NiGHTMARE

Tameon: heh no, none of those are characters currently planned for LoI, they are just a few ideas for the types of NPCs I wouldn't mind someone writing for us. Of course I'm open to any other good idea someone has As for Tiax, I suppose he could somehow escape from Spellhold early on, but later gets recaptured. Or something.

Stinky_ogre: that should certainly prove interesting to write! And quite suitable considering your username Anyay, you'll probably want the stats for half-Ogres:

Half-ogre

This hybrid comes from ogre and human parents. They average 7-8'tall, have ruddy complexions, dark hair, and dark eyes. They look like huge humans. Half-ogres can be Fighters, Barbarians or Clerics, and cannot be multi-classed. They can be any alignment.

Ability scores:

STR: 14-18, +1 adjustment

DEX: 13-12

CON: 14-18, +1 adjustment

INT: 3-12, -1 adjustment

WIS: 3-12, -1 adjustment

CHA: 3-8

Thieving skill adjustments:

-5% Pick Pockets

+5% Open Locks

-5% Move Silently

-5% Hide In Shadows

-10% Detect Illusion

Other:

- natural AC of 8

- -4 AC penalty when attacked by small creatures (dwarves, gnomes, halflings, goblins, kobolds, etc).

- +1 to attack rolls and damage with warhammers (in other words, that's their favoured weapon)

- 60' Infravision

Thanks for the offer! My first piece of advice is to remember that LoI will have more kits & races than BG2, so don't let those restrict you. Anyway, here are few ideas:

The return of Alora, Eldoth, Faldorn, Garrick, Kagain, Montaron, Skie, Xzar or Yeslick from BG1. Others are either already in BG2/LoI or other mods, or are too integral to the BG2 plot or appear too late in-game (Faldorn, Garrick, Xzar, etc can easily be worked around, but Coran, Quayle, Tiax, etc are a different story) . I know a lot of them are in TDD, but they're so underdeveloped there we can safely ignore that

Races:

1) a half-breed character. LoI will add half-Ogres and half-Orogs as well as the usual half-Orcs.

2) an evil Halfling or Gnome.

3) a Ghostwise Halfling.

4) a normal looking character who happens to have an "unusual ancestor", such as a Celestial, Djinni, Efreeti or Dragon.

5) a Half-Elf of an uncommon subrace, e.g. half-Aquatic, half-Avariel (interesting banters with Aerie) or half-Drow (very interesting banters with Viconia).

Classes:

1) a single classed Thief. BG2 could really do with one after Yoshimo is dead. Of course both Alora and Skie would fill this role.

2) a three multi-class character, such as a Fighter/Mage/Thief or Fighter/Mage/Cleric. Just because they're so rare in BG2.

3) a Barbarian.

4) an unusual Druid. This could be a grey (underground) druid, a shadow druid (Faldorn!!! ), a lost druid (one bent on revenge for some wrong), a druid outlaw, etc.

5) a Necromancer. A good aligned Necromancer could be interesting to write for, though even a stereotypical evil one would still be cool. Most Necromancers seem to be Human, so a non-Human could be fun to do too.

6) a Bard. Garrick and Eldoth would both fill this role, but I wouldn't mind seeing a female bard either.

7) a non-good Paladin-like character. This could be an evil Death Knight or Anti-Paladin, but there are neutral equivalents too (I believe the true neutral version is called a Witch Knight).

There are a few characters I'd like to avoid:

1) any more single-class Rangers or Clerics, as LoI is already going to have 2 of each. I wouldn't be opposed to a multi-classed one though.

2) the same with Paladins. I think Keldorn and Jaina, along with the Paladin-like Mazzy and LG Anomen, are enough.

3) any more good-inclined Elves. The BG series has enough already IMHO. An evil Elf would be a refreshing change, though I'd prefer an evil Halfling or Gnome...

4) a super-powerful canon character, such as Drizzt or Elminster, but of course this almost goes without saying. A rarely heard of, non-powerful pnp character who has good reason for being ingibberlings3.net Amn would be okay. For example, one or more of Cadderly's companions (from the Cleric Quintet) would make an interesting addition.

5) someone who has "lost their memory". It's just too clichèd.

Being turned into a Gibberling is an honour!

Tameon: Great! Superb! Woohoo! etc Looks like Kivan will be getting some company in his journey from BG1 to the sequel

BTW, if someone with the neccessary powers sees this, please give Tameon access to the private forums, thanks

Andyr: Hmm... Firewalker of Kossuth... Underdark... Portals... Planes... Elemental portals are already there... Elemental Plane of Fire!!!

Anyway, credit must also go to the currently MIA Corradun, who came up with the quests involving the Council of Six, the Sythillisian empire, the slavers, and the Church of Cyric.

Are you gonna have an upgrade thingymajig run if you have Elai or Kivan installed already and want the new material?

Not sure. You'll probably need to start a new game anyway (for the new worldmap, amongst other things), so you might as well just remove them first.

  Wachoobaloo! I've been waiting to hear more of this ever since you first revealed it over at the Kivan forum! Yay! Wow, NiGHTMARE, this really looks neat! Can't wait! With this and Return to Windspear, ToB will be just as good as SoA. But something I'm curfuzled about is...

Forgot to mention this before, but here are just some of the people who may be cropping up in the ToB portion of LoI:

- More Bhaalspawn (of course )

- The churches of Cyric, Iyachtu Xvim, Loviator & Talona

- The Knights of the Black Gauntlet (a group of knights devoted to the then dead god Bane)

- The Harpers

- The Tel'Teukiira (Khelben's newly formed Harper splinter group, who're especially interested in the "prophecies of Alaundo")

- A certain scaley old "friend" from SoA

- A... no I can't tell you this one. He's just too freakin' cool to spoil anything

Kivan and Elai are both nearing completion (just coding left to do for Kivan

This just made my day.

Oh that's a classic...

Yeah, that should have been "just"

More then one NPC (I thought the paladin chick was the only one)? Are they all joinable? More importantly, can you romance the paladin chick    ? And aren't Kivan and Elai seperate mods from both each other and LoI? Do you have *anything* to do with Elai? I don't remember you having anything to do with him. If so, I am terribly sorry. But anyway, keep up the great work, and if there is anything I can do to help I would be honored to work on such a mod (however I really need to just sticking to what I've started at the current time).

Kivan and Elai will be seperate mods but will also be included in LoI. The LoI versions will have extra banters, interjections, etc and benefit from our "character customizations" if you install that component. I haven't had anything to do with Elai, besides offering Andyr a couple of suggestions for the Nightcloak of Shar kit

Jaina, a Cavalier of Milil, is the character I'm going to write. There are no plans for a romance between her and the PC, as I prefer writing NPC/NPC banters A romance between her an another party memer is a possibility though. The Firewalker - if he even is a Firewalker rather than just a regular Cleric of Kossuth - is something Andyr mentioned he has planned, I don't really know much more about him/her than that

I have some ideas for other NPCs, but only time will tell if they ever come to anything more than that. Ideally I would like there to be at least 5 new NPCs, so the PC can bring an entirely new group along with him. Another NPC writer or two would definitely be welcome... even if they're just someone who's currently working on an NPC mod who would be willing to let us include him/her/it in LoI (after all, this is exactly what we've done with Kivan and Elai).

Hmm... perhaps once you're done co-auothing the Branwen romance for the BG1NPC Project, you and your partner might consider bringing her over into BG2...?

Sounds pretty damn cool.  Release date... 2008?

2010 more like

Seriously though, here's what's already been done (much of the below was done ages ago, before Andyr joined... probably even before I decided upon the name "Lands of Intrigue"):

- Kivan and Elai are both nearing completion (just coding left to do for Kivan, not so sure about Elai). Writing their LoI exclusive banters, interjections, etc probably won't take us very long at all.

- The background and quests for Jaina have been fully planned out, and a few banters written. I believe Andyr is planning to start work on the other NPC once Elai is finished.

- Quests involving the Sythillisian Empire, Council of Six, the Knights of the Shield and a group of slavers have been fully planned out (well, unless we add more quests involving them).

- A good number of the new encounters have had a substantial amount of detail already worked out, including a heavily expanded version of one of the Battles components.

- I've ensured that the new creatures that we're planning to add (e.g. Bugbears and Hook Horrors) will be fully compatible with BP & CTB. New spells are a different story, so they'll most likely be an optional component.

- I have a very good idea what I'd like several of ToB quests/encounters for the Bioware NPCs will be. To be more precise, the ones for Anomen, Minsc and Viconia. Jaheira and Edwin are more vague, and of course someone else may have ideas for other NPCs.

- Stats for virtually all the subraces and the Druidic deity & branch selections have been compiled (as data that is, not in-game). Ranger deity & terrain selection and Paladin deity selection stats are well on their way too. Cleric deity selection is obviously currently being handled by the Cleric revamp mod (as are the new priestly spells)

- Deities, subraces, etc for the Bioware NPCs have been "decided" (that is I've listed them, but if Andyr doesn't agree on something I'll be happy to accomodate his suggestions )

- Graphical edits of nearly all Cloudpeaks, Underdark, De'Arnise Keep, the Abbey of Highsong and ToB encounter areas are finished. Of the other locations we have planned, this "just" leaves Murann, Monrativi Teshy Mir, Ithal Pass, Kzelter and a couple of other areas to do. Of course we may decide to add more new areas as time goes by.

- a huge list of new items I'd like to include has been created (in fact this list dates back to before I even begun Kivan )

- New locations and expanded versions of existing ones! Explore new parts of Athkatla, trek through the Cloudpeak mountain range, get lost in an Underdark's that's over twice the size you remember it (and has several new inhabitants), battle your way through the ancient Shoonite capital of Monrativi Teshy Mir, and more!

- Dozens of brand new quests which tie-in with and add-on to the existing SoA and ToB storylines. Get mixed up with the shady goings on of the Council of Six and the Knights of the Shield, and fight the forces of insidious groups such as the Sythillisian Empire and Church of Bane.

- New ToB quests and encounters for certain Bioware NPCs! Anomen, Jaheira, Mazzy, Minsc and Viconia will all be recieving extra content.

- Numerous new random (and not-so random) encounters, including some in ToB!

- A handful of new NPCs, including a Cavalier of Milil, a Cleric of Selune and an Elven Sorceress. We'll also be incorporating NPCs from certain other mods, such as the two very different (Half-)Elven Rangers Kivan and Elai. Their LoI incarnations will of course have even more dialogue and brand new quests!

- A huge number of new items! These includes "missing" armour and weapons such as Ring Mail, Banded Mail, Broadswords and Rapiers, as well as the obligatory horde magical items. Also, non-magical weapons and armour will now range in quality, ala the BG: Dark Alliance games.

- A new in-game series of dialogs which allow for far greater customization of your PC. Chose your subrace, which deity you worship, and so on.

- Druids will also be able to chose which Druidic branch they belong to, and Rangers can select their primary terrain. These will help define your characters even further than their kit!

- Another optional component will apply the deities, subraces, etc to NPCs, including the original BG2 characters!