A Gibberlings Three Mod
Author: Domi
On the web: Home page, discussion forum, gallery, and Discord
Version: v7
Languages: English and Russian
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Github: Gibberlings3/IWD2_NPC_Project
The IWD2 NPC Project is a fan-made modification put together for fun, and not for profit. So, don't try to sell it. Two games in particular provided the major source of inspiration for this mod: Baldur's Gate II and Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare developed both of those excellent games.
The main goal of IWD2 NPC is to give an IWD2 player the opportunity to play with joinable NPCs that are not silent.
The mod is rated M, for coarse language and adult situations. You can go to T rating if you exclude Salomeya and Sir Wind Nord from the party and tell the eligible characters that you are not interested in their romantic advances.
Mods which extend material presented here (new NPCs for IWD2 who banter with IWD2 NPCs, or romance for one of the IWD2 NPCs) are welcome as separate modifications, with the appropriate credit given to the authors. If you want something to become a direct part of this mod, you will need to contact G3.
There are a few things you need to know before plunging into your Northern adventure with your new companions by your side. IWD2 was never built for conventional NPCs so some design trade-offs had to be made. The IWD2 NPC Project should be fully compatible with Tweaks Anthology, IWD2EE, IWD2 Ease of Use, and other IWD2 mods.
First, don't forget to patch your game with the official Patch 2.01. This may not be needed depending on where you get your game, e.g. installing IWD2 from GOG will already include the v2.01 patch.
There are two ways to play with the new NPCs:
If you want the party members to recognize a character as the main character, like the main PC in BG or BG2, and banter with him/her you will need to:
These limitations are the direct effect of the difference between the BG2 and IWD2 engines. If you don't do this, the IWD2 NPCs will banter between one another and comment on the events in the game, but will not talk to the leader.
Otherwise you can play with a party of (up to) six of the NPCs, either by importing the NPCs into the party slots or starting with the premade 'Sir Nord's Company' party and customize from there.
Other things to keep in mind are:
A note about NPCs in IWD2EE and future development
IWD2EE adds the ability to have regular, BG- or BG2-style NPCs that can wait to be recruited, join, leave, hang around after being kicked out, etc. IWD2 NPC currently does not work this way, and is unlikely to change. Converting the current NPCs to the IWD2EE style would require a fair bit of writing and design work, and the original author is gone. In the same vein, crossmod content with the NPCs added by IWD2EE (or other, future mods) is also unlikely.
If you should encounter any bugs, please report them to the authors at The IWD2 NPC Project forum. In addition, The IWD2 NPC Project is available on GitHub, so fixes and changes can be submitted by the community.
First time installing a mod? Check out G3's comprehensive tutorial: A New Player’s Guide to Installing and Playing Mods.
Windows
The IWD2 NPC Project 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-iwd2npc.exe and the folder iwd2npc. To install, double-click setup-iwd2npc.exe and follow the instructions on screen.
You can run setup-iwd2npc.exe in your game folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.
macOS
The IWD2 NPC Project 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-iwd2npc, setup-iwd2npc.command, and the folder iwd2npc. To install, double-click setup-iwd2npc.command and follow the instructions on screen.
You can run setup-iwd2npc.command in your game folder to reinstall, uninstall or otherwise change components.
Linux
The IWD2 NPC Project 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 iwd2npc' 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-iwd2npc --uninstall at the command line to remove all components without wading through prompts.
The IWD2 NPC Project has three separate components:
Install joinable NPCs for IWD2
This is the main component and will make 10 joinable NPCs available. More information is provided in the following sections
Female Gnome Avatars
This component lets you select a different avatar for female gnomes:
Use Alternate NWN-Style Portraits for All NPCs
This component will swap the default, IWD2-style portraits of the ten NPCs with an alternative, NWN-style set of portraits. You can view the original IWD2-style portraits side-by-side with the NWN-style portraits in the IWD2 NPC gallery.
There are currently 10 joinable NPCs available to choose from (full information is available in the included appendix)
At the start of the game, you will have two options – either importing the full pre-created party of 6 NPCs which will appear in your party selection menu as "Nord's Company" or you can select "New Party", create your Protagonist and add 5 NPCs. You will handle NPC joining and removal via Import/Export.
Each NPC can be imported at different levels. Sir Nord, Salomeya, Jaemal, Diriel, Valeero and Rizdaer lend themselves more easily to having higher levels at party creation than the PC, Hildury, Peony, Prachi and Nikosh. Suggested levels are:
When you are creating the character it is up to you if you want to use the portraits, colors and soundsets that are provided by the mod. Keeping each NPC's name as it was given by the mod will save you a bit of confusion when you start seeing the banter.
PCs will also have some low-power items equipped on them. Your PC will get a small gift as well in the very beginning of the game from Sir Nord (he does not have to be in the party for that).
There are five basic types of banter in the mod.
There are five NPCs that you can romance. A male PC can romance Jaemal, Salomeya and Peony, while a female PC can romance Diriel (elf only), Rizdaer and Jaemal. You can stop each NPC from romancing you at any time via the PID menu. Additionally, most of the other characters have options in their friendship paths to flirt with them a little. Sometimes they are limited by the PC's race (i.e. you can flirt with Hildury if you are a half-orc). That flirting does not result in a 'full' romance, but will be reflected in the epilogues if you didn't pursue one of the main romances.
The mod determines whether or not the NPC will romance you based on your character's build and what you say. None of the build parameters is prohibitive (except in Salomeya's case as she will not romance bards), but instead they decrease or increase your chances to romance the character. For example, if your PC sports an exotic race (a Drow, Tiefling or Aasimar), it will increase his chances to romance Peony. The match will be determined after your character has the three first talks with the NPC (unless she or he indicates earlier that the romance is undesirable.).
While each character will take some abuse and insults, especially if s/he can't resist the character you've built, they might eventually lose interest in your PC if what you say is not to their taste.
Other NPCs can have romantic designs of their own on either your PC or on the romanced NPC, or a romanced NPC might just have troubles choosing between the PC and an NPC. They will express their feelings via romantic conflicts. There are two types of romantic conflicts: the interjections into the early romantic dialogues, and separate banters. The 'main' conflicts (shown in bold for each romance below) will have additional banter and interjections; the 'secondary' conflicts will have interjections only.
The Conflicts:
The mod comes with two sets of portraits, an IWD2-style set of portraits by Dani, and an alternative, NWN-style set of portraits. The IWD2 portraits are used by default, but can be swapped to the NWN-style portraits with the Use Alternate NWN-Style Portraits for All NPCs component.
Regardless, both sets are installed to the portraits folder in your game and will be available in the custom portrait selection during character creation. Whichever set is selected for use by the NPCs will be named after the NPCs (e.g. diriell and diriels, hilduryl and hildurys, etc.) and the set not being used by the NPCs will be named starting with "p#" (e.g. p#diril and p#diris, p#hildl and p#hilds, etc.) If you want to mix-and-match between the two sets, you can customize the portrait for each NPC any time you wish during the game via Customize Appearance option.
A couple of powerful +5 weapons (a bastard sword and a war hammer) can be summoned via CLUAConsole using the item codes P#RIZBAS and P#RIZHAM. Originally they were intended as a gift from Sneaky Riki in the Severed Hand to Rizdaer, to help you defeat the avatar of Xvym, but as the title implies they are cheesy overpowered pieces of work.
Domi created this mod. You can find out more about The IWD2 NPC Project by visiting the forum or her project page. Visit the Gibberlings Three Forums for information on this and any other Gibberlings Three mods on which we may be working.
As always, the mod would not have been possible without the friendly gang of Gibberlings and friends. May we gibber for years to come! It's difficult to express just how much help and encouragement I received with this project from the following people:
Scripting Know-How:
Voice Actors:
Soundset Editing:
Artwork:
Custom Items:
QA/QC Team
Tools Used in Creation
The modding community for the Infinity Engine has been going strong for more than 15 years now, and is the culmination of thousands of unpaid modding hours by fellow fans of the game. Modders produce their best work and players get the best, well-supported mods when we all work together.
There are two big ways to upset this harmony. One is to claim someone else's work as your own. The second is to host and redistribute a mod without permission from the author(s).
Be kind to your fellow players and modders. Don't do either.
Version 7 - January 26, 2025
Version: Test Build for v7 - November 12, 2023
Version 6 - September 24, 2021, by p_zombie, packed by jastey
Version 5 - September 25, 2014
Version 4 - April 30, 2010
Version 3 - March 2, 2010
Version 2 - December 31, 2007
Version 1 - September 18, 2007