The Frightful Meleny Mod

@Sitra:

My "vision" is that Athlea starts out as 1st level (as per Atari -- per AD&D 1E, neither Athlea nor Meleny are even 0-Level), and only "gains" the other levels as she is converted from LG to LE/CE (I still haven't decided) as the PC(s) walk her down the path to Evil Athlea. I don't plan on having a 5th-level Athlea hanging around town

I'm not sure how well I can convey that with dialog or ability/spell use, but that's how I see it in my head. I plan on Evil Athlea being a separate entry from regular Athlea in protos.tab and only swapping her out when the PCs finally "convert" her and add her to the party. While it might be interesting, I don't plan on having 6 separate protos.tab entries and levelling her up explicitly at this time.

--thearioch

 

@Gaear:

Yeah, I'm okay with it. Well, to be perfectly honest, I never particularly liked Troika's implementation of whorehouses (both here and in Arcanum), but if there's one place where that sort of thing should go, it's there. I'd personally prefer a humoristic bent to it as well.

And of course, I appreciate that you took the criticism well.

@thearioch:

Alright, I was hoping for something more like that.
I think something related to the dark/mystic arts would be appropriate for her character levels, unless you somehow provided for combat training (e.g. you trained her to murder, or something to that effect). Well, you did suggest Sorc 4/Monk 1, so that could possibly fit the bill (maybe Sorc 4/Rog 1 or evil Cleric?).
BTW, couldn't a low level party use a scroll of suggestion to get Althea?

 

I hope I am not a monkey with a wrench here, but I wonder how Meleny (in or out of the party) would react to Althea murdering precious Hayden? Divorce and leaving the party would be my take on it.

 

@ Sitra:

1) Her combat training (for Monk 1) includes the killing of Mareak and her family
2) I'll remove scroll of suggestion from protos.tab. Seriously, can't I just remove it from inventories etc.? If I leave it craftable, the PCs still have to be high enough level to craft it.

@ Basil

Evil characters won't get Meleny (at least ones pursuing Athlea). As currently written, Atlhlea marrying Marek is a precursor to a PC marrying Meleny. And, as mentioned, Meleny being dead is a precursor to Athlea joining the party. A sentimental evil party may Animate Meleny to keep the sisters together, but Meleny wouldn't be in any condition to object to the party's behavior.

--thearioch

 

Ah! Cool, very cool.

 

Generic evil thought -- I wonder if I can make Animate Dead check to see if it's being cast on Meleny's corpse, and if so add a Druid Zombie and Zombie Animal Companion instead of the regular undead...

@ Wizgeorge

Would you like Little Zombie Haydn added as well? :wave:

--thearioch

 

I would like to suggest a very small modification: Meleny only responds well to Charisma 16+ men. In general, I feel that skill checks are much more suitable than ability checks. I would recommend Diplomacy 10+ (even gives 1/2 elves an advantage!).

No big deal to me personally; just wait for Ronald to level up to 3rd and then cast Eagle's Splendor, I suppose.

Also, perhaps a few dialog for Cuthbertian PCs might be apropos - just a mini-suggestion.

I am looking forward to testing this for you

 

In my mods, she plays for either team, but I doubt official Co8 will go for it Just remember, Basil, it's an easy fix

Changing triggers for lines is definitely doable, but my ideal long term solution would be to remove the whole marriage part altogether (for her and the others). Troika's relationship quests are clearly pathetic attempts to mimic BG2, and I find that they break my immersion too much.

FWIW, I don't mind Meleny being attracted to a PC, and she will still join the party, but I'll have Filliken give the PC a Holy Weapon "to protect his daughter" instead of as a dowry.

--thearioch

 

I had always thought the Meleny stuff was a Co8 invention - the main part of the DH quest. As for the love at first sight crap, a high diplomacy check fixes that.

My main suggestion is that it might be better to slowly reveal plot development through gradually increasing skill requirements. It was very frustrating for me (and perhaps others who use point-buy) to get that (you say crappy) quest started because of a 16 charisma requirement (10 points!). I mention this to you here because I know you wanted a stringent requirement for activating Althea in your forthcoming cool mod.

 

It would be quite interesting to see Fruella's reaction to you and Meleny in the barn, if both are in the party ;-).

For the sake of roleplaying, it seems possible to temporarily detach a PC from the rest of the party for special purposes, as shown to an extent in the drinking contest and ,more specifically the fight with Tolub

 

Ok. I should be banned. What I meant to say was that I thought it was a part of the DHQ because it was included in the walk-through.

So, should you wait until I get home or shoot me now? Shoot me now! Shoot me now!