Non-Player Character

From Neverwinter Pedia

Non-Player Character

Even after we have build a tavern for Frans, we have still yet to meet the man!

Who is Frans anyway? Is he young or old? Is he even human? (Remember that in NWN2, there are many races available for your picking.) As I have said in an earlier tutorial, how successful your game is tend to depend on how successful you "craft" your characters.

So let create Frans: In my mind, he is an older man (human), slightly balding. Someone who doesn't look intimidating...

Okay, I am stereotyping, but hey, that usually work. How would you feel when you go into a tavern, and found a lizardman as the inn keeper? I will be worrying about being eaten while I sleep!! :-)

Creating Frans

Look in Section F: BLUEPRINTS and select Creatures, then Human. By default, the human model is a fighter. So for now, Frans will have to look like a fighter... until we perform an "extreme make-over" on him.

Select the Human Fighter, and check out Section E: PROPERTIES, under the Appearance Section. Change Appearance (head) to "6" and Appearance (Hair)' to "2". You can choose other head/hair model, too, depending on how you want your model to look like. So for now, the new human model looked like this.

Under the Basic Section, change the First Name to "Frans" and Last Name to "Guberos". Why Guberos? I don't know, it's just a name!

You should probably change the Tag from "c_human" to "c_frans". Since Frans is an important NPC in our story, it is essential that we give him a unique tag.

You can provide a slightly more detailed description for Frans under the Localized Description to "flesh him out" a little. Two to three sentence would do just fine, so don't get carried away now.

I decided to type in: Frans Guberos has been the master of the tavern for the last 15 years. This should give the player a little more information about Frans, the tavern master.

Character Sheet (Optional)

Whether you change Frans from a level 1 Fighter [Fighter (1)] to Commoner or not, is entirely up to you. f you think about what Frans was doing before h became a tavern master, it's not difficult to "believe" he could have been a fighter. Leaving Frans as a Fighter may also help prevent players from "killing" Frans purposely. If that's what you wanted to do, you may even want to up Frans' Fighter level to level 3: Fighter(3), to make him harder to kill. Of course, checking the Plot check box would make him invincible altogether...

However, if he is a level 3 Fighter, the reason he hires you to take care of his problem is completely beyond me. Which is why I said this portion is optional.

[Note: If you choose to follow along, then I would suggest changing Frans completely from a Fighter(1) into a Commoner.]

To do this, check out the Character Sheet. See that for the time being, Frans' Classes is listed as "Fighter (1)". Click on the ellipses [...] towards the right.

This will bring up the "Collection" dialog box.

Click on the Value "Fighter (1)" on the left panel will open up the right panel with the "Misc" Tab.
Click on the downward triangle on the Right Panel next to "Class: Fighter".

In the list of "Occupations" that opens up, choose Commoner.

Look under the new Class: Commoner row, and you will see Level: 1. Click on it, and change the level to "2". Noticed how this increased Frans' maximum hit point from "5" to "8"? When you Level-Up an NPC in this manner, it usually involved increasing the NPC's hit points and/or other attributes. So if you want to make a really powerful boss, level up is a quick way to make the boss really strong.

Since Frans' MaxHitPoints is now "8", I went ahead and change his Current Hit Points and Character Sheet Hit Points to "8" also.

[Note: Although there is no Starting Package for a Commoner, should you be creating an NPC who's a Paladin, or Wizard, the Starting Package would contain some basic gears suitable for that particular class: for example, there will be a Spell book for the Wizard type, and a Scale Mail for the Fighter type.]

Next, we will proceed to give Frans a new wardrobe. The sword in his hand at the moment, and the Scale Mail he's wearing make this tavern looked like a battle ground...

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