It's not special tadpole compared to our companions' tadpole, I'm talking about special compared to companions. At the moment we, all companions and some villains have the same exact tadpole in shadow-magic stasis.
Dunno ...
Yes, all our tadpoles are in same shadow-magic stasis ...
Yes, all our tadpoles allow us to peer in someone else tadpoled mind ...
Yes, all our tadpoles allow us to dominant weak minded creatures ...
But im affraid that is where simmilarity ends. :-/
Every tadpole give us unique abilities (wich depends on our class, so unless you play Warlock with another Warlock in your party for some reason, you can feel unique) .
Also when you tell Omeluum about your tadpole, and drinks his potion, he specificly tells you that "this" tadpole is much stronger than anything he ever see ... and he is talking about your tadpole particular ... true, you can screw this by talking with different character, but that is then your fault ... since this conversation cannot be repeated, it seem to me quite clear that one person in party should have at least impression of stronger tadpole.
Also, after this you (i mean that character that will talk to him) get another unique ability.
And last but not least, we are addressed in our tadpole dreams as "chosen one" ... that itself have kinda special wibe in mine opinion ... ofc. we will probably be called chosen one even in our companion dreams, when we will be able to play as origin characters, but that is different in mine opinion, since then they are main protagonist.
1.2. Make the custom character the only one type of glue to paste them all together for companions as continuation of those special tadpole powers.
You have Lae’zel and Shadowheart hating each other, Astarion being so paranoid that aggressive at the first meeting, Gale jumping on our character from the teleport, Wyll fighting goblins before becoming the part of our party. At the moment it all may become fatal for them, but we pass our checks and everything is fine. So let’s imagine that no one but the very special person with the very special tadpole and maybe Wyll can persuade Lae’zel and Shadowheart to put their differences aside, no one but that person and maybe Gale can deal with Astarion in a non-lethal way, and so on. As an option to make it not so harsh on players it may be just different DC for the checks. Also it may be partially based on companions classes, in such a way that we would always get a viable party.
I think this is also quite inplemented allready ...
No companion ever question any of your decision, yes they disagree silently ... yet they follow you, no matter of their own moral compas.
Great example here is wiping out whole druid groove.
I know its "only" game mechanic ...
But if you played KotOR II. (recomended, if you didnt) they were specificly using game mechanic to story.
So your character (in KotOR i mean) had ability to create strong influence bonds with others trough the Force, so they follow him (almost) without question ... also funny part was there for good jedi, when you were in end of the game asked if you even realize how many people have you killed just to get here, and yet you dare to say that Dark side have no influence on you?
I see some similarity here.
And again I'm talking about one thing, you're talking about another thing.
There is a big difference between "Who the hell are you to command me?" and "Boohoo... our glorious leader made decision I don't like. I gonna be grumpy now and maybe eons later I'll leave him."
I never questioned this difference ...
It seemed to me like in our original post, you wanted to use your protagonist tadpole to calm things between Shadowheart and Lae'zel ... so they follow you both and dont go on each other throat.
And i feel that this is allready happening, its just not specificly mentioned, since they both follow you ... they still dont like each other, and have their isues with each other ... but they are both following your orders, no matter how much they dont like it.
Maybe im wrong, but i believe if Shadowhearth would meet Lae'zel just by herself, she would kill her on sight (since she sugests it) ... but since your character with his/hers special tadpole, that is allready subtile alterning her behaviour, is around ... she not just satisfly with your character desicion, she submits to it, even if she disagree.
I simply mentioned another game where whole time was something happening without telling, just to be revealed on the end as big surprise.
And i loved it honestly.
2.1. Make Halsin much more useful for our pass through the Underdark.
He may possess some more vital information than the position of one of many entrances. He may be an additional or locked powerful companion for our Underdark adventure. He may have contacts in the Underdark. Without him going to the Moonrise towers through the Underdark must be pretty much as suicidal as going there through the surface without Minthara’s contact.
If Halsin allready known position of any entrance, he would not join that adventurers to find it ... therefore he would not be captured, therefore he would not be here for us to find. :-/
I believe that Halsin should be made a companion ... many people will probably hate it, bcs he would be then 4 level "archdruid" ... yet, im not even sure if this game count with nontadpoled companions.
Simmilar to "contracts" ... you cant quite create any allies somewhere, if you have no idea how to get there.
We dont know yet how will path to Moonrise towers lookalike ... so i would let that part go.
2.2. Make Halsin confess that he can’t heal us and we need to go to the Moonrise towers the moment we find him, not after killing all the goblins' leaders. But he should also tell that he has means to assist us, he just wants us to make sure that the Grove isn't threated first.
Well ... he does, but the way he does it now, he makes sure you will help him ...
In your way that is just chance, and since he really cares about groove, i get that he would not take chances here. :-/
What chances? He is valuable for our party by 2.1. He can literally say: "If you'll go without me, you'll die."
Chances on you helping him kill goblin leaders ...
If Halsin will be alterned as you sugest ... so he tells you where find entrance to underdark, and that there is way to moonrise towers, and offer you his help with reaching them, even if he mention that going there solo would be suicide ... you still can choose to simply go without him.
So from his perspective, keeping those things secret was right move ...
He teases you with that he knows answers you seek, but also mentions that he will provide them as reward for your halp, not a moment sooner. That way he simply ensures that you will help him with his problem.
I could see some hard (dif. 18-20) persuation rollcheck like "first tell me what do you know, then i decide if this is worth my time" to be honest, but he should certainly not tell you everything and then hope for your good hearth.
2.3. Make Minthara say for sure that her next stop is the Moonrise towers and she’s ready to take us with her by the safe surface route if we assist her.
That would also completely change her character ...
But since first patch alterning story is coming, that could also be allready ruined.
And how exactly it will completely change her character? She still can lie. At the moment when she asks to assist her, she says that we will be rewarded by The Absolute, it's logical that we would need to go to it to get our reward.
Same as with Halsin ... she tells us just "need to know basics" if she reveals anything more, she will act foolishly, since she thiner chances of her sucess ...
Right now she want to use us, possibly get rid of us by the process, and if that will not work, she try to get rid of us personaly ... only in that situation, when we play our cards right she start to have at least slight motivation to actualy help us.
If she reveals all this information to us in the first interview, our character may immediately lose all interest in helping her, because we simply has no reason to do so anymore. At that moment, we knows everything we needs and, as with Halsin, even though we suspects that the trip could be dangerous, we can decide to just try it.
So how exactly it will completely change her character?
She sudently changed from inteligent, cold, calculative b**ch, who just wants to use us ... to foolish person, who simply talks too much and ruins hers own chances for sucess.
