Can I create these weapons?

[ericp07]

Because these weapons are so powerful, I'm now thinking they should be gained as quest rewards, during play, instead of being part of shae`lina's starting gear. I'll likely outfit her at the outset with nothing more than +2 items,...

It depends on when you can pick her up. If she's sitting in the next cage at Chateau Irenicus and you start her out with even a toothbrush, she's way better equipped than the PC. If you put her somewhere in Athkatla, +2 is OK, but only just, and you're exceeding Bioware. If you have her handcuffed to Firkraag, well, +3 seems reasonable. Don't forget, people like getting the flail of ages because it's a *big deal* to have a +3 weapon. Because they're rare. Also, if you start a new game in Throne of Bhaal, you get a bag of holding full of +2/+3 weapons of various types. This should give you some idea of the relative power of +2, if it's considered credible to have won SoA with nothing better.

 

Indeed. She'll first appear outdoors, in some wilderness area outside Athkatla, ideally while the party is still in Chapter 2. Yeah, +3 weapons were always considered special in the PnP games I've played and run. Players were never thrilled with +1 weapons, and +2 usually got a response of "that's useful." I feel the game needs a little more +5 gear, but that's just me. Considering shae`lina's career, IIRC, she didn't have anything above +2 till she was closer to 10th level as a ranger (hard to recall that far back; in 3.5e, she's currently a 26th level character, and probably too powerful for BGII - SoA/ToB games, which is why I'm scaling her back).

 

Thanks,

Eric

[Miloch]

Another alternative would be to scale her gear, and her starting class level, relative to the protagonist, but I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

Yeah, I think it's possible - the standard NPCs do it anyway with multiple CREs for each NPC based on the PC's level. Though offhand, I'm not sure how they determine which one spawns exactly, maybe buried in some .2da file or something.

[ericp07]

Another alternative would be to scale her gear, and her starting class level, relative to the protagonist, but I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

Yeah, I think it's possible - the standard NPCs do it anyway with multiple CREs for each NPC based on the PC's level. Though offhand, I'm not sure how they determine which one spawns exactly, maybe buried in some .2da file or something.

 

I do feel any NPC who joins the party should be close to the protagonist's level. In PnP games I've played (I know, maybe not a close enough approximation, but it's all I have as a reference), new additions to an adventuring party were always no more than two levels above or below party average. This will have to be a "back burner" idea for now, but scalability in class level and overall equipment power is an attractive idea

 

Latest update: I've added both the weapons and the Beast of Malar forms to Shae`lina's .tp2, to integrate everything into a single mod package. No sense in creating all sorts of separate components, and then combine them all. I'm hoping this will save some time and effort...and allow me to concentrate more on other aspects of the mod.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[WizWom]

Another alternative would be to scale her gear, and her starting class level, relative to the protagonist, but I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

Yeah, I think it's possible - the standard NPCs do it anyway with multiple CREs for each NPC based on the PC's level. Though offhand, I'm not sure how they determine which one spawns exactly, maybe buried in some .2da file or something.

yeah, oddly NPCLEVEL.2DA controls the choice of CRE file based on PC level.

often mods add the CRE somewhat differently, via script; this is because a creature added in with the in-game NPC stuff won't be in an existing game, only in a game started after the install.

 

it is not hard to make a script to bump an NPC to within a range of the PC; If you are interested, I can forward my code; Level 1 NPCs also has similar code.

[ericp07]

Another alternative would be to scale her gear, and her starting class level, relative to the protagonist, but I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

Yeah, I think it's possible - the standard NPCs do it anyway with multiple CREs for each NPC based on the PC's level. Though offhand, I'm not sure how they determine which one spawns exactly, maybe buried in some .2da file or something.

yeah, oddly NPCLEVEL.2DA controls the choice of CRE file based on PC level.

often mods add the CRE somewhat differently, via script; this is because a creature added in with the in-game NPC stuff won't be in an existing game, only in a game started after the install.

 

it is not hard to make a script to bump an NPC to within a range of the PC; If you are interested, I can forward my code; Level 1 NPCs also has similar code.

 

I'd like that very much, please I imagine I'll need to create three different .cre files, each being a snapshot of the character at different stages in her career. The nice part is that I already have a file to use as a template of sorts, so only two modified .cre files will be needed...and I'll resist the temptation to include a 24th level version of the character *L*

 

Thanks,

Eric

[ericp07]

Speaking of weapons, I'd also like to give the followers of Malar special weapon items called Beast Claws...but I could almost swear I saw something by that name already among the game's .itm files. I tried looking for this, but couldn't find it (which doesn't mean it's not there). Does that sound familiar to anyone? Does such an item exist? If so, I'd like to know the file's name, so I can modify it if needed, or simply use it as-is for my purposes.

 

Happy modding,

Eric

[BigRob]

There's no item of that name in BG2, though there may be in one of the IWD games (which I don't have installed at the moment).

 

To make one would be fairly simple, you could modify an existing weapon (dagger maybe) and add some new art and a changed description. There's even some paw icons within the game itself (bear form attacks and so on) that you could use for the art.

[ericp07]

There's no item of that name in BG2, though there may be in one of the IWD games (which I don't have installed at the moment).

 

To make one would be fairly simple, you could modify an existing weapon (dagger maybe) and add some new art and a changed description. There's even some paw icons within the game itself (bear form attacks and so on) that you could use for the art.

 

Maybe I hallucinated the beast claws Anyway, I took S1-6.ITM and modified it slightly to use for the item. The user wears one on each hand, striking once with each per combat round. Should be easy enough to add the the .tp2.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[Guest John]

ISTR an item from BG sold by tha wizard west of Beregost(sp??). It may have been called Claws of Azagaroth.

 

It also seems to me that the Tor-Gal component of Tactics might have enhanced Tor'Gal with these same claws at one time. Don't remember for sure; maybe someone else whose played that component can provide more info.

 

John

[ericp07]

There is indeed an item in BGII - SoA/ToB called beast claws! The filename is CDBEAST.ITM; I found it during some work with NearInfinity today. I'll take a look at it, and see if it's at all like what I want.

 

- E

[ericp07]

There is indeed an item in BGII - SoA/ToB called beast claws! The filename is CDBEAST.ITM; I found it during some work with NearInfinity today. I'll take a look at it, and see if it's at all like what I want.

 

- E

 

Nope, that's a spell, so not appropriate for the item. I'll stick with what I've done already.

 

- E

[Guest Guest]

If they're going to dualwield the claws, remember to actually give your Malar priests some proficiency points in dualwielding as well, or they won't be hitting much with those things.

[ericp07]

If they're going to dualwield the claws, remember to actually give your Malar priests some proficiency points in dualwielding as well, or they won't be hitting much with those things.

 

That occurred to me, so I need to find out how to assign that (meaning which file, and what change to make). This also relates to Shae`lina herself, as she should have more than the ranger default of two stars in two-weapon style, if possible (that's her combat style of choice).

 

Thanks,

Eric

[BigRob]

The simplest way to do that is to create the character as a Multiplayer Character (so not the Bhaalspawn) and add the appropriate extra stars manually.

[ericp07]

The simplest way to do that is to create the character as a Multiplayer Character (so not the Bhaalspawn) and add the appropriate extra stars manually.

 

Normally, that would work, then I could just convert the .chr to a .cre. However, every time I try to create a new character in the game, and choose a kittable class, the game crashes to desktop. devSin says it will work properly if I keep trying, but the only way I can see to get to that point would be to constantly restart and retry, and I'd be sitting here all day long doing it, so it's not feasible for me to even try. My only options for getting my hands on a new character with a kittable class are 1) create a character with a non-kittable class, then change things in NI, or 2) have some kind soul create one, and send me the .chr file There's no way to fix the crashing issue.

 

Thanks,

Eric