A new year a new attempt at Tutu

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I'm starting yet another Tutu game. The problem I have always run into while restarting the game is I use the Level 1 NPCs mod to remedy that the NPCs are pretty boring to me without kits on at least some of them. I'll change my mind for every restart, but I'd like to just find a good fit for each NPC and not have to deal with going through the mods over and over. Any Kit that is available in a mod somewhere available online is eligible. I have compiled a list similar to Felinoid's "Kits to fit" found here: http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19805 and I used his list as an inspiration for some of the NPCs.

Ajantis -seems more like a Cavalier, but Inquisitor is more useful in TuTu.
Alora - Burglar from Song and Silence fits the best or Sharpshooter from the same mod for the best slinger I can imagine.
Branwen -either Ftr/Clr dual or Battleguard of Tempus from Divine Remix
Coran - I'm going to go on a limb and say Archer for extreme archery fun plus who needs another thief by the time you pick him up.
Dynaheir - no change
Edwin -no change though his amulet makes sorcerer or wild mage sound juicy, but then again he's lawful so neither fit his personality.
Eldoth - I'm going to take Felinoid's lead and go with Assassin.
Faldorn - really any of the druid kits mechanically make her better, but I can't decide which is the best for her.
Garrick - Skald or normal bard. Chorister from Song and Silence would be fun and make him more useful.
Imoen - personally I feel she fits a Jester best, but if you want to keep her a thief/mage Adventurer from many mods including Song and Silence.
Jaheira - Felinoid suggests Ranger which I like, but I'm content with her normal F/D
Kagain -Wizardslayer, maybe or just regular Fighter
Khalid - Regular fighter or just to be different Ranger to fit his wife's druidic nature
Kivan - the obvious is Archer, but I thought Stalker would interesting EXCEPT the Stalker has no benefit for a character under BG1's level cap.
Minsc - Barbarian, Berserker, or to change things up Holy Liberator from Oversight, but the ragers fit the best.
Montaron - F/T or Assassin, nothing new
Quayle - Cleric/Illusionist, but he's just crazy enough to fit the role of the party's Wild Mage
Safana - Swashbuckler or to again follow Felinoid's lead a bard either Vanilla, Blade, or anything from Song and Silence.
Shar-Teel - Berserker, Barbarian, Vanilla Fighter, or maybe Pit Fighter from Ashes to Embers
Skie - nothing comes to mind
Tiax - no change, but he does worship Cyric, I believe, so Strifeleader of Cyric from Divine Remix if you want to kit a multi-class or drop the thief part.
Viconia - Personally I think she could be anything from Nightcloak of Shar from Divine Remix to Assassin, Assassin/Cleric, or my personal favorite Cleric/Mage.
Xan - I wouldn't change
Xzar - Necromancer fits him so well, but he's just crazy enough to be a Wild Mage. OR you could change him to a Cleric to start with and then dual him over to Mage.
Yeslick - no change

I'm still not sure about using Divine Remix because I'm content with the current Divine magic system right now. Anyone have any suggestions? I plan on playing with SCS so any overpowered NPCs are not a problem as long as they sort of stay in character.

 

Ajantis-actually makes sense as an Inquisitor as Keldorn knows him and he might have trained under him too.

Branwen-definitely Battleguard! She screams she is a priest of Tempus!

Eldoth-an assasin? I made him a jester, whose songs cause discomfort and chaos and rebellion. It fits with the Bentley's reaction to him via BG1NPC mod.

Faldorn-go for avenger. She is angry. She is vengeful.

Garrick-really no skald material here. Skalds are also proud and strong warriors in their own right. Chorister sounds fun, I can picture him as a choir boy. lol.

Khalid-I made him a fighter/mage. So the wife and husband have something in common (MC fighters) but at the same time they are very different. (mage-druid) a mod adds a little dialogue about his F/M ways too!

Kivan-Archer makes more sense for him but stalkers are useful in BG1 too, they can backstab and Kivan is a muscular elf who has exceptional strength so its not a bad idea.

Quayle-I can't picture him as a wild mage. A wild mage is not only crazy (although, most are.) a true wild mage at heart is supposed to be a quirky, curious, reckless, fun, and eccentric guy, not an ugly, rude little gnome who thinks he has the smartest butt in the Fearun.

Xzar-again, no wild mage material. His banters in NPC mod shows his morbid fascination with death, decay and preservation, things heavily associated with a vile necromancer.


I heartily reccomend Divine Remix, it really enhances the feeling of divine casters.
You have NPC mod right, a must to have for any TuTu run.

 

The Dual class was my alternative if I were to not install Divine Remix because unlike other mods that add kits, it shakes things up a bit too. Therefore, requires a bit more thought before committing.

I was just taking Felinoid's lead. More or less the poisoned arrows he creates seem to fit an assassin. Plus if I make Imoen a Jester, its pointless to have Eldoth as one too.

Which mod adds the dialogue?

The Stalker's backstab would help if it kicked in before level 9. The stalker only gets a x1 backstab until then and if I remember right that makes him as good at backstabbing as any other ranger (or any fighter type with a potion of invisiblity. If you ask me +20% Stealth is not worth the cost of only being able to wear leather armor. Mechanically if I wanted to see Kivan backstab I could make him some sort of stalking Fighter/Thief, but roleplayingwise that's not even close to what Kivan IS.

I was just looking for an excuse to have a wild mage in Tutu without having to use my own PC, though if I had to choose one I'd pick Quayle even if its illegal. Xzar's too obsessed with death to be anything not related to Necromancy.

 

Funny, I've just been doing the exactly same thing. The difference is that I'm using only the vanilla kits as I'm a bit suspicious about the modded ones.

Ajantis is a cavalier in my game too
Alora - regular thief, she's probably only game thief stealing things for a living
Branwen, left her a cleric
Coran, still a fighter/thief
Dynaheir and Edwin, no change
Eldoth, I made him a blade.
Faldorn, I"m sorry but you can't have as anything other than Avenger
Garrick - unkited bard, he's the epitome of the useless kind of bard
Imoen as a jester? I'm not really seeing that. Aren't they supposed to be kinda mean-spirited and, like, insane? Made her a swashbuckler.
Jaheira, seen no reason to change
Kagain, is there some established lore that would make him a wizard-slayer? Vanila fighter in my game
Khalid, no change
Kivan. Archer. Seriously. He's even got a bow in his picture for hod's sake.
Minsc. Would make a good barbarian but there's to much staff about him being a ranger to ignore. Perhaps a Beastmaster would do but it's hard to imagine him without a sword either. Vanila ranger in the end.
Montaron. Assasin, no contest.
Quayle, no change
Safana, bounty hunter
Shar-Teel, a berserker. IMO you actually have to be a real wildling (like Minsc) to be a barbarian. She's definetly not.
Skie, vanilla thief who cares?
Tiax, no change
Viconia, she's good enough as a pure cleric
Xan, well I've made him a sorceror
Xzar, Necro
Yeslick, no change

 

Instead of Divine Remix use Spell Revisions (a new version is on the stairs). For a even better game use Macready's HardTimes mod. You'll find BG being really tough and more fun. And as you say SCS - just can't play without it anymore.

 

Yes, an evil jester would be mean-spirited and likely insane, but a jester doesn't have to be evil. They could just like jokes, pranks, and hilarity. Imoen fits that definition to me at least in BG1 before she's tortured and everything. To me Imoen seems unrealistically childish, but it does fit her if she's a jester. That's myself anyways. Mechanically, she has to be able to pickpocket and eventually cast spells to fit the storyline actions that I can remember. That leaves Thief dualed to mage or Bard of some kind. Of those options I think jester fits best. Granted there are times when Thief/Mage just feels right.

The problem of Spell Revisions over Divine Remix is that I'm iffy on changing the spells in the first place. The only reason I'm considering Divine Remix is because it comes with some fitting kits for at least 2 of the NPCs (Branwen comes to mind)

Edit:

Since he's lawful he can't be a barbarian or berserker plus neither fits him owning Wells Fargo Wagon either. Kensai is seems quite the stretch too. Being Evil takes away him being any other Fighter type so outside of making him a Fighter/Thief multi-class, its got to be Wizardslayer or Vanilla. Wizardslayer fits because what dwarf doesn't hate magic? The resistances are very dwarfy and he's already got Regeneration. Its more interesting than vanilla fighter and other Fighters like Khalid or Shar-Teel seem less likely to be wizardslayers.

 

BG2 tweaks, IIRC, it has a component to make Khalid a F/M and it adds the dialogue as well. But the small dialogue does not always appear, I tried and it occured once in my three games, after resting, I asked Khalid about how he got his magic education. A small but fun dialogue.

I remember playing with a stalker in TuTu and his backstab kicked in before lvl 9, he was able to backstab for double damage at lvl 1. (bug or oversight of the kit?)

 

Or the FAQ I was looking at was uninformed. I think I might still stick him as an archer, but it would shake things up should I go with Stalker. I can see Kivan stalking through the woods looking for bandits with a backstab rather than a well placed arrow. Plus it keeps him useful if I also transform Coran into an Archer like I want to.

EDIT: I tested out the Stalker in Tutu and in fact he does do x2 damage right off the bat, but I still question the merit of the Stalker. The best leather armor I can think of in the game is only usable by thieves anyway so the creation of a Backstabbing Thief would be more effective. Plus with SCS is a backstab and run strategy even feasiable?

This leaves me thinking is Coran better as an Archer or a Fighter/Thief. Maybe something I haven't even considered/found yet.

 

I agree with you, I could see Imoen being a jester.... she likes pranks and so on and has some of the skills.

Unless you think a jester has to act like the Joker from Batman it is perfectly reasonable to have a non-evil prankster.

 

It is. Most mages are low level so if you can get one good backstab they are dead. Ofcourse unless they have stoneskins. Illusions such as mirror image, inv. are easy to counter with detect illusions skill of a thief (very very useful in SCS!)

You can have very easy time killing flesh golems with backstab too. Poke the bugger, RUN fast and turn he corner and hide and repeat. Works like a charm. If you melee them you will suffer massive damage (they hit and they hit hard)

Here is what I did today, in the big tent fight of Bandit Camp. I did not rest after killing Tazok (after tenth try!) and all other bandits outside so my party was pretty battered and low on spells. My Fairy Dragon familiar casted Inv. 30 radius on us (one of the perks of being Chaotic Good, this spell is very useful for hiding and strategy!)

We entered the tent all invisible, my melee characters (Jaheira, and my custom Swashbuckler) went near to nasty archers, Imoen immediately went to the back of the nasty mage Venkt, Minsc attacked first in a berserker rage, smacking the mage for 15 dmg with his mace, IMMEDIATELY Imoen backstabbed the poor sod, before his mirror image kicked in (she had shortsword+2, a very fast weapon, weapon speed is the key factor in backstabbing) so she stabbed the mage for good 38 damage and he was chunkified... Nice one Immy! Then my Swashie guy and Jaheira assaulted the archers, so they could not use their deadly ranged attacks, and my wild mage used charm person on them while Dynaheir released Glitterdust to further blind and hurt them. My wild mage's TWO charm spells turned into different spells thanks to wild surges:A grease and stinking cloud, to deadly effect in the tight tent, almost all enemies were either slowed uncouncious and/or blinded so we made short work of them in no time. (arrowing the uncouncious enemies in stinking cloud to death from afar is ever fun!)

So what could have been a very challenging batle (speaking from past experiences) turned out to be fun and easy thanks to a well timed backstab to the mage! Kill the mages first if you can, they are the most dangerous of foes!

YES, with his exceptional STR, weapon specialisation and better THAC0, he will be a better backstabber than Immy, even if his multiplier is low. But you need to reassign his proficiencies he comes specialised in the spear (for reasons I cant fathom) and even someone gives him an enchanted spear somewhere (no spoiler!)

 

Silverstar, that clears up the backstabbing question. I still don't think Kivan is worth making into a Stalker then again I always found him boring and too quiet. I know I know that's blasphemy, but I like the misunderstood, crazy, eccentric, loud, boisterous, egotistical, and/or humorous types. Kivan just doesn't fit that bill nor do most elves in my opinion. Probably explains why I don't care for the stereotypical elf and why Gnomes are my favorite race to roleplay.

Anyways back on topic:

I'm unhappy with the choice of Kivan AND Coran as Archers. Obviously Kivan needs to be a ranger of some kind whereas Coran fits the woodsman persona, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a Ranger. I'm thinking of just leaving him as a Fighter/Thief, however, Bounty Hunter comes to mind. I mean he IS hunting a bounty when you find him. Any suggestions for the ultimate DEX NPC? Powergaming is AOK.

That leaves me with starting the search for my PC and his (or her) merry band of followers. I was thinking I would hopefully take this character through the whole saga eventually. That said I noticed an utter lack of thieves in SOA/TOB, but an overabundance of them in BG1. This leads to 4 solutions either:
1) Create a partial thief and bare with it for BG1 by using as many non-thieves as possible.
2) Start as a class and dual later to a thief in SOA
3) Change a good portion of those thieves in BG1 into other useful classes.
4) Play as whatever and rely on Imoen and/or Jan yet again in SOA/TOB.

I'm thinking of playing a Fighter/Thief or Mage/Thief or something completely different. I want to take Imoen and Viconia as a Jester(w/RR) and a Cleric/Mage respectively. These two femmes fatales make me lean towards a material warrior because they have the magic pretty well covered. I'd like to pick up NPCs for the party and drop them as I get bored with them or a better option comes along. Which means the trio needs to be self efficient without any other help. I think I just talked myself into a Fighter/Thief. Anyone should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about the solution to my problem.

Last thing, what are people's thoughts on allowing 3rd edition style weapon restrictions aka allowing clerics to use none piercing weapons via Ashes of Embers or Level 1 NPCs?

 

I would go with option 4 if I were you (you can choose to be so many interesting classes or kits that to be limited in your options because of a shortage of thieves later on misses out, at least a degree).

Otherwise an option 5 is to use (for at least a little while) one of the many thieves or people you can dual-class to a thief that are in SoA that you aren't normally able to recruit into your party. There are a fair number of them so you probably shouldn't feel thief deprived in SoA if you do this.

Also I think having Coran be a Bounty Hunter is a good idea and it works decently well with his goals. Besides there is a shortage of good aligned Bounty Hunters in my opinion and the kit is an interesting one.

 

Very very very true, but none of that changes that a Fighter/Thief is looking like a pretty solid choice right now. I've considered trying out the Kensai/Mage, but I'm just not in the mood to go through tutu as a Kensai. I've also considered playing as a Cavalier, but my first game all the way through was an Inquisitor and I'd like to play something on the evil side, try Bodhi out for once (hence why I'm not playing as a full thief). I'm also reconsidering making Imoen as a Jester. While a Jester is useful it doesn't exactly make her so desirable that no other NPC will outclass her. Maybe a Sorceress or Wild Mage and forget about anything roguish.

Anything better/more fun than this:

PC-Fighter/Thief - Long Swords/Short Swords/Katana, Two Weapon Style
Viconia - Cleric/Mage - Sling/Unused blunt weapon
Imoen - Jester - Bow/Scimitar
OR
Imoen - Sorcerer - Sling/Q-Staff
And fill out the rest of the party with who ever I feel like at the time.

 

Why Immy with a Scimitar? Just setting up for the BG2 portion? I'd be inclined to have her be a sorceror, but if she is a jester, why not the shortsword route?

 

Because there's a really nice Scimitar for Good Characters in BG1 and there really is no difference to all the melee a bard might use especially if she's going to be firing a bow all day. Pretty soon there will be plenty of proficiency points to use short swords too.

 

Does anyone know where SCS moves Viconia? I can't find her and I'd like to add her ASAP.

 

quoting coaster