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| CYPHRE'S ANIMAL COMPANION PACK (CACP) v0.69 |

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| NASTY BIG POINTY TEETH EDITION |
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| (c)2009 by J. C. Huguet aka Cyphre/Cyphre69 |
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* Dedicated to Euna P. with best wishes & good luck for your exam(s)!! *
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Do you like Animals? I do.. and it's one of the reasons, why I also prefer to play
characters, that have an
Animal Companion. Sadly the standard Animal Companions in NWN2 are far from being
satisfactory/close to PnP
and even still include bugs (I just say 'Weapon Finesse'), too. With Kaedrin's
latest Packs, things got a lot
better (especially due to new Feats & Spells, that support Animal Companions), but
(most of) the Animal
Companions themselves were still not powerful enough to make a Character/Build
focused on Animal Companions
(such as the 'Beastmaster') a viable option and there are not that many animals
among which you can choose,
too. There are already some other mods, which add/change Animal Companions, but
most of them are out of date,
doesn't work with Kaedrin's PrC Pack and/or offer invalid Companions. So here's my
personal vision of how
Animal Companions should be in NWN2..

[Q]
What's CACP (Cyphre's Animal Companion Pack)?
[A]
CACP is a modification for Neverwinter Nights 2, that tries to accomplish
following goals:
+(1)Adding new Animal Companions
(Version 0.69 includes the following new Animal Companions: Arctic Boar,
Arctic Wolf, Hammerhead Shark,
Highland Snake, Mako Shark, Mountain Lion, Polar Bear, Snow Leopard,
Wolverine).
+(2)Enhancing already existing Animal Companions (for Druids, Rangers and Clerics
[with the Animal Domain])
to be more powerful/useful (while staying as close to PnP as possible).
+(3)To introduce/add an aging/growing system for Animal Companions
(Version 0.69 includes 3 'visible' steps (Young, Juvenile & Adult) and adds a
'true' size-category change
(with all advantages/disadvantages) when reaching adulthood.
+(4)Enhancing/adding some new textures/effects such as Glowing Eyes.
+(5)Offering stuff/resources, that also could be useful for module/pw creators.

[Q]
What makes the PnP Animal Companions more powerful?
[A]
The power of Animals in PnP mainly derrives from their special Feats/Attacks,
which are not inlcuded in NWN2..
such as Charge, Grapple, Pounce, Rake, .. also Animal Companions get the
additional powers of being an Animal
Companion on top of their own powers and not just the Animal Companion powers like
it is done in NWN2. In the
first print of the PHB, Animal Companions were even treated like Magical Beasts
(while retaining the animal's
HD, BAB, saves skill points and feats), but this was revised in later editions. In
any way.. an Animal Companion
is superior to a normal animal of its kind and has special powers!!

[Q]
So how have you translated the special Feats/Attacks, that are not included in
NWN2?
[A]
Here is my current list of how I translated some special Feats/Attacks (things may
change in later releases!!):
-Agile=Skill Focus Tumble
-Blindsight=Blindfight
-Endurance=Toughness
-Ferocity=Steadfast Determination
-Improved Grab=Knockdown
-Pounce/Rake=Weapon Focus/Weapon Specialization (just one of both)
-Racial Bonus to Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, ..=Skill Focus Tumble
-Racial Bonus to Escape Artist=Dodge
-Racial Bonus to Skill x=Skill Focus x
-Run=Skill Focus Tumble
-Trip=Knockdown

[Q]
What's the 'Weapon Finesse' Bug?
[A]
Creature Weapons do not benefit from this feat at all anymore (tested this
thoroughly under misc. circumstances/
animals/sizes), but I found some kind of workaround for it.. You won't see a
'Weapon Finesse' feat in the list
of feats of animals, that should have it and their attack bonus will rely on
'Strength', BUT they will still
receive a bonus to attack equal to the difference between the unmodified STR/DEX-
modifier (if the DEX modifier
is higher) which is not weapon-related and hence stacks with spells that improve
the attack bonus of natural
weapons. Not perfect, but much better than a feat, that doesn't work at all and no
bonus to the animals AB!!
You just should remember, that (currently) ALL Animal Companions from my pack use
Strength as their base
modifier for attack-bonuses!!

[Q]
Some words about Animal Companion-vs-Animal Companion balance?
[A]
It's not my goal/intention to make the Animal Companions equal to each other.. a
Bear should win vs. a Badger in
99% of all fights,.. etc.. (check reality & PnP to get an idea about what to
expect).

[Q]
What do I need to use CACP (Cyphre's Animal Companion Pack)?
[A]
PREREQUISITES:
+(1)NWN2 with MotB and SoZ - Version 1.23.1765
 +(2)Kaedrin's PrC Pack v1.38.5 (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?
view=NWN2HakpaksOriginal.Detail&id=209)

[Q]
How do I install CACP (Cyphre's Animal Companion Pack)?
[A]
Installation:
+(1)Kaedrin's PrC Pack should already be installed.
+(2)Unzip CACP_v0.69_Beta.zip or in your "My Documents/Neverwinter Nights
2/override" folder.
+(3)In your override folder search for the folder that includes Kaedrin's PrC
Pack and drag the two folders
'cmi_common' & 'cmi_module' from the CACP-folder into Kaedrin's PrC Pack-
folder (Overwrite: YES)
[Make a BACKUP of the two folders of Kaedrin's PrC Pack first and keep them
at another place than the
override folder in case you want to return everything as it was before
installing my pack!!]
+(4)Locate the Dialog.tlk file in My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2
- if there is one.. overwrite (copy/paste) it with the Dialog.tlk-file, that
is included in my Pack
(But again.. make a BACKUP of it first and place it elsewhere!!).
- if there is none.. copy/paste the Dialog.tlk-file, that is included in my
Pack to that position.
+(5)Locate the Dialog.tlk in the main installation folder of NWN2 (!!NOT!! My
Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2),
make a BACKUP of it and overwrite (cut(!)/paste) it with the Dialog.tlk-file,
that is included in my Pack.

[Q]
Will CACP (Cyphre's Animal Companion Pack) be supported for a long(er) time?
[A]
Definitely!! First I guess, that NWN2 is the final D&D game, that uses the E3.5
rules (which I prefer) and second,
I already have many other ideas/wishes, that I want to include in future versions
of this pack.. for example..
+(1)Striving for finding the best balance between PnP-rules & NWN2-rules
regarding Animal Companions.
+(2)Adding even more Animal Companions (Dinos, Dogs, Horses, ..)
+(3)A Normal/Dire Form system ~ meaning, that you'll start with the normal form
of an animal, that will be replaced
with a Dire version when you reach the appropriate level.
+(4)A Feat or Class [like the 'Beast Heart Adept' from the Dungeonscape
Supplement Book], that will make it possible
for you to take a Monstrous Companion such as a Gray Render, Manticore,
Winter Wolf,..
+(5)Making it possible to change the Animal Companion whenever your character
gains a level.
+(6)A 'working' Weapon Finesse (Creature) Feat (could be based on Kaedrin's
'Intuitive Attack'?).

[Q]
What's about the Dragon Companions?
[A]
Currently, there are no plans to add/support/edit/modify (the) Dragon Companions
as I don't like the idea of being
able to have such a companion at all.
[Q]
What's about Familiars?
[A]
Check out Loki_999's NWN1 Style Familiars Pack (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?
view=NWN2HakpaksOriginal.Detail&id=468).

[Q]
Where is the Spider Companion & the Fire Elemental (by Kaedrin) Companion?
[A]
The Spider is a vermin and the Fire Elemental an.. elemental ~ and not animals..
so the Spider & Fire Elemental
Companions are disabled for players by default. You can re-enable them by editing
the 'hen_companion.2da' in the
cmi_common-folder. Simply overwrite the '0' with a '1' in the 'AvailableToPlayer'
column.

[Q]
Known Bugs?
[A]
None that I'm aware of, but I guess, that the Pack currently doesn't work with any
module, that doesn't support
Kaedrin's PrC Pack (such as Mysteries of Westgate).

[Q]
Anything to say about the next update(s)?
[A]
For the first Update I plan to add at least two Dinos (Deinonychus, Megaraptor),
that will be available from the 1st level without having to take a feat (for that
they might be a size-category
lower than usual [balance]). Also I'll look into any upcoming/incoming bug-
reports, plan to add full Animal
Companion descriptions, revise/refine Animal Companion moving rates, CR and add
some distance tweaks (based on
NWN2 Creature Distance Tweaks by S�ren M�ller/Zarathustra217).

C R E D I T S

Project idea(s), research, modding/editing, blueprints, portrait postworks (*),

all texture changes & glow maps
by J. C. Huguet aka Cyphre/Cyphre69 [(*) original artists of the portrait pictures
are unknown]
Hammerhead Shark & Mako Shark by Bioware-DLA, taken from the RWS Creature
Conversion Project
(http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2HakpaksOriginal.Detail&id=397) - please
vote for this great resource!!
(Highland)Snake by Arpharazon (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?
view=NWN2Models.Detail&id=147) - please vote for
this great resource!!

S P E C I A L T H A N K S

Arpharazon for the wonderful Snake model conversion, Kaedrin for the amazing PrC
Pack (esp. for supporting Animal
Companions through new Feats & Spells), lancerlot_30v for the great Character
Builder Page (http://nwn2db.com/index.php),
nicethugbert for all the >>NEAT!<< comments ;), Obsidian for making NWN2, RWS for
all their stunning resources, the NWN2
community for being, Tony_K for the fantastic Companion and Monster AI and.. YOU..
for downloading *^_^*!!
Also a special 'thank you' to Synic/Kunikos, MasterChanger, BrianMeyer & Alhandra
Laremion for posting in the "[WIP]
Animal companions for frostfell environments"-thread
(http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=699878&forum=115)
and keeping me going *^_^*!!

V E R Y S P E C I A L T H A N K S

slowdive_fan + IWD1-to-NWN2-conversion-project-team for giving me the original

inspiration/drive to do this mod to promote
the continuation/completion of the IWD1- / starting of an IWD2-project. Please
check out the following links to read more about
this/these project(s)..

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=346
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=699360&forum=111
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=692624&forum=111

And don't forget.. There's only one place, where REAL adventure exists.. THE SPINE
OF THE WORLD!!!