Tutu thoughts

[Salk]

I want just to add that for me 1 turn/level is perfectly okay.

 

Both 1 turn / level and 1 turn + 1 round / level are fine to me.

 

You choose, Demivrgvs.

[Shaitan]

Well, it's up to you of course, but Barkskin is affecting lowlevel chars and enemies, and the bonus gotten affects battle balance imo. CC, Death ward and Stoneskin is required later mid/highlevel for tougher enemies besides that they tend to be dispelled

 

Remember that you don't have to touch much (in BG1 games) to affect gamebalance serious. I tend to find instantaneous healing (level one spell cure small wounds) to be just over the top. That's just me.

 

Edit: Salk beat me to the punch

[Miloch]

Ok, most of you prefer to reduce its duration. Anyway I don't understand why you consider PnP duration to be so powerful, especially considering vanilla's Death Ward and Chaotic Commands already had the same duration (1 turn/level) and nobody complained about it.

Nobody's gotten around to it yet .

 

To repeat my earlier statement more verbosely, a turn in game engine time is a vast amount of time* whereas a turn in a PnP game might be fairly insignificant, depending on the situation.

 

Think of it like this - in a PnP game, it'd likely take you far longer than a turn to cross a wilderness area, but in the game, it probably takes you far less than that, unless you stop to explore every nook and cranny and kill everything living on the map (something that'd take an unbelievable amount of time in PnP, if it were even possible). So that's my point - you can't simply equate PnP durations etc. to the engine, even if your goal is to make things more in line with PnP. Obviously, this is something the game designers took into account too (and one of the things they may have been right on) because in many other cases, their descriptions are straight out of the PHB with little or no modifications.

 

*Edit: ok, maybe not "vast" - and I realise the unit of time has already been nerfed by a factor of 10, but obviously that wasn't enough to compensate, or they would've left it at that.

[Demivrgvs]

You have a point Miloch.

 

I'll be more verbosely too then. Here's my thoughts on 1 turn/level duration:

- at low levels it doesn't last much longer than a fight or two;

- at higher levels it still doesn't long enough to travel from one area to another as you say (even a 20th caster level 4 hours duration isn't enough);

- from mid-game onward these buffs are often dispelled by powerful enemies (obviously I'm taking into account SCS, vanilla's game could be beaten without a single buff anyway), thus having them last longer at least make these spells more appealing imo;

- 3rd edition made these buffs last 10 minutes/level which is almost 4 hours at 20th level

- vanilla's Pro vs. Evil 10' Radius, Chaotic Commands, and Death Wards last 1 turn/level. Nobody ever mentioned them as too powerful, and their effects surely are more impressive than Barkskin and Free Action ones;

 

That being said, I'll think about it, as I don't want SR to be "only up to me". If most players prefer one solution (obviously if that solution makes sense), and nobody else complain about it I'll go for it.

 

I tend to find instantaneous healing (level one spell cure small wounds) to be just over the top. That's just me.

The scaling casting time for light/medium/serious/critical cure wounds is there for these reasons:

- because it seems reasonable taking less time to cure light wounds rather than critical ones;

- to make light/medium/serious cure wounds slightly more appealing at mid-levels;

- healing potions are quite easily available and can be used instantly;

Again, if most of you prefer to revert all cure wounds spells to casting time 5 I'll do it (but I do think that in that case nobody will ever care to memorize them when healing potions work much better and can be easily found).

[Shaitan]

Hi!

 

I wasn't clear enough. I like how the curative spells works now, but one has to beware; BG1 is more vulnerable to spellchanges than BG2 imo. I fully get your points - and must nod at them all. The changes you made works well.

 

I'll see how the other spells works when I get to play

[Miloch]

- at higher levels it still doesn't long enough to travel from one area to another as you say (even a 20th caster level 4 hours duration isn't enough)

At higher levels (i.e., outside of BG1) you don't have that sort of long travel time as often, and this is undoubtedly where you'll notice it the most, because at level 1, it's going to last a turn either way. The same goes for mid-levels and clearing an area like I said before (something that would take unbelievably long in PnP terms).

- 3rd edition made these buffs last 10 minutes/level which is almost 4 hours at 20th level

3rd edition is not relevant to the BG games.

- vanilla's Pro vs. Evil 10' Radius, Chaotic Commands, and Death Wards last 1 turn/level. Nobody ever mentioned them as too powerful, and their effects surely are more impressive than Barkskin and Free Action ones

I don't think they're at all impressive unless you're up against high level spellcasters or the like, in which case, as you say, duration may be irrelevant due to dispelling. Protection from Evil is useful, but only gives foes a penalty rather than blocking entire attack types.