Version used for review: 1.64
Some elves are just awful, and VIENXAY is said to be one of them. Vienxay would disagree with such assertions, telling you she came from a prominent house in Evermeet until a series of “misunderstandings” had her ousted and wandering the landscape. She speaks angrily of a visiting mage who tricked her and ruined her name, and wanting to restore her rightful former glory.
Vienxay Starlight is a neutral evil elven shadowmage, though her alignment is much thanks to her quest for personal revenge and her past with shadow magic. Shadow magic in of itself is not evil, but it is derivative of magic that comes from the Shadow Weave, Shar’s dark weave, rather than Mystra’s. Vienxay worships Mystra, and claims she doesn’t wish to anger her by tapping into the Shadow Weave, so she settles for a form of shadow magic that still draws from Mystra’s weave.
Vienxay claims she was exiled from Evermeet because her former master, a Shadow Weave magic user named Luna, used her to take the fall for the aftermath of an experiment. You won’t get the full story until you confront Luna later, but it’s close enough to the truth.
Her exile is both a shameful and spiteful topic for Vienxay. She despises being away from her homeland and her people. Vienxay is a bit of an elitist. She has a heavy disdain for anyone who isn’t an elf, and an appreciation for anyone who is. The exception is drow, of course, but she can be convinced to stay in a group with both Baeloth and Viconia if you play your cards right.
Despite this, she’s still a likeable character. She’s just a bit aristocratic and stuck up, which makes it more endearing when she has moments of genuine appreciation and emotion. This softer side to her makes her alignment shift that can take place a lot more believable — realistically she’s more of a true neutral character anyway, she’s just been influenced by her former master and her quest for revenge.
Once she gets that revenge, her mask somewhat falls apart. Skitia, the author of the mod, describes Vienxay as “… wandering the Sword Coast first seeking revenge, then purpose, and then a way home.” That last bit is more BG2-centric, but I’d say it’s a very accurate assessment of Vienxay’s story. It’s refreshingly simple, with depth sprinkled in where it’s appropriate.
Vienxay banters with other characters and has a small number of conversations with the protagonist outside of her quest, somewhat in line with the EE characters. There is no romance until Siege of Dragonspear and even then, it’s quite limited. Vienxay’s banters are typically what you would expect — she dislikes non-elves and intensely dislikes half-elves, but she respects a few that she deems worthy — Shar-Teel and Dorn, for example. She views them as powerful forces in both personality and physicality.
All of Vienxay’s dialogue is in line with the tone and the setting of Baldur’s Gate. Nothing really took me out of the experience while playing with her, other than a few minor grammatical and spelling errors. The mod also features player-initiated-dialogue, which is fairly limited other than gaining new options after each stage of her quest and certain banters, as well as asking about your other companions.
Overall, the writing for this mod is solid throughout, with some slight peaks and valleys here and there. Vienxay is a likeable character despite her personal shortcomings and her quest and banters are believably written, as are her conversations with the protagonist and other vanilla NPCs.
Vienxay comes with a custom kit — a variant of thief/mage, a shadowmage. This kit is basically a shadowdancer multiclassed with a mage, with a few differences in ability.
One of the main things to note here is that a shadowmage cannot backstab until they reach level 5, by which time they will receive the Shadow Jump ability.
Shadow Jump has Vienxay immediately teleport behind any given character while also becoming invisible. For the next twelve seconds, she receives a +2 to her backstab modifier, as well as a +20% to her THAC0. Using this ability will make Vienxay the best backstabber in the game, bar late-game assassins. However, she can only use this ability once per day, so if you want consistency, any other backstabber will probably be more reliable.
Shadowmages also only have a Hit Die of d5, opposed to a regular thief’s d6. This will result in slightly less hitpoints per level up for the shadowmage than a thief, but slightly more than a regular mage. Realistically, you don’t want your thieves getting hit anyway, but usually they can take more hits than a mage. For Vienxay, this is not the case. You’ll want her to be protected at all times, and if things get bad then you can use Shadow Jump as a method of safe retreat, since it’s an instant defensive teleport.
Vienxay’s low Consitution doesn’t help in this matter, but her higher strength for a thief/mage allows her some extra damage while backstabbing. As we can see, at level 10/11 Vienxay has 49 hitpoints — far lower than everyone else’s.
Vienxay gets a special spell unique to her, so if you wanted to create a shadowmage Bhaalspawn, you won’t get it. It’s obtained during Vienxay’s Siege of Dragonspear quest, which can be completed just before you get to Boareskyr Bridge.
Shadowbolt is an illusion spell and is basically a magic missile that does 1d6+1 damage instead of 1d4+1 damage. Gaining up to eleven missiles, however, is absolutely fantastic. I was regularly getting over 30 damage with this spell at the end of Siege.
Vienxay gets some powerful abilities for some tradeoffs like her lower Hit Die, the lack of trap-setting, and no Hide in Plain Sight. Overall, she’s a pretty powerful character provided you use her right. I wouldn’t call her overpowered, which is surprising for a kit of a multiclass, but I had a blast using her.
Vienxay’s quests are pretty simple. In Baldur’s Gate 1, it’s essentially a shorter version of Dorn’s quest. She wants to seek out those that have wronged her, and that starts with a fellow apprentice of her former master, who is hanging out in the Nashkel inn.
He tips you off that she might be hanging out in the Cloakwood forest, and you have to decide whether or not to let Vienxay kill him — he’s also her ex-boyfriend, but that means little to her.
Once you arrive in the third area of Cloakwood, you’re met with Luna, the shadowmage master. After some words are exchanged, you learn some more about Vienxay and a fight ensues. A pretty difficult fight, too.
Three mages, and three elementals stand in your way. I had some good fun reloading this fight.
Vienxay’s portrait is beautifully painted, and although it doesn’t fit the game’s style terribly well, it doesn’t exactly stick out like a sore thumb either. I had no problems with her portrait, and it’s a fair bit better than the one she used to have.
The mod also comes with an alternate portrait for Vienxay in the files.
Vienxay’s banter is unvoiced but she has a unique soundset that fits in seamlessly with the game and compliments her character very nicely. She also has two unique music tracks that seem perfect for her personality.
Although I really like Vienxay, her class and her portrait veer too much from the path of the vanilla game to say that she’s a perfect fit for your party. She feels more like a Neverwinter Nights character, which makes sense, considering that’s where the roots of her character come from.
There’s something about evil aristocratic women that really gets me going though, and I can’t help but love Vienxay. She’s a great character and she’s definitely worth a try.
Thanks for reading.
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