Is Wish a HLA?

[DavidW]

Is the Wish spell a High-level ability like Dragon's Breath, Improved Alacrity and the like?

 

That's not a technical question. I know it's available on scrolls, not on the HLA level-up list, etc. I'm thinking more in terms of flavour and balance.

 

SCS II separates out HLAs from other spells. The player can choose what to do - give HLAs to everyone, or just special people, in SoA, or ToB, or both. Personally I think of HLAs as a ToB thing and it spoils the flavour to have enemies chucking them around in SoA (plus it makes things insanely difficult). But what about the occasional Wish? If one or two late-game creatures (Kangaxx comes to mind, partly as a result of playtesting) had them independently of the main distribution of HLAs, is that good or bad?

 

views welcomed...

[berelinde]

Depends on who you ask. I tend to think of it as an HLA, although some folks treat it as a normal 9th level spell, suitable for daily memorization.

 

Sorry, but I'm a veteran D&D player. Wish aged the caster significantly. I just can't imagine something like this being used on a daily basis.

[Caedwyr]

In the D&D sense, most HLAs in BGII would probably be classified as level 8 or 9 spells. However, Wish gives all the benefits without any of the drawbacks, so I can see the justification of treating it the same as other HLAs from a balance perspective for AI scripting.

 

One thing I wouldn't like however, is letting enemies just use whichever wish effect the like, rather than being confronted with a semi-random selection of choices.

[Daulmakan]

Wish is a regular (albeit the most powerful) level 9 spell in 2E. It ages the caster, true, but so does Haste. The game conveniently ignores such effects, which is for the best IMO.

 

I say leave it as it is. All of its possible effects are randomized and restricted by Wisdom anyway. I think it's balanced.

 

As Caedwyr said, if the enemies (ie. Kangaxx) are subject to the same set of rules regarding it, I wouldn't mind. But then again, I don't play SCS.

[DavidW]

One thing I wouldn't like however, is letting enemies just use whichever wish effect the like, rather than being confronted with a semi-random selection of choices.

 

I'm kind of in the middle. My spellcasters get an effect at random from a list that includes Timestop, Breach, Hardiness and Improved Haste (the latter two only for mages with allies). I assume that the caster has arranged a high enough Wisdom not to have nonsense descend on her, but I don't give them specific control over what happens. (I restricted to 4 effects just on time grounds; I might add others later.)

[Avenger]

I just started replaying ToB, and got Wish in a spellbook. I plan to use it on a daily basis

 

I wouldn't call it a HLA, because it is a regular level 9 spell. HLA spells are supposed to be 'quest level' spells, the concept exists in regular ad&d too, but they are not mere level 9 spells.

 

By the way, how do you intend to use wish for enemies? Do you simply cast the spwishXX spells? Do you factor in wisdom and give some chance to failure?

[DavidW]

By the way, how do you intend to use wish for enemies? Do you simply cast the spwishXX spells? Do you factor in wisdom and give some chance to failure?

 

I assume the caster basically isn't casting Wish unless they've got (or arranged) a pretty high Wisdom, so I assume they've been given a random list containing at least one nice thing, which they pick. (I guess if I had more patience I'd have set it up so they pre-drank Potions of Clarity and then the effect was in-principle dispellable, but life is short).

 

I confess I don't understand the game's Wish mechanic well enough to know whether I should be simulating a failure chance even so. I'm not really inclined to in any case, though, because I think that except for really-hard-core purists, it'll be dull. (The first time a wizard casts Wish and devastates his own side, it's probably funny; after that, it's an anticlimax).

 

In terms of implementation, I don't quite use the spwishXX spells because they tend to do hardcoded things like TargetParty(), but I basically use thinly modified versions of them. The spell simulates a brief conversation between mage and summoned genie ("I wish for my enemies' magical defences to be utterly destroyed!" "Then I will sweep them aside, my master!") and then implements the effect.