NPC Mod Review/opinions wanted

[Silvanerian]

Gents,

Interested in a review and general opinions on the following NPC mods should any of you have played them:

1. Ninafer
2. Xan
3. Kivan

I'm mostly interested in comments on feel compared to Bioware NPCs and especially voicing if present. (I absolutely hate mods where some random person has spoken into a microphone or what not)
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I'm further interested if anyone have heard of a mod that brings back Ajantis as an NPC to SoA/ToB.


Cheers

[arba]

I tried Xan a while back and I couldn't stand him more than a few minutes because of the voice acting, no offense to the person who did it but it was impossible for me to play with him. Maybe he came with some BG1 voicing that you could exchange for, though I can't recall exactly... the others I've no experience with.

[fable]

I have played none of them, but I suggest you do a search on Xan. There have been some very positive comments in this forum recently from people who have tried the mod.

[Silvanerian]

Yeah, I already read some of those, however, I also read somewhere else that his sound is terrible (also what arba confirms). Sound is something rather important to me, as it easily the thing that makes or breaks a NPC for me the quickest..

[Kulyok]

True enough, it is the same for me. I think the only way to check whether it works for you would be to try it; I think we did our best. By the way, v7 is available now, with new and improved BG1-style Flaming Sword animations - I'll put an announcement in a minute.

I can certainly recommend Kivan: a lot of content, interesting story, rich background, and very dialogue-heavy.

As for Ninafer, I understand she has very little content, and is still in development by its author over at CoM. I'd try Amber or Fade instead(or, if you like bards, Keto is incredible), but it's just me.


Edit: Ajantis NPC is indeed in the works; jastey, the author of Ajantis Romance for BG1, is doing it.

[Silvanerian]

Cheers

While I do agree that it's an individual thing (the voicing) and that it'd probably be easiest to just install and check for yourself, I have a few reservations about that as I once did it with kitiara or what her name was (an elven wizard slayer) and it overrode something so Cromwell now has her soundset and uninstall/reinstall of the whole game is such a tedious process.

And as I respect this community, I'm always interested in hearing their thoughts. Regarding the dialogue, some mods tend to overdo that to my tastes (solaufain is a great example). Same goes for overpowered items (almost all NPCs now a days it seems..)
And sometimes you have to play for quite a while to figure this out, which would then be 'wasted' when you realise you got the cat in the sack.

Generally, I'd wish the modders would be more elaborate in their read me's. Particularly regarding items/ a downloadable voice sample/ dialogue samples. That would make it easier to determine whether it was within ones taste or not.


But again, keep the thoughts coming if you got 'em!

[Kipi]

From those three, I have only tested Xan

First of all, in my opinion the voice acting was good. The voice really fit the general mood of Xan how he thinks the life.

Also, his banters are really awesome. Especially if used with Banter Pack mod, I got some serious discussions with Xan about the meaning of life and why bother doing anything. Also, Xan has very much to say during almost every quest-related dialogue (at least thus far, I haven't played through the game with Xan yet). Most of them are actually rather funny, though at some point his comments may be a bit annoying. But what other could we actually expect from Xan?

As a character, Xan is rather good. While installing the mod, you are able to choose which class he is. I use Wild Mage, as thus he will be the only WM NPC in the game. So, in that point, not a bad character at all.

So, I recommend Xan, especially if you have played BG 1, and you have a bit background about him. Makes the dialogies even funnier

[Sytze]

Does Xan's voice resembles that of Kelsey or is it more along the lines of Searileth's? The first one fits rather well into the BG world, but the latter not so much. In my humble opinion, of course.

[Kulyok]

It's rather low. More like the original Xan in BG1, or Keldorn.

[Sytze]

So it does fit in with the rest of the NPC voices? It isn't completely out of place in the BG world?

And if I may ask, is Xan just as rewarding if a male character brings him along--for the friendship path--or would you recommend him mostly for female PC's?

[Kipi]

I would say the voice fits very well to the BG world.

Also, even though I haven't tested him with female PC, I can say that Xan is very rewarding with male character. Not sure how much more there would be with female, if any at all.

[Silvanerian]

@Kulyok: Cheers for the Ajantis update. While I have no interest what-so-ever in romancing the chap, I much prefer BG1 Ajantis over BG2 Keldorn in terms of paladin companions.
The 'quiet' version of course, would be to just create a multiplayer game with a clone of Ajantis there. Already have his soundset, which I use when I play a paladin PC.


As to the 3 NPCs I enquired to, I have now run two thirds of SoA with Ninafer. She's nicely done. Not overly talkative, but with enough dialogue for my tastes.
Her sound is nice.
Power wise, she has low HP due to low con and average HP rolls (the belt of fortitute is good at mitigating this issue though), but on the other hand has an unremovable ring which grants her 50% magic resistance and +2 level 5 spells and +1 level 6 spells, making her rather powerful, but not more so than Edwin or Hear Dalis...

[Rhûn]

Xan is probably my favourite NPC mod. And I thought the voice acting was acceptable.

Kivan, well, it bugs me that he arrives at lvl8 with 40hp, meaning he contends with Aerie for lowest hitpoints, so I always have to edit his hp in ShadowKeeper after accepting him to bring him up to a more normal hp. Otherwise he's okay; used to be my favourite NPC in BG1 but I find the Xan mod superior and now too the character. It's fun to make an elf and go with an elven trio with Kivan and Xan (especially if you make Xan a Fighter/Mage, which is part of the mod's optional components).

[Kipi]

Originally Posted by Rhûn

Xan is probably my favourite NPC mod. And I thought the voice acting was acceptable.

Kivan, well, it bugs me that he arrives at lvl8 with 40hp, meaning he contends with Aerie for lowest hitpoints, so I always have to edit his hp in ShadowKeeper after accepting him to bring him up to a more normal hp. Otherwise he's okay; used to be my favourite NPC in BG1 but I find the Xan mod superior and now too the character. It's fun to make an elf and go with an elven trio with Kivan and Xan (especially if you make Xan a Fighter/Mage, which is part of the mod's optional components).

Well, as Archer, Kivan wasn't supposed to be in front lines. Thus, the HP is accpetable. I haven't had any such situations where he would die because of it (he has died because stupid tactics of mine), so the HP is acceptable, especially after couple of levels.

I never tried Xan as Fighter/Mage, as he is very usefull as Wild Mage (probably the best class in the game). But I agree with you that Xan is very good choice for party, especially because of his dailogues.

[QuenGalad]

I have played Kivan more than once, and I can honestly recommend him. He's a rather tragic npc, but is a good friend and loyal companion. (Offers the best romance ever, IMO, but I guess you'll be playing male?). The mod also offers a possibility to resurrect Deheriana for ToB playtrough. Kivan's low hp is understandable, since he's not the most robust chap around . I find his voicing excellent, there's not much of it, since he's rather a silent one, but it reminds me of the Elven Archers from Warcraft 2. He's got no overpowered items.

Definetely my favorite npc.