List of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II Mods that Allow Female Exiles to Recruit the Handmaiden as a Party Member

One of the flaws of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (KotOR 2) I believe everyone, regardless of how much you like the game (or not), will agree on, is that the Handmaiden, real name Brianna, will only join your party if you play as a male Jedi Exile. The idea of a potential party member only joins you based on your player character's gender already makes little to no sense to begin with, and it does not help that Star Wars Legends, the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, established that both Brianna the Handmaiden and Mical the Disciple join the female Exile's crew.

However, the good news is, there are actually mods that allow female Exiles to recruit Brianna the Handmaiden as a party member. Unfortunately, despite the fact that such mods have already existed since the 2000s, there are still KotOR 2 fans who do not know the existence of such mods, which is why I am making this list. Brianna is an amazing character with an interesting story, so I highly recommend you to have at least one playthrough with Brianna as your companion regardless of your Exile’s gender.

These are the mods that allow female Exiles to recruit Brianna the Handmaiden as a party member:

Released on 23 April 2005, Stoffe's Handmaiden Choice for Females was the very first mod that gives female Exiles the option to recruit the Handmaiden. However, it is not compatible with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM), as it was created and released years before TSLRCM. In addition, even with this mod, Handmaiden still refers to a female Exile with “he/him” pronouns, which some people (myself included) would find very immersion-breaking

Released on 14 March 2014, Hassat Hunter made Handmaiden 4 Females - Disciple 4 Males based on Stoffe's Handmaiden Choice for Females, so the mod would be compatible with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM). However, this version retains the flaw of Handmaiden still referring to a female Exile with “he/him” pronouns. Additioally, the mod is outdated and no longer supported.

Released on 21 May 2015, DarthTyren's PartySwap fixes any potential gender and pronouns mix-up by adding gender checks to dialogues that references the Exile’s gender.

This in turn, however, also prevents female Exiles from getting any dialogue that references any potential romantic feelings between the female Exile and the Handmaiden or Atris (similarly, if you play as a male Exile, you will not get any dialogue that references any potential romance between you and the Disciple). Therefore, if you also want to romance the Handmaiden as a female Exile (or romance the Disciple as a male Exile), I would recommend checking out the below mod as well.

(Note that tarting from 11 July 2023, I had taken over the development of PartySwap due to DarthTyren's departure from the KotOR modding scene)

My mod, released on 2 January 2017 and can be downloaded form both Deadly Stream and Nexus Mods. As the mod name suggests, this mod allows you to recruit and romance the Handmaiden as a female Exile, ditto for the Disciple as a male Exile. My mod also requires The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM) to work.

My mod fixes any potential gender/pronouns mix-up by editing dialogue and splicing audio, so users of my mod can fully enjoy the Handmaiden and the Disciple's romance content without worrying about their Exile getting misgendered.

The default installation option of my mod will make the Handmaiden automatically joins a female Exile, and the Disciple automatically joins a male Exile. That said, my mod also provides an installation option to make my mod compatible with DarthTyren's PartySwap mod.

It is very important to note when it comes to installing mods for KotOR 2, I do NOT recommend using the Steam Workshop, including the Steam Workshop version of The Sith Lords Restored Contente Mod. because frankly, the Steam Workshop is a mod compatibility nightmare for games like KotOR 2. I recommend reading this post: Why NOT to Use the Steam Workshop.