I suppose we could include an optional "controversial tweaks" component . BTW I'm keeping a close eye on GemRB, which aims to be a complete remake of the Infinity Engine but allowing for far more customization. If and when it gets into a fully usable/playable state, we can discuss switching to it .

2), 3), 4) and 7) are all directly tied in with larger, brand new quests. All the rest except 1) are brand new quests in themselves, which simply happen to feature existing characters. 1) is simply something that I feel needs to be done to the game - many people say there should be consequences for taking too long to rescue Imoen, and I say there also ought to be consequences for not saving towns in danger (i.e. Trademeet and Imnesvale), letting evil red dragons carry out their nefarious schemes, etc.

The Lands of Intrigues mod is going to add many brand new quests (as well as areas, kits, NPCs, etc ), but we're planning to change and expand some of the existing quests as well. In order to try to ensure compatability with other quest mods, we've decided to let the public know of our plans in this regards . 1) Consequences Consequences is an optional component of the mod that affects certain existing BG2 quests (as well as some introduced by LoI) if you don't complete them before heading off to Spellhold. Certain people will be killed, there'll be more/tougher monsters, and so on. We currently plan to do this for Firkraag, the Shade Lord, Faldorn and the occupying forces of the De'arnise Keep, but we may include others, such as the Unseeing Eye. 2) The Slavers (Copper Coronet, Slaver Stockade, etc) Numerous changes here. First, dealing with the slavers/smugglers is going to become part of the critical path, as Saemon's crew refuse to sail while slavers prowl the waves. Unless you offer Saemon lots of extra money to sail regardless of this threat (which will have certain repurcussions of its own), you'll have to do the various related quests. There are also plans add an alternative, evil resolution to the slaver scenario... 3) The Fallen Paladins Once you start routing out the slaving/smuggling ring in Athkatla, it will trigger the appearance of the fallen paladins and the smugglers in the bridge district if you haven't already encountered them. You'll even be able to steal Anarg's cup from the Radiant Heart for him, meaning there can be a non-violent resolution to the situation. 4) Isae Roenall The slavers quest will also open up the whole "find incriminating evidence against Isae" task to Nalia-less parties. You'll even be able to simply assassinate the creep instead of going evidence hunting. Of course we'll make provisions for Nalia joining after Isae's imprisonment/death. 5) Renal "Bloodscalp" LoI will have Renal give you another quest, entitled "The Burglar, The Spy and The Maid". To try to avoid conflicts with other mods (particularly Sim's Quest pack), this will take place before he asks you to deal with Mae'Var. 6) The Hidden & the Illithids This quest hasn't really been thought through yet, but it will (amongst other things) likely involve opening up Jan's quest to parties without him. It will also add a character to the unoccupied jail cell in the room with Tazok and, believe it or not, tie the Hidden in with certain events of Baldur's Gate 1. 7) The Twisted Rune Though you'll be asked to deal with the Rune during the course of one of the new LoI quests, this really just serves as an excuse to attack them. Besides that, nothing else about the Rune will be changed. Well, not in SoA anyway... 8) The Stronger LoI will expand on the whole De'Arnise Keep thing by explaining the Yuan-ti's motives for their part in the attack. However, it won't reveal who the Stronger is or his own reasons for invading the keep, as this what JCompton and co. plan to do in the De'Arnise romance. 9) Khiser Jhaeiri In pnp, this fellow is the head of a Tethyr-wide band of assassins called the Cats Claws, a group who have strong ties to the Shadow Thieves. We thought it would be nice to make use of this information .

No, I don't believe you could create a kit for these class even if it were NPC-only. You could, however, simulate a kit for them by adding stuff to their .cre files, through scripting, etc. EDIT: oh yeah, has anyone else noticed that there's a CLABMO01.2da? It suggests that Bioware at least thought about letting Monks have kits

The kit would be either a cleric or mage kit, but applied to a cleric/mage multi- or dual-classed NPC. I guess a more general version of my question could be: If you give a kit an ability that would usually be ignored because it's for the wrong class (e.g. a fighter kit which improves pick pockets, which would obviously have no effect in-game), if we applied this kit it to a multi- or dual-classed character who's other class(es) does support this ability (e.g. the hypothetical fighter kit with improved pick pockets is applied to a fighter/thief), would the ability take effect?