G3

Gavin NPC Mod for BG2EE, EET, BG2, or BGT

A Gibberlings Three Mod
Author: berelinde
On the web: Home page, discussion forum, image gallery, and Discord

Version 24
Languages: English and Russian
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
GitHub: Gibberlings3/Gavin_BG2

Overview

This mod adds Gavin, a neutral good Dawnbringer of Lathander, to Baldur's Gate II (original or Enhanced Edition) as well as the conversion projects EET or BGT.

If you met Gavin in Baldur's Gate, you may pick up where you left off or you may decide that you met him for the first time in Athkatla. The choice is yours.

Once in your party, Gavin will banter with all BioWare NPCs. He has an extensive friendship track and can be romanced by any female Bhaalspawn whose wisdom and charisma are 8 or higher. Enjoy!

Compatibility

This mod is designed to work with Baldur's Gate II, with the original or Enhanced Edition, as well as the conversion projects EET or BGT.

Bug Reporting and Known Issues

If you should encounter any bugs, please report them to the authors at the Gavin forum. In addition, Gavin for BG2 is available on GitHub, so fixes and changes can be submitted by the community.

Installation

First time installing a mod? Check out G3's comprehensive tutorial: A New Player's Guide to Installing and Playing Mods.

Enhanced Editions Note
The Enhanced Editions are actively supported games. Please note that every patch update will wipe your current mod setup! If in the middle of a modded game you might want to delay the patch update (if possible) as even after reinstalling the mods, you might not be able to continue with your old savegames. Alternatively, copy the whole game's folder into a new one that can be modded and will stay untouched by game patches. It is important that you install the mod to the language version you are playing the game in. Otherwise, the dialogues of the mod will not show but give error messages.

Windows
The Gavin NPC mod for Windows is distributed as a self-extracting archive and includes a WeiDU installer. To install, simply double-click the archive and follow the instructions on screen.

Alternatively, the files can be extracted into your game directory using 7zip or WinRAR. When properly extracted, your game directory will contain setup-gavin_bg2.exe and the folder gavin_bg2. To install, double-click setup-gavin_bg2.exe and follow the instructions on screen.

You can run setup-gavin_bg2.exe in your game folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.

macOS
The Gavin NPC mod for macOS is distributed as a compressed tarball and includes a WeiDU installer.

First, extract the files from the tarball into your game directory. When properly extracted, your game directory will contain setup-gavin_bg2, setup-gavin_bg2.command, and the folder gavin_bg2. To install, double-click setup-gavin_bg2.command and follow the instructions on screen.

You can run setup-gavin_bg2.command in your game folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.

Linux
The Gavin NPC mod for Linux is distributed as a compressed tarball and does not include a WeiDU installer. Linux users will need to do a one-time install of WeiDU (and a few other adjustments) as described in this great writeup.

To install, run 'WeInstall gavin_bg2 in your game folder.

Note for Complete Uninstallation
In addition to the methods above for removing individual components, you can completely uninstall the mod using setup-gavin_bg2 --uninstall at the command line to remove all components without wading through prompts.

Contents

The mod contains several components that can be installed independently of one another.

Gavin for BG2

This is the main component that will add Gavin to your Baldur's Gate II game. He can be found in the Slums of Athkatla, in the Temple of Ilmater on the roof of the Copper Coronet. Gavin is a NG cleric of Lathander, and has the following statistics:

  • STR: 16
  • DEX: 12
  • CON: 16
  • INT: 12
  • WIS: 17
  • CHR: 12

His biography is as follows:

When asked about his past, Gavin tells you that it was fairly unremarkable. He was born to a sailmaker and a midwife in Ulgoth's Beard and has wanted to be a priest of Lathander since he was a boy. After several years of service to the Song of the Morning Temple in Beregost, he finally felt the lure of adventure.

Gavin has frequent banters with the PC. These can be hushed by asking him. If you find his interjections annoying, these can be silenced as well, though he will always react to decisions that offend him.

To continue a committed romance begun earlier, the PC will need to have met his requirements for romance in BG1: female, good-aligned, wisdom of 10 or better, charisma of 12 or better, and not an assassin, bounty hunter, or necromancer. To choose this option, you can recognize the ring you find in the opening dungeon, or you can acknowledge him as "love" in his joining dialogue. To begin a new romance in BG2, do not recognize the ring and avoid calling him "love" in his joining dialogue. In BG2, any female PC with both wisdom and charisma of 8 or better who is not an assassin may begin a new romance.

If the PC is male and if Gavin knew him in BG, Gavin will have a short romance arc with Imoen after she is recruited in Spellhold.

Gavin heals the PC when below 50% health
Requires Gavin for BG2

Some players appreciated the fact that Gavin would heal the PC when his or her health dropped below 50%, other players did not. Now the component is optional. Please note that if you install this component, you can disable the auto-heal behavior at any time through player-initiated dialogue, but if you don't install the component, he will only heal the PC if you select him and cast the spells manually.

Multi-romance cheat
Requires Gavin for BG2

Applies only to Anomen and Edwin.

You're on your 47th playthrough of BG2, and you really, really wish there was a way that you could get in as many romances as possible. Or maybe you're a saint in real life, but you'd like your pixelated alter-ego to live a more daring lifestyle. Either way, you would like to see all the conflict dialogues, but you don't want relationships to end over them. If you install "No romance kills" you can multi-romance to your heart's content. You'll still get all the conflict dialogues, and somebody may even say that the relationship is over, but it isn't. This component affects Romantic Encounter reactions, too. Gavin will complain, and you'll get the conflict dialogues, but a relationship will never end because you've got too many names on your dance card. If you mortally offend Gavin by telling him off bigtime or kick him out of the party in an exceptionally rude manner, the relationship will end, but it won't be because you were seeing someone else.

Alternate Portraits
Requires Gavin for BG2

Gavin has six alternative portraits that the player can select.

Contact Information

berelinde created this mod. Visit the Gibberlings Three forums for information on this and any other Gibberlings Three mod.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Special thanks cmorgan, Eleima, Grottenolm, Jessception, KIrving, Kitanna, luda, Shaitan, and sibel. They tested, they proofread, they told me when I was being silly. They totally rock.

And thanks as well to the bigg and to Steve for making sure that the mod installs on Linux and Mac OSX!

Extra-special thanks to J for not complaining about sloppy housework, uninspired dinners, and obsessive writing sessions over the last six months

Tools Used in Creation

Credits and Copyright Information

This mod is not developed, supported, or endorsed by BioWare, Black Isle Studios, Interplay Entertainment Corp., Overhaul, Beamdog or the Wizards of the Coast. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

Gavin NPC for Baldur's Gate II is fair game. Knock yourselves out. Don't repackage or redistribute without the consent of the owner, berelinde, or the mod's current maintiner.

Gavin's theme is a portion of "The Pearl" by Silly Wizard and is available on the Best of Silly Wizard album, available through Amazon or elsewhere. Good music. You need this.

If Silly Wizard or its agents object to the material included in this modification, please contact me and I will remove it... with great reluctance, but fair is fair.

Gavin's friendship theme is Lanagan's Ball, used under license from MusicLoops.com.

The default portrait is an edit based on Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, a fictional character in the films of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The same goes for the "Original alternate" by Kaeloree. The creator of the original photo is sadly unknown to us. Please let us know if you have more information on the matter.

The portrait "Red tunic, by Miloch" is based on Hans Memling's "Portrait of a Man".

The portrait "Dragon Age style portrait by berelinde" was created using the sprite generator of Dragon Age: Origin (BioWare, Edmonton Studio).

If you see any artwork in this mod that might conflict with Copyright rules please let us know as soon as possible, and we will remove the conflicting content immediately.

Version History

Version 24 - January 20, 2025

  • New Russian translation by Kirian & Arcanecoast Team
  • Massive modernization effort, including making the mod easier to use with Project Infinity
  • The player will now be given a top-level choice for Gavin's banter timer instead of a prompt midway through installation
  • Fixed a number of small but critical dialogue bugs, thanks to the hard work of Machiavélique on the G3 forums
  • Removed the forced install selection of whether or not to use the multi-romance cheat; Gavin will now install with the normal romance options and the ability to use the multi-romance cheat is now a standalone option

Version 23 - December 25, 2018

  • (crossmod) reaction to Weathermistress Ada (RE): variable should close the dialogue now properly.
  • Updated installer to WeiDU v245

Version 22 - June 18, 2018

  • EET: Fate spirit entries of the "BG1 Gavin" will be disabled.

Version 21 - May 24, 2017

  • typo corrections
  • included hotfix for b!aley.are. The area no longer crashes during night
  • corrected the description of the Brown Mold Oil item and usage when created
  • corrected the possible instances when Gavin's "aftermath" talk triggered before the "complain about not going to Temple district" talks when he went there alone
  • Ring detection in ID now works also if the ring is not in Player1's inventory
  • fixed PID triggers if player uses Keldorn or HaerDalis to talk to Gavin
  • improved the "Gavin objects to the use of the Silver Dragon eggs in case another mod also did that
  • fixed "endless curing by engagement ring" exploit
  • -corrected misspelled "GLOABAL" in dialogue/b!talks.d
  • removed portraits with unclear copyright status
  • corrected setting of "B!GavFirstTime" in two instances in b!talks.d
  • (ToB) fixed stuttering/breaking "Chinchilla" dialogue and FINSOL01 interjections
  • (ToB) Fate spirit now gives the right spawn choices depending on PC's gender and stats
  • (ToB) Gavin no longer hits on no-romance PCs (also in PID)
  • (ToB) fixed wrong epilogue for "god, not romanced"
  • (ToB) fixed a wrong transition in a LT
  • EE-version added
  • EET-version added
  • (BGII:EE, EET) added silent romance kills for Dorn, Rasaad, Hexxat
  • (BGII:EE, EET) added reply options to Dorn's, Rasaad's, and Hexxat's romance to end them with respect to an (BG1) engagement with Gavin
  • (BGII:EE, EET) set flag 22 for all Gavin .cres (b!gav08.cre, b!gav13.cre)
  • (BGII:EE, EET) disabled all fixes and ids patches
  • (crossmod) added compatibility with Skip Chateau Irenicus
  • (crossmod) corrected reaction to Chanelle encounter (RE)
  • (crossmod) moved master Siman a bit away from Aurora in the area
  • (internal) deleted unused files from mod folder
  • (internal) handling of audio files via HANDLE_AUDIO
  • (internal) included tilesets as tis and removed all tisunpack instances
  • (internal) traify-ing of the whole mod. journal entries are in journal-gavin_bg2.tra
  • (internal) "MKDIR ~portraits~" from tp2 removed
  • (internal) corrected kit.ids patching using [ %TAB%]
  • note in the readme that the mod depends on oggdec for linux
  • readme: link to modmerge for EE
  • Updated installer to WeiDU v240

Version 20 - December 25, 2010

  • Updated installer to WeiDU v226
  • Fixed typo in b!talks.d

Version 19 - October 24, 2010

  • Repaired b!keldorn.baf to include InParty("B!Gavin2")
  • In b!getting_rid_of_gavin.baf, replaced InMyArea(), which does not work in area scripts, with Exists(), which does.
  • Added See("NPC") to numerous scripts to make sure dialogues do not begin when NPCs are invisible or in different areas.
  • Updated installer to WeiDU v221

Version 18 - July 24, 2010

  • Fixed joining dialogue... again. Now PCs who broke the engagement in BG1 get more than 1 dialogue choice. (Repaired error introduced in v16)
  • Fixed Gavin's auto-heal script so that he will no longer attempt to heal an invisible or sanctuaried PC
  • Fixed Windows audio installation script so that it will install BG2 sounds on BGT installations that include BG1 Gavin
  • Any character may now create herbal concoctions
  • Minsc's belt is now usable by fighters as well as rangers
  • Replaced b!aley.* with Keldorn Romance b!aley.* to avoid installation order issues

Version 17 - July 18, 2010

  • Fixed Ust Natha dragon egg interjection

Version 16 - May 24, 2010

  • Fixed evil PC redemption path, talk 11, and reduced the requirements from B!GavChange>4 to B!GavChange>2.
  • Corrected typo in joining dialogue.
  • Repaired link in Goody Nell's dialogue

Version 15 - May 17, 2010

  • Restored missing parenthesis in b!kilgav.baf and tob/b!kilgav.baf

Version 14 - May 10, 2010

  • Prevent Gavin from leaving the party a second time if the PC lets Gavin settle his dispute with Miranda alone

Version 13 - May 7, 2010

  • Fixed trigger typo in t3.t16.t3.m5b
  • Commented out banter-test HotKey(B) in b!gavs.baf to improve compatibility with eScripts

Version 12 - May 4, 2010

  • Prevent talk 14 from happening in the Underdark
  • Corrected trigger typos in talk 11 and expanded on the evil-PC redemption a bit
  • Fixed two typographical errors in dialogue
  • Updated to WeiDU v217

Version 11 - April 30, 2010

  • Fixed a typo in Master Grolim's dialogue
  • Updated to WeiDU v216

Version 10 - April 27, 2010

  • Removed incompatibility with Aurora's Shoes
  • Talon Thondar is now named properly

Version 9 - April 25, 2010

  • You could ask Gavin about the past prior to his romance variable being set. Now, you have to wait until it's set.

Version 8 - April 25, 2010

  • Fixed broken Edwin banter
  • Speaking to Lanie before Gavin asked about visitation used to break the script that cued the first dialogue. Now it doesn't.
  • Fixed alternate portrait assignment

Version 7 - April 22, 2010

  • Fixed Lust Chamber Special
  • Fixed redemption alignment change
  • Fixed typos

Version 6 - April 22, 2010

  • Fixed repeating banter with Mazzy. We're off to a rough start...

Version 5 - April 21, 2010

  • Fixed repeating interjection with Jan

Version 4 - April 21, 2010

  • Using EXTEND_TOP on ar0900.bcs rather than EXTEND_BOTTOM to improve performance on mega-installations

Version 3 - April 21, 2010

  • Fixed PC redemption talk stutter

Version 2 - April 20, 2010

  • Removed ToB dependency

Version 1 - April 20, 2010

  • Initial Release