Better Companions 1.0.0.0 — Baldur's Gate 3

[Calumininium]

Currently doing a playthrough by playing her as I never did Wilhelmine quests, kinda love it, I also modded a mizora companion.

Glad to hear! Hope you will enjoy the additions in the future. It will take some time until more is added since things are a bit messy on my end.
Out of curiousity, with the Mizora companion did you change Wyll's Cambion one, or added a completely new one ?

For everyone: A loose NoAlphabetsLingo 4.5.0 file with additional text line changes to Wyll has been uploaded. Link in the first post. Will have more lines added over time as I already noticed some requiring changes.
AI Voice conversion for these will be added. Only requires to change these 450-500 text lines to have their respective voiced counterparts modified. The base voice conversion is already ready, thanks to Gillious's great help.

I made a copy of the current Mizora NPC and added it to the party as the modded Tiefling cambion race : https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1991

[Kowe]

Currently doing a playthrough by playing her as I never did Wilhelmine quests, kinda love it, I also modded a mizora companion.

Glad to hear! Hope you will enjoy the additions in the future. It will take some time until more is added since things are a bit messy on my end.
Out of curiousity, with the Mizora companion did you change Wyll's Cambion one, or added a completely new one ?

For everyone: A loose NoAlphabetsLingo 4.5.0 file with additional text line changes to Wyll has been uploaded. Link in the first post. Will have more lines added over time as I already noticed some requiring changes.
AI Voice conversion for these will be added. Only requires to change these 450-500 text lines to have their respective voiced counterparts modified. The base voice conversion is already ready, thanks to Gillious's great help.

I made a copy of the current Mizora NPC and added it to the party as the modded Tiefling cambion race : https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1991

Good job on that! Haven't looked thoroughly into that mod, but it looks like Devil's and Twin Pact makes you summon them. So it is similar to the Infernal Rapier.
In context of Mizora, this has only a bit to do with Wyll but I do have some plans with the Human Mizora character model. Time will tell if they come to fruition.

[Concino]

Is it possible to get an archduke separately?

[Kowe]

Is it possible to get an archduke separately?

Hi, yes. And sorry for the late answer, just saw your post moments ago.
Here you go: Duke Ravengard.

If anyone is curious why there is no progress with this mod yet, it is being integrated in a bigger project. Technically, it did see progress but it isn't finished. This topic will eventually be changed to the bigger mod.

[bluntdragon]

Really love this mod!
Question: Have you implemented character portraits? Fem wyll has the correct portrait but fem gale and fem astarian do not.
I know you're working on a bigger mod, and if so I have no problem waiting. Also do you accept donations?

[Kowe]

Really love this mod!
Question: Have you implemented character portraits? Fem wyll has the correct portrait but fem gale and fem astarian do not.
I know you're working on a bigger mod, and if so I have no problem waiting. Also do you accept donations?

Great to hear!

The overhauled visuals aren't final, though Wyll's is mostly done. Just requiring the implementation of eye textures, and wings for the devil form. The other two will be uploaded this weekend, along with Karl and Le'zil hopefully. Just have to look into a few things first. The character portraits for the remaining companions will also be added with the update(s) coming in the next days. Wyll will likely require a new portrait for her Devil form.
The current state of FemGale and FemStarion was more for testing the voice conversions and getting impressions from the quality of it.

I will look into setting something up for donations in the future, but not now. First, the mod is far from finished. Secondly, better donate to RPGHQ since it benefits all of us Modders.

[Vergil]

Astaria Ancunín
A mysterious woman originating from Baldur's Gate. As her past slowly gets unraveled throughout the journey, she is forced to confront it along those who are responsible for it. The seductress is playing a dangerous game. Will she also remember her brother ?

Reported

[gerey]

Just out of curiosity, what are the plans for the goblina, the Goth town bicycle and the red *****?

[Kowe]

Astaria Ancunín
A mysterious woman originating from Baldur's Gate. As her past slowly gets unraveled throughout the journey, she is forced to confront it along those who are responsible for it. The seductress is playing a dangerous game. Will she also remember her brother ?

Reported

I am not touching your beloved Astarion, don't worry. He will be integrated into the changed backstory in a different manner. Who do you guess is her brother ?

Just out of curiosity, what are the plans for the goblina, the Goth town bicycle and the red *****?

In what context exactly ? And Goblina ?
I can already tell you, Red ***** will be a man. Barbarian is fine as class. Some animations are **** as they look gay, so they have to be changed. The game has a big issue with multi-classing in terms of lore. How can someone like Karl (MaleKarlach) suddenly be a warlock ? If this can be coded in a way that it resembles BGI and BGII more, that will be a heaven-sent.
In general, all the companions will be (way) less sexualized and horny. More of a fairy tale story than this modern garbage writing. Hence I will also participate in updating Better Romances. This includes the brothel stuff too, hate that one. All of the companions will be monogamous.
And their quests are also somewhat lackluster, where I have yet to determine how to flesh them out. Compare them to Shadowheart's. She gets a whole character arc with the Shar temple and Nighsong, while it also continues into Act 3 with the cloister. Oh but, she will be changed to Rogue/Trickery Cleric.

[gerey]

In what context exactly ?

Basically, if there were any plans to make them less ****. Oh, right, I forgot about Minthara.

And Goblina ?

Lae'zel.

[Kowe]

In what context exactly ?

Basically, if there were any plans to make them less ****. Oh, right, I forgot about Minthara.

And Goblina ?

Lae'zel.

Yes, they will be less ****, as far as the game and toolkit allow them to be. Lae'zel will be a man. The VCs for Male'zel and Karl already reflect that. Minthara will get a VC and a new look as well.
To have some better group dynamic, the player character and Male'zel have to duel way earlier and outside of a romance. Act 1, after Zorru got interrogated, and they are in the camp next time, to give an example. Though there is something to giving authority to the player character if they do well, since Faerun is new territory for him.

[Vergil]

I am not touching your beloved Astarion, don't worry. He will be integrated into the changed backstory in a different manner. Who do you guess is her brother ?

I'm confused, so is Astarion still a companion or is he replaced with this weird gay ***** homunculus?

[Reichspepe]

In what context exactly ?

Basically, if there were any plans to make them less ****. Oh, right, I forgot about Minthara.

And Goblina ?

Lae'zel.

Yes, they will be less ****, as far as the game and toolkit allow them to be. Lae'zel will be a man. The VCs for Male'zel and Karl already reflect that. Minthara will get a VC and a new look as well.
To have some better group dynamic, the player character and Male'zel have to duel way earlier and outside of a romance. Act 1, after Zorru got interrogated, and they are in the camp next time, to give an example. Though there is something to giving authority to the player character if they do well, since Faerun is new territory for him.

Sounds interesting, will definetely keep an eye out for this one.

[Kowe]

I am not touching your beloved Astarion, don't worry. He will be integrated into the changed backstory in a different manner. Who do you guess is her brother ?

I'm confused, so is Astarion still a companion or is he replaced with this weird gay ***** homunculus?

Replaced by a woman with this mod. Astarion will only be referenced for now.
There won't be any ******.

[Vergil]

Replaced by a woman with this mod.

Reported again.

[Finarfin]

I am not touching your beloved Astarion, don't worry. He will be integrated into the changed backstory in a different manner. Who do you guess is her brother ?

I'm confused, so is Astarion still a companion or is he replaced with this weird gay ***** homunculus?

Replaced by a woman with this mod. Astarion will only be referenced for now.
There won't be any ******.

Hmm, it would be better if he were in Baldur's Gate and help him with Cazador, depending on how high your approval is with Astaria, he ends up as a good guy free of cazador or as some really messed up guy when it's low approval.

[Kowe]

I'm confused, so is Astarion still a companion or is he replaced with this weird gay ***** homunculus?

Replaced by a woman with this mod. Astarion will only be referenced for now.
There won't be any ******.

Hmm, it would be better if he were in Baldur's Gate and help him with Cazador, depending on how high your approval is with Astaria, he ends up as a good guy free of cazador or as some really messed up guy when it's low approval.

He can replace one of the spawns. New dialogue should be possible to integrate in the game. Though it can make it easier depending how far they progress with the Toolkit and its Editors. Once localization and visuals are done, I can take a deeper look at the kit. Though personally, I find it better to keep Astarion for a custom campaign and not have him appear in the base story with this mod. So he hasn't been kidnapped and has stayed as a High Elf.
On the other hand, how are the exact terms of ownership of WotC on the characters ? If this can lead to legal issues with a custom campaign, then eh, scratch the idea with him appearing there.

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Replaced by a woman with this mod. Astarion will only be referenced for now.

No possibility to kill him? Sad.

[Kowe]

Replaced by a woman with this mod. Astarion will only be referenced for now.

No possibility to kill him? Sad.

Well, the new head-canon leaves room for imagination. He might be alive or not, as well as to what his mannerisms are if he is alive.

A small update: Localization will take longer than expected. I hope to be done with Act 1, including Monastery & Crèche which the game considers to be part of it, by tomorrow. It will be uploaded and replaced with each new version until the whole of the localization is done. They can be used in addition with NoAlphabet or NotAlphabetFemWyll.
So, the visual updates may take a bit longer too but I plan to take a (short) break from changing the dialogues for the updates this weekend.

[Kowe]

Edit: Moved the Preview of a Younger Jaheira to the first post. Astaria has also been uploaded. Only missing Le'zil, Karl, for now.

[lauta1295]

I've got a problem but i don't know if it's due to a mod compatibility problem or a missing feature, when fem Wyll uses spells the voice that comes out with the little chanting is still male, any ideas?

[shay1157]

I've got a problem but i don't know if it's due to a mod compatibility problem or a missing feature, when fem Wyll uses spells the voice that comes out with the little chanting is still male, any ideas?

I got this issue too.

And i put the mods at the bottom of my load order, just before other mod patches

edited: I add the mod mid-game while Wyll is already in my party.

[Kowe]

I've got a problem but i don't know if it's due to a mod compatibility problem or a missing feature, when fem Wyll uses spells the voice that comes out with the little chanting is still male, any ideas?

I got this issue too.

And i put the mods at the bottom of my load order, just before other mod patches

edited: I add the mod mid-game while Wyll is already in my party.

It is unfortunately a missing feature for now. Something I am working on to fix.
The BG3 AI Voice Toolkit doesn't extract and convert all the tracks of a speaker. So some lines of the companions aren't converted. Will take a look at it today and try to figure out as to why that is even though they have
the Speaker UUID. Fingers crossed it is those missing ones as there are handles in the Spellvocal Dialogue files.
In case these aren't the ones for the companions, it will make things more difficult, especially if they are part of the .bnk files, e.g. SPELLVOCAL. So far, the tool I have used from GitHub allowed me to only extract from UI.bnk, as the others were strangely shown as empty.

[Cipher]

Great stuff and your efforts are welcome and appreciated!

The only thing that I don't understand is that Jaheira is canonically a half-elf. What motivated you to make that change? Was it just aesthetic or do you have some lore/plan in mind for turning her into a full blooded elf?

[Kowe]

Great stuff and your efforts are welcome and appreciated!

The only thing that I don't understand is that Jaheira is canonically a half-elf. What motivated you to make that change? Was it just aesthetic or do you have some lore/plan in mind for turning her into a full blooded elf?

Thank you!
The changes, while not set in stone, are for the purpose of a few additions to her story-line in BG3. Here are a few reasons and further changes to her:

• While she is a seasoned combat veteran and High Harper, it is a bit out of place to have someone as old as her fight with the party. More so when she is changed to Druid/Fighter and with a threat like the Netherbrain.
• Racial attributes from Wood Elves make more sense than Wood Half-Elves. See here.
• She hails from Tethyr which is predominantly settled by Humans but has a small percentage of Wood Elves. It isn't far-fetched to have her be a Wood Elf since she is a Druid with Silvanus as her patron deity, to begin with.
• Her origin story has to be changed but there are at least two options, from my point of view as a someone rather new to the FR universe. She has either had contact as a young Wood Elf with human children in nearby settlements or her immediate Elven family has been lifted to Noble status for diplomatic reasons.
• Minsc can make use of her anti-aging scroll or a certain someone who is still alive at the time of BG3. She is also more easily available for custom campaigns set after BGIII instead of being dead.
• She has been romanceable in BGII and for the sake of continuity and since fans have requested it before, she shall be in BGIII too. As a granny, well, definitive no-no.

Progress report about the male voice tracks of Wyll & Co. Found some more of them under Global (Dialog). The Voice Toolkit has missed those and the Spell Vocals, it seems.

[lauta1295]

I've got a problem but i don't know if it's due to a mod compatibility problem or a missing feature, when fem Wyll uses spells the voice that comes out with the little chanting is still male, any ideas?

I got this issue too.

And i put the mods at the bottom of my load order, just before other mod patches

edited: I add the mod mid-game while Wyll is already in my party.

It is unfortunately a missing feature for now. Something I am working on to fix.
The BG3 AI Voice Toolkit doesn't extract and convert all the tracks of a speaker. So some lines of the companions aren't converted. Will take a look at it today and try to figure out as to why that is even though they have
the Speaker UUID. Fingers crossed it is those missing ones as there are handles in the Spellvocal Dialogue files.
In case these aren't the ones for the companions, it will make things more difficult, especially if they are part of the .bnk files, e.g. SPELLVOCAL. So far, the tool I have used from GitHub allowed me to only extract from UI.bnk, as the others were strangely shown as empty.

I see, i don't know if this will be of any help but the voice conversion hub on nexus mods has a femstarion one and if i remember correctly it managed to convert the chanting part too. Anyway thanks for the reply and best of luck, your work is greatly appreciated.

[StrayDawggy]

is it intended behavior that the portraits of Gaile and Astaria stay the same? Wilhelmine does show the new look on her portrait though.

[StrayDawggy]

also really enjoying the new Wilhelmine look over the tokenized black guy look, but is it possible to update the voice when switching to her from Tav? right now, if i switch to her from Tav, she would still use the Wyll male voice walking around.

[Kowe]

is it intended behavior that the portraits of Gaile and Astaria stay the same? Wilhelmine does show the new look on her portrait though.

also really enjoying the new Wilhelmine look over the tokenized black guy look, but is it possible to update the voice when switching to her from Tav? right now, if i switch to her from Tav, she would still use the Wyll male voice walking around.

Glad you enjoy it!
I will take a look at the voice stuff again later. The VCs have to be updated with more tracks in the game. As stated above, it should be under those with the Speaker UUID, in this example Wyll's. However, it can't be ruled out that they are in either the list of numbered .wems or in the banks. One Tav track was in a bank at least. Which isn't so unlikely, since Minthara still has her old voice when moving in combat, with the VC made yesterday.
In case you or anyone is curious, there are jumps between the numbered tracks, the rest has been bundled into the .bnk (bank) files.
Portraits will be updated later today as I have wanted to do them all at once with the companions.

Edit: Portraits have to be delayed until tomorrow, having some issue with the Toolkit. Sorry about this.

[lauta1295]

I've encountered a bug with the Astaria mod, it seems to generate a bug which removes Astarions name from the game and i'ts replaced by "Not Found". Anyone else had this problem and managed to fix it?