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Mod version used for review: 19.0.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful to some people, but unfortunately I am usually not among them. The Xan for BG2 mod is a mod that brings everyone’s favourite dreary elf into the second game. It features an absolute wealth of content, and it’s clear upon playing it how much of a labour of love this character was for the author.

When I first started this mod I told myself that I would play through every path that the mod offers. There are three routes that a relationship with Xan can take, and I’ve heard that it can vary within those routes. I had heard the most about the ‘bonded’ route that female elves can get with Xan, and figured that because it seemed to be the most popular route, it would be the one I would take first.

I immediately failed at doing so, since the ‘bonded’ path relied on selecting the option that quite clearly said that Xan and my character had bonded during the events of the first game — which they could have done, had I played through the Baldur’s Gate 1 NPC Project mod. I never completed the Xan romance in that mod, and what I did see of it I did not particularly enjoy, so perhaps it was for the best that I failed in pursuing the path I would least enjoy.

Aside from two romance routes, Xan has an extensive friendship path available to the player. I did not play through the path, despite what I told myself at the beginning. Something tells me, however, that it’s the best of the three options.

I did, however, play through ToB on both romance paths, and I must say that the ‘unbonded’ route is a lot more interesting and varied than its counterpart. Regardless of what you choose, you’re always going to be in for a wild ride. Each paths has ups and downs, both can be considered somewhat tragic at points, and at the end of the day this mod will probably be the most extensive NPC romance you’ll ever find in these games, perhaps save for the Haer’Dalis romance mod, or others that I dare not name.

Xan is still the same character he’s always been — depressing, doomed Xan. His unastute fear of life is still present, but it conflicts with the reality that he’s confronted with every day. If he is surely doomed, then why is he still alive? If he is so sure that life is pointless, then why is it that he feels so alive around Gorion’s Ward? It is within these conflicting ideas that Xan becomes an interesting character, though there is certainly more to him here than Baldur’s Gate 1 and the NPC Project combined have.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who would insist on playing an elf in every single Dungeons & Dragons campaign that we would play. He, as an aloof, studious elf, would constantly assert himself as the best race and deem humans and dwarves as lesser beings. Playing with Xan in my party reminded me of this experience, and I can’t say that it was for the best.

Xan is very serious about being an elf, which I must assume the authors thought necessary due to his place as a wielder of a moonblade, an important weapon to his people. This seriousness peaks when Xan refuses to romance anyone other than a member of his own people, though half-elves get a half-romance.

So much writing has been poured into this mod, and almost all of it is of high quality. Of course, when you have something in abundance, you can expect one or two duds. This accounts for the original games and their companions as well. You couldn’t look me in the eye and make me believe that the Haer’Dalis/Aerie love triangle was well handled by BioWare. My only real problem with Xan as a mod is that I felt there was too much, to the point where I can safely say that this mod is over-written — at least to my tastes.

There is also a mostly inoffensive but frequent use of descriptive parentheticals. The near constant use of “(sigh)” comes to mind, which makes sense given Xan’s character, but given his character I would be reading his lines with a sigh anyway. Xan is characterised excellently through his lines alone, he doesn’t need “(sigh)” in there to elaborate on it.

As usual, though, this is nothing but a personal nitpick that somewhat consistently bothered me throughout the mod. The writing here is fantastic, and my personal faults with it are just that — personal.

Xan includes extremely extensive player-initiated dialogue. It’s overwhelming just how many conversations you can initiate with him, and the options usually go deeper than standard PIDs. At several points in the game, and at different stages of the relationship, you’ll gain a unique set of things to talk to him about. There are many options hidden within others, and I’m honestly baffled at the effort that went into this. I am not usually one to enjoy PIDs — the original companions don’t have them and something that strays too far from the original design can break my immersion in the game — but these are excellently done and I enjoyed the conversations that they offer. They give the player the power to make the first move, which is something that Xan is certainly not going to do.

You’ll notice that I avoided going into a terrible amount of detail here. I’ll tell you now that if you don’t mind a somewhat melodramatic romance with a melodramatic fellow, then you’ll probably enjoy this mod. The romance is the focus of the mod, and while it isn’t my cup of tea, I acknowledge that it’s well done and I can appreciate it for that. I would kill for a streamlined version of this mod optimised for the Enhanced Edition — and, well… optimised for my enjoyment. But wouldn’t we all want something like that?

Xan has a couple of options for his class upon installing the mod. You can keep him as an Enchanter, make him a Wild Mage, a generalist mage, or a fighter/mage. I elected to keep him as an enchanter. Regardless of class, he will remain a lawful neutral elf, though his moonblade will change slightly if he’s a fighter/mage.

Xan will thrive regardless of what class you put him in, and he can serve as the party’s primary spellcaster with ease.

Upon reaching a certain EXP threshold, Xan’s base moonblade will be upgraded to a more powerful variant of itself. In another scenario you may encounter, the blade may be wielded by anyone, though its power is significantly diminished.

The mage variant of the blade offers invisibility as per the Staff of Magi, making it an incredibly powerful weapon. The fighter/mage variant gives Xan an extra attack, which is nice.

Other than that Xan plays identically to any other mage in the game. A useful addition to any party.

Quests

Xan has four quests across the game and a few minor encounters with NPCs around the world map. The quests are nothing too complex, and not entirely related to Xan as a character, but they are not poorly designed or written.

The first quest involves an elven extremist group planning on taking over Amn — and all other human cities. You can catch wind of this and kill the members of this group you meet there and then, ceasing the plan immediately, or take a neutral approach and potentially end up killing them later, depending on your actions. You don’t actually get to witness much of the plot itself, but Xan is severely opposed to it and won’t let you go along with their plans.

The second quest initiates when you enter the Temple District. An elven girl approaches Xan for help, seeing that he has a moonblade, and asks the group to find her father. There’s a little callback to some events in BG1 and potentially the NPC Project, depending on your responses. It’s mostly just a short city runaround, but it’s not bad.

The third quest occurs after leaving the Underdark. It’s pretty hard to miss and it’ll take you back to Chateau Irenicus for a brief moment before giving you a potentially tough fight against a golem and a meeting with a woman you may have met in the Underdark.

The last quest happens in Amkethran, and its similar to the second quest. Xan must help a slave girl and there’s potential for some neat roleplaying in this scenario.

These quests are pretty good. I assume they’re supposed to represent Xan’s inability to decline helping others, especially those of his race, due to his status as a moonblade wielder. You can later discuss this topic with him through player-initiated dialogue, and it gives some interesting insight into his perspective on such things as a lawful neutral character.

Xan does not come with a custom portrait in this mod, and he uses his original. However, there are many custom portraits for Xan out there that you can use. Personally, I was using a modified version of the portrait found here, created by Syntia13 on the Beamdog Forums.

Probably the most important thing I can mention about this mod is that it is fully voiced. Xan has more voiced lines of dialogue than most NPCs available in the game, without standing out too much. The voice acting is credited to Joey Bracken in the mod’s readme file, and he did an outstanding job at emulating Xan’s voice. All Xan’s banters with other companions have at least two voiced lines — one for Xan and one for the other companion, repurposing lines spoken by various characters in a masterful way.

Xan’s voice perfectly accompanies the excellent writing and it ended up being my favourite thing about the mod. It’s simply amazing.

I think I’ve this mod enough praise to convince you that I think it’s good. It just isn’t for me. There was too much content in this one mod for me to truly enjoy, and the fact that it takes so much influence from the NPC Project is something that I can’t admit to liking. If you love elves being elf-y and want to be elf-y too, then this is the mod for you.

The bottom line is that if you haven’t played this mod before, and you’re down to try it, then I sincerely hope you do. It’s more than worth playing at least once.

Thanks for reading.

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