KELSEY GAMEPLAY FAQ

(CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BALDUR’S GATE 2 AND KELSEY)

Q: What's new in version 3? A: The previously separate SoA and ToB parts of Kelsey have been combined into a single package. Version 3 is also compatible with BGII: EE, includes a Russian translation and some modernizations for easier installation and improved mod compatibility.

Q: What's new in version 2? A: There are well over 200 new lines of dialogue. Kelsey has new interactions with "scenery" characters like Ribald Barterman. Kelsey has more to say about the city of Athkatla, including in a new banter with Valygar. The "final" conflict between Anomen and Kelsey for the PC's affections has been pushed out much later, and three new romance conflict sessions have been added. Several existing romance conversations have been improved with new player dialogue options. The sequences with Merritt/Lilla and Ceara have been tweaked.

Q: Why is Kelsey complaining about me stealing from shopkeepers? A: Because he's a merchant and doesn't approve of that sort of thing. In terms of game mechanics he's actually complaining about you getting caught. Get caught too often, and Kelsey has words.

Q: How do I upgrade from an earlier version? A: When we started Kelsey we worked on a patch system, but in the long run it's become clear that even with the additional inconvenience of re-downloading audio, it's in everyone's best interest in terms of stability and ease of use to stick with one unified download. As of V3, the SOA and TOB content are contained in the same package.

Q: Kelsey looks like an elf! Is this a bug? A: No, this is "making the best of a bad situation." The human male mage avatar has a long beard. Kelsey does not, so the best answer was to give him the elven male mage avatar. Try not to let the ears bother you too much. As an alternative you can install the modified paperdoll from http://www.pocketplane.net/kelsey

Q: Is Kelsey compatible with Ascension? A: Yes, Kelsey and the optional Ascension content module were designed for compatibility with WeiDU Ascension. We recommend V 1.4.12 or greater. Although Kelsey will work atop an Ascension Classic install, his Ascension content module is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ASCENSION CLASSIC.

Q: Kelsey's name is all screwed up! He's saying Saladrex lines when I click on him! Various other weird things are happening! Why? A: His CRE strings are messed up. Don't worry about the technical explanation. Use the talk fixer to correct it. Click on Kelsey and press the K key. Not CTRL+K, not SHIFT+K, not ALT+K, just regular K.

Q: Does Kelsey have interjections in TOB? A: Oh, yes, including in Watcher's Keep (although like the Biowareans, they only work in TOB chapters... if there's a lot of demand and a lot of free time, we can make them SOA compliant.) Quite a few, we think you'll be pleased.

Q: Can Kelsey's cloak be upgraded? A: Yes, Cespenar can do it. Have Kelsey talk to him a couple of times (not the PC.) You'll get better bonuses and a 1x per day Spell Sequencer out of it (so hopefully you didn't take that spell already!)

Q: Is Kelsey Macintosh compatible? A: Yes, and should install on Linux/Wine environments as well.

Q: I found a bug! What should I do? A: Firstly, are you running the absolute latest patch for SOA or TOB, as obtained from www.bioware.com? Did you install it before you installed Kelsey and all other mods? If not, we can't be held responsible.

Then, check the Kelsey forum at http://forums.pocketplane.net to see if it has been addressed, or to see if a newer version of Kelsey is available. Post about your bug on the forum if you cannot find an answer.

Q: Anomen/Jaheira/Aerie/Viconia are acting funny. Their love theme is playing, but they're not speaking romance dialogue. What's wrong? A: Dollars to donuts, you have a version of Solaufein PRE-V40 installed. You will need to uninstall that version of Solaufein (and restore it with a newer one if you so choose) to correct this problem. This problem is not actually caused by Kelsey, but because of his bickering with Anomen, it is easier to see.

Q: What other mods is Kelsey compatible with? A: All of them, basically.

Q: How do I uninstall Kelsey (V1.0.1 or greater)? A: Run Setup-Kelsey.exe in your main BG2 directory and select the U option for Uninstall.

Q: Who should I have in my party with Kelsey? A: That is entirely up to you. Including the romance conflicts with Anomen, Kelsey has at least one interaction with all of the available NPCs in BG2, so you’re going to see some new dialogue no matter what you do. He has more banter with some characters than with others. Jan leads the pack, while some NPCs such as Cernd and Haer’Dalis have fewer conversations with Kelsey.

Q: Are there any things I can only see if I romance Kelsey? A: Yes, the obvious things: the actual Kelsey romance thread (more than two dozen sessions long), special Kelsey dialogue at the Tree of Life, and the romance conflict with Anomen.

Q: Are there any things I can only see if I DON’T romance Kelsey? A: Yes. If you choose not to romance Kelsey (or have a male/incompatible female PC), Kelsey will initiate a couple of other conversations with the PC. Kelsey will also try to "pick up" Nalia if the PC is not romancing him. In Kelsey-TOB, Kelsey and Imoen can have a romance.

Q: Is there anything you want to tell me about how to pick spells for Kelsey? A: Truly, you should try to find your own way with the later spell picks, or rely on the (sometimes disagreeing) unofficial sorcerer FAQs out there at sites such as www.gamefaqs.com. We will say this: You will likely find it a waste to give Kelsey the fourth-level spell Minor Sequencer. A Kelsey quest item will remove the need to spend a precious spell slot on that particular incantation.

Q: Is Kelsey a better mage than Edwin, Jan, Nalia, or Imoen? A: Kelsey is a sorcerer, so he is a DIFFERENT mage from all of the above. You’ll have to make that determination for yourself.

Q: Does Bodhi abduct Kelsey in Chapter 6 like she does Jaheira, Aerie, Viconia, and Anomen? A: Yes. That section should appear quite familiar to experienced players.

Q: Will Anomen and Kelsey fight over my female PC, like Aerie, Jaheira, and Viconia fight over my male PC? A: In all likelihood, yes. Kelsey and Anomen both like more or less the same kinds of women. As long as Anomen is in the party relatively early in the Kelsey romance, you should see the sparks fly. If you add one significantly later than the other, however, you may not see everything.

Q: What happens when I reach the Throne of Bhaal portion of the game? A: Kelsey will continue on like any other NPC. If you didn't have Kelsey in your party when you make the transition between SOA and TOB, you can summon Kelsey from the Fate Spirit like any other NPC.

Q: What is this special ability Kelsey suddenly has? A: It's the side-effect of Jan's experiment gone wrong. Kelsey can polymorph someone into a bowl of oatmeal once per day. The effect is rather like a Finger of Death, with a save -2 vs. polymorph. (no effect if save made.) The JAGMIFR Mark IV was not a total failure after all.

Q: Okay, but WHY? A: Because the Jansen Sorcerer Visual Enhancement Sphere (JSVES) was probably the single most popular component of Kelsey-SOA and we wanted an encore.

Q: What's the Kelsey-TOB romance like? A: There are a dozen interactions on the "sequence", plus "floating lovetalks" that can appear at any time in-game. Like the Bioware NPCs, a few of them are event-driven (the defeat of the Master Wraith, the fall of Saradush, the end of the Pocket Plane trials) but most are not.

Q: Kelsey wants to stay behind in Saradush. Will he come back? A: Yes, he'll meet you in Amkethran in a few days.

Q: Do we find out anything more about Kelsey's family problems? A: Yes. We'll meet his brother and his uncle. Kelsey has a lot more to say about his mother in V2. And the epilogues address what happens to them as well.

Q: How do I see the Imoen romance? What's in it? A: All it requires is that the PC NOT be in a romance with Kelsey, and of course take Imoen in your party with him. Note that disbanding one or both of them does not terminate the romance. Note also that if one or the other spends a lot of time invisible with the Staff of the Magi, it might make seeing the LTs a little tricky, so if it seems like you're not seeing their discussions, try making them both visible and standing them near one another.

There are several sequenced LOVETALKs, plus some "floating" LOVETALKs that can take place any time after Imoen's developed her STR/DEX bonus Bhaal ability.

Q: How do I STOP the Imoen romance, or at least threaten Kelsey's life? A: There is an opportunity to forbid Kelsey to speak to Imoen, and another spot to warn him about consequences. But don't expect 100% victory. In love, you are not the boss of Kelsey.

Q: What about the other projects about romancing or "relationshipping" Imoen? How will Kelsey react? A: Kelsey beat them all to market. Nyah. Unlike introducing new mod NPCs to fight for the protagonist's affections, having mod NPCs romance another NPC is a little different, since there's only one way to roleplay it, yet multiple writers with (obviously) very different visions are trying to tell their story.

Bottom line: See their READMEs. We make no provision for them.

Q: I am uncomfortable with/offended by/encountering bugs with this "flirting" stuff. How do I get rid of it? A: If you don't want to start flirts with Kelsey, don't click to talk to him. If you want him to stop flirting with you, click to talk to him and tell him so. He will stop forever.

However, this may not be enough if you encounter a bug, which COULD happen if another mod were introduced and affected Kelsey's J#KLS25J dialogue file. (The most likely bug is that you would see the flirt- with-Kelsey screen when you expected something else. Developers please note that this can be avoided by simply ensuring that your new J#KLS25J state gets weighted higher than the flirt pack top-levels, which should always be the bottom of the stack.)

If this happens, you will need to use a little basic cheating/hacking to set the global variable FWDisableFlirts to 1. You can do this in a saved game with Shadow Keeper or Near Infinity, or if you use the cheat console: CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("FWDisableFlirts","GLOBAL",1)

Note that you can re-enable flirting by setting that value back to 0.

However, this may not be enough if you encounter a bug, which COULD happen if another mod were introduced and affected Kelsey's J#KLS25J dialogue file. (The most likely bug is that you would see the flirt- with-Kelsey screen when you expected something else. Developers please note that this can be avoided by simply ensuring that your new J#KLS25J state gets weighted higher than the flirt pack top-levels, which should always be the bottom of the stack.)

If this happens, you will need to use a little basic cheating/hacking to set the global variable FWDisableFlirts to 1. You can do this in a saved game with Shadow Keeper or Near Infinity, or if you use the cheat console: CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("FWDisableFlirts","GLOBAL",1)

Note that you can re-enable flirting by setting that value back to 0.

Q: I told Kelsey I was going to have a baby. Are we going to actually have it in the game, like Aerie? A: No. The PC won't even begin to show. We could have implemented the whole bit--encumbrance penalty, lower DEX, fatigue, etc... but it just didn't seem worth it. So please don't rest for 500 days waiting for the baby to come. It won't happen. The baby can play a major role in the epilogues, however.

Q: I don't want my PC to be pregnant! A: Then simply don't TELL him that you're pregnant. Unlike real life, if you don't say it, it won't be true.

This dialogue is part of LOVETALK 22 (informally known as the "confessional LOVETALK") but all of the conversations in that session are completely optional. If you don't want to be pregnant, don't say you are to Kelsey, and it will be not-true. Simple. If your PC DID become pregnant but is having second thoughts, there will be an opportunity to change her mind.

Q: How many epilogues does Kelsey have? A: There are ten total Kelsey epilogues (one for no romances, one for Imoen, five for PC-stays, three for PC-ascends), plus a new Imoen epilogue if she ends up in a romance with Kelsey. There are two major themes to the PC-stays epilogues, although they have different details depending on the choices you make. The others, including the three PC-ascends epilogues, are all rather different.

Q: What impacts Kelsey's epilogues? How can I see them all? A: The biggest impacts come from whether or not he is in a romance with Imoen, the PC, or nobody. If romancing the PC, whether or not she chooses to stay looms large. If the PC is pregnant and Ascends, the decision of whether to actually have the child, and whether to keep it on the Planes or return it to Kelsey has a rather significant impact on Kelsey's life. Whether or not you agreed to marry Kelsey and/or have a child with him impacts the "staying with Kelsey" romance epilogues as well. And reminding Kelsey that you want him to have his "rickety mage's tower" has a huge impact, if indeed your PC stays with him to build it.

Q: What's this about cheating on Kelsey? A: If Anomen is in your party, after you finish off Gromnir, Anomen will make tentative advances on the PC. It happens during two conversations upon rest. The first is innocent, but in the second, he implies that there is a spark between you. It's up to you whether you take him up on his offer. Note that the "less good" he is, the easier it is to get him in bed.

Q: Hey, wait a sec! I cheated with Anomen, lost Kelsey from the party, and now Anomen doesn't want to get serious with me! What gives? A: Them's the breaks. I considered turning on the Anomen romance in that event but it didn't make any sense: the Anomen TOB romance is based on the shared, life-altering experiences of SOA, not a faithless fling. So it would not have been "right." And this is a Kelsey MOD first and foremost, so writing an entirely new romance track for Anomen just wasn't in the cards.

And besides, you should roast in Demogorgon's belly for wronging Kelsey so grievously anyway.

Q: Anomen? Ugh. Why couldn't I cheat with Cernd, Edwin, HD, Jan, Keldorn, Korgan, Minsc, Valygar, Solaufein, or Yoshimo instead? THAT would have been fun! A: Believe it or not, a significant portion of the remaining BG2 player base LIKES Anomen and the Anomen romance, so it seemed the most natural choice. We already know that Anomen under normal circumstances was/is attracted to the PC.

Q: Anomen? Ugh. Why couldn't I cheat with Aerie, Jaheira, Mazzy, Nalia, Viconia, or Tashia instead? THAT would have been fun! A: You want the Chloe NPC MOD people.

Q: Anomen? Ugh. Why couldn't I cheat with Imoen instead? THAT would have been fun! A: You want the Imoen-related MOD people.

Q: Anomen? Ugh. Why couldn't I cheat with Sarevok instead? THAT would have been fun! A: You want... uh, somebody else.

Q: Does Kelsey ever get naked? A: Yes, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your persuasion and opinion of Kelsey) the rest movie ALWAYS covers it up.

Q: The Prelate at the Order keeps trying to give Anomen his Test, over and over and at the wrong times—like, every time I talk to him! A: This is a known bug with V1.0.0, and is corrected in all subsequent versions.

Q: How many pirates were involved in the making of Kelsey? Were any of them harmed? A: We're obviously writing FAQ material too late at night.