THE TOOLKIT VERSION IS NOW ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE IN-GAME MOD MANAGER.


This mod adds 2 spells to every playable character, ApplyAvatar and RemoveAvatar. ApplyAvatar lets you change one of your companions into an avatar and RemoveAvatar can change an avatar into a companion. A character that has been turned into an avatar can talk to other characters, change who's in your party, romance companions and do other actions that are exclusive to avatars.



There are 2 main versions of the mod (and one optional version that I wouldn't recommend):

Original Version (only works on companions):

In the original version of the mod you can only use the spells on companions you recruit during your campaign (origin companions and hirelings) and not the character you start as (tav, durge or origin starts). This version simply adds or removes the avatar tag from a character, the tag allows you to talk to other characters like an avatar would and recruit or kick characters from your party, romance companions and other such actions. There are also other things in the game code besides the tag that distinguish an avatar from a companion and the other version aims to change those as well. Main restriction with this original version is that you can't alter your starting character that already is an avatar (I made this before the toolkit came out and didn't wanna bother with script extender so I couldn't figure out how to actually remove tags from characters that have them by default lol).



Toolkit Version (most recent and extensive version that lets you target companions and your origin starting character):

In this new version made with the toolkit you can use the spells on any origin character (including the one you started your campaign as) as well as hirelings and other companion characters. The main benefit of using this version is that you can change your starting origin character into a companion-like character. This version also makes a more complete transition between a character being an avatar and a companion in the game code, mainly to fix issues that came up when I tried to remove the avatar tag from the starting origin though it may also fix some issues with characters that have transitioned the other way.

This version also carries over approval ratings between characters when switching who's the avatar. For example if you start as Karlach and Shadowheart has high approval for you and then you turn Shadowheart into an avatar and removeavatar from Karlach, the approval rating should be updated for Karlach so that she likes Shadowheart. Keep in mind though that approvals are strictly between an avatar and a companion, the game doesn't seem to allow approvals to be updated directly between avatars or between companions.

When you turn a companion into an avatar and then your origin starting character into a companion, it should unlock the companion quest of the character that was turned into a companion. However, avatar personal quests currently aren't unlocked when changing a companion into an avatar, could maybe look into doing that in the future though.

There are some caveats with this version as well. Tavs and Durge cannot be targeted, because in my testing with Tav, changing them into a non-avatar caused bugs such as them becoming non-dismissable even if you tried to turn them back and some issues with dialogue iirc. I didn't test Durge specifically, but since they also aren't normally supposed to be a companion, I would assume they probably would have similar issues if used with this mod. I didn't really see it as worth the effort to try and make them into functional companions, but I may try and look into it in the future if it's something people want or if I feel like it.

This version also doesn't allow dialogue directly between 2 origin avatars as I believe this is how the game works in vanilla multiplayer. If you want to talk to a character who's an avatar then you need to change them into a companion. The original version that only changes the tag actually does allow you to talk to origin characters turned into avatars as if they were still your companions so that may be one benefit with the original version, but that is not how the game is intended to work in vanilla and since approvals don't update between avatars, it makes more sense to only have conversations between an avatar and a companion (unless your approval with them is already very high in which case it maybe doesn't matter that much). That said, I may still try to figure out some new version that preserves dialogue between avatars or perhaps turns characters you talk with into companions automatically.

Turning hirelings or origin characters who normally aren't avatars (Minthara, Halsin etc.) into avatars is supported in this version, but since they aren't normally meant to be avatars, I'm also not sure whether if that may cause issues. In my brief testing with hirelings it seemed to not cause any immediate issues though. I also noticed with the most recent version that you can turn some of the temporary companions that you can get during specific quests into avatars. I'd wager it could cause problems with the completion of those quests so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it's something you can do if you want to.



Old Toolkit Version (buggy experimental version that lets you target all party members):

This functions similarly to the original version in that it only alters the tag, but this version allows removing a tag from your starting character, including Tav and probably Durge as well. I wouldn't recommend actually using this version for that though, because in my testing it mainly just caused bugs and no real benefit. This version was just something kind of experimental I did when I first got into learning how to use the toolkit. 



In general I would advise some caution when using any version of this mod as I've personally mainly only tested interactions within camp and idk about the full effects the mod might have when playing through an entire campaign. The new Toolkit version has a lot more code to it than the original version as there were a number of issues I ran into when trying to turn an origin avatar into a companion which needed to be fixed. As a result there may also be some side effects I'm not aware of.





List of known issues/quirks and limitations with the different version of this mod (the comments and bugs page also have some issues encountered by players using this mod):

Both versions:

• when you apply or remove the avatar tag from a character, the crown symbol that avatars have does not appear or disappear instantly. Removing a character from a party then adding them back or saving and reloading the game should however update the portrait
• when turning a companion into an avatar their tent will instantly disappear from camp. It should re-appear when turning them back into a companion
• having multiple avatars active means that you might have to go through the guardian dream dialogue separately for each avatar
• a character that has been turned into an avatar and back into a companion can't be swapped out when trying to recruit another companion when your party is full. They can still be dismissed by talking to them directly, but you can't directly swap them out by talking to the person you wanna recruit.
• origin characters who have been turned into avatars can't be dismissed from the party. You have to turn them back into companions to dismiss them. 
• can't be used on tav or durge
• turning characters into avatars/companions during the Nautiloid intro may cause issues as the characters haven't been properly recruited to your camp yet, would mainly only recommend using this on characters once they've joined your camp
  

Original Version:

• can't toggle any character you start your campaign as
• if you turn a companion into an avatar, have them gain approval with another companion, then turn them back into a companion and try to start dialogue with the other companion that they gained approval with, may cause the game to crash as the game will attempt to start dialogue with the now companion character due to the high approval they've gained with the other companion. This is something that I specifically fixed in the Toolkit version by purging old database approval entries between companions.
• some issues have been reported when using this mod with the custom companions mod
  

Toolkit Version:

• origin avatars can't talk to each other directly
• for some reason you can't dismiss tav if you turn multiple companions into avatars, but if you only turn one of them into an avatar, you can then talk to Tav and dismiss them.
• if you only have one avatar active and try to removeavatar from them, it won't do anything. This is intentional to avoid any potential issues with a party that has no avatar.
• only characters in your current party can be targeted, this is also an intentional precaution.
  

    

    




Install by putting the pak file in the mods folder or by using BG3 mod manager.

In case you're not satisfied with my mod, there are also at least 2 other mods on Nexus that do similar things to this and may have the functionality you're looking for:

https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/9486

https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/14177