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Six's suggestions


SixOfSpades

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Breaking this up into 3 bits to make it a bit more reader-friendly.

 

Animate Dead

Also, your listings are missing CON and INT stats, is that intentional?
Intentional, as most undead creatures shouldn't have a "brain", and all of them don't have constitution.

Okay. Just to let you know, though, one of the Skeletons has a CON stat, & the other does not--that's what made me ask.

 

Elemental Princes

You're probably right, I'll beef up its stoneskin ability. Would it be better something like 1skin/2 rounds instead of 10 skins from start?

1 or 2 skins per round seems better, and more appropriate for an Elemental Princess.

 

Spider Spawn

They are in the monster manual I've read...

Sword Spiders aren't poisonous in BG1, & I don't think I've ever been poisoned by one in BG2 either. Besides, there are enough poisonous spiders in the game already. If I'm butting heads with the source material here, so be it, I just think the variety is worth maintaining.

 

Summon Nishruu & Hakeashar

Wasn't the problem [item Drain causing item destruction] fixed by Fixpack without the need to remove the ability? Anyway I may remove it if necessary. I have in mind to add them a sort of dispelling aura (like Otiluke's Dispelling Screen).

Okay, I'd forgotten about the Fixpack. FYI, about the dispelling Aura: My rebalancing of the Wizard Slayer allows them to create auras of Dead Magic around themselves, causing 2% chance of Spell Failure and 1% chance of Dispelling for every EXP level of the Wizard Slayer. Just something you might want to consider.

 

Animal/Monster Summoning

I'm for it [randomized summons], but all creatures in the same spell have to be balanced, and it would have taken me quite some time to do this. If you want to collaborate let me know.

Well, I've got my hands full with my Kitpack, but I would suggest that you include more of the low-level monsters, creating something like the following:

MS I: Kobolds, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Gibberlings

MS II: Gnolls, Ogrillions, Ogres, Hobgoblin Elites, Gnoll Elites, Ettercaps (are they intelligent enough to be Monsters, or should they be Animal?)

MS III: Ogre Berserkers, maybe an Ogre-Mage, Sahuagin, Kou-Toans

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Animate Dead

Okay. Just to let you know, though, one of the Skeletons has a CON stat, & the other does not--that's what made me ask.
I've just checked and both have no CON (though obviously they have in-game for engine limitations), but if you were instead hinting at INT than skeletons don't have it while Skeleton Warriors have a quite good INT. Most of my changes are taken from various PnP sources, but I can explain them, if they don't seem to make sense let me know.

 

Elemental Princes

I do prefer too the 1 skin/round solution as it would work more similarly to the permanent blade barrier/fire shield the other Pinces already have, but as always I prefer to ask players opinions.

 

Spider Spawn

I've just re-checked and Sword Spider does have a poisonous bite in 3rd edition, but it didn't in 2nd edition. I thought the poison was a must have to make that summon appealing, if players think it breaks the "continuity" with the other Sword Spiders in the game I can remove it, but obviously it would mean reducing their effectiveness.

 

Summon Nishruu & Hakeashar

I'm quite sure I'm going to implement the dispelling aura in V3, as currently these two summons aren't very appealing unless you don't use AI enhancing mods and you do want to exploit vanilla's dumb AI (e.g. vanilla's Irenicus could be beaten by one or two Nishruu as he wouldn't neither dispel them nor kill them via Death Spell and/or raw melee attacks).

I've noticed your work on kits, and I'm "secretly" working on Kit Revisions too, though I have a quite different take in mind.

 

Animal/Monster Summoning

Yeah, it's what I would probably do if I have the time. I also had in mind a completely different solution: making MS spells create a litte "squad". For example you could have:

1) two archers, two melee fighter and one sciaman goblin/kobold/hobgoblin for MSI;

2) two Ogres may be led by an Ogre Mage for MSIII

But I temporarily discared the idea because it had balancing issues that needs much time to be tested:

1) goblins and kobolds' squads would be quite less powerful than hobgoblins' one

2) the Ogre Mage alone would be worth a 5th level slot (maybe even a 6th level one)

 

I'd like to know if players prefer mine suggestion, random summons, or just one selected type of summon as it currently is.

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Arcane Spells

 

Blindness

I'd like too to make it work as you suggest but it would mean an incredibly huge amount of work, and I should "mess around" with too many items, spells, innates,... I don't even think it's possible to do it without creating some issues. :p

Can't you take the hardcoded Blindness effect and simply grant AC/THAC0 bonuses & penalties on top of it, thus achieving the same result with little effort?

The school is matter of tastes and PnP edition. In 3rd edition it became a Necromancy spell, and I've opted for that because the effect is cured via Cure Disease spell (would an illusion effect be cured by that?).

Hey, this is a game where you can cast an Illusion spell that physically beats people up. I figure that Blindness/Deafness make the eye/ear think, "Oh no, I don't work anymore!" and then the Cure Disease make it go, "Oh, good, I must be all better now!"

. . . or something stupid like that. BOW DOWN before my irrefutable logic!

 

True Strike

It last ony 6 seconds, none has complained about its power yet.

So it's only good for one attack, meaning pretty much its only function is to increase the viability of things like Shocking Grasp. Why not just give the touch spells a better THAC0 boost? Fighter/Mages still won't be tempted to give up their weapons, but that's what we (or at least I) want anyway: To give the pureclasses a chance to catch up with the Dual/Multiclasses. True Strike, in its current form, seems an open invitation for Fighter->Mages to briefly experience what life would have been like if they'd waited a few more levels before Dualing. I would like to change this from granting a flat THAC0 bonus to giving the Mage the same THAC0 as a Fighter of equivalent level, so its appeal for the Dual-classes will be toned down, and for the Multiclasses removed entirely.

 

Detect Invisibility

True Seeing dispels Blur, Mirror Image, Mislead's clone, and Project Image...but you may be partially right. I may reduce its duration or raise TS's one.

I understand the difference, but how often do enemies use Blur, PI, Mislead, or even Imp.Invis. against you? Apart from Mirror Image (which a quick Magic Missile or two takes care of anyway), 90% of the time it's plain Invisibility. When I use True Sight, it's for its duration, not for what it dispels.

 

Detect Illusions

You're right about Conjurers not getting any real disadvantages, but I'm not sure we can do much about Divination School. I've added True Strike, and the only things I can think of are variations of Foresight.

I made this one up a while ago:

Spy (Level 8, Divination)

Blah blah blah, in-character description of how this spell infects the target with a mental parasite, forcing the creature to relay to the caster everything visible to it, including itself, blah blah.

The spell makes the target creature cast Force Visible on all hostile creatures within 30 feet, every second for 6 rounds, and maybe strip other Illusion spells every round. I'd have to add a check to make sure it can only be cast on enemy creatures, otherwise you could cast it on yourself and suddenly see everything.

 

Lightning Bolt

Exactly. The way it was implemented was too much unreliable imo, and kinda exploitable too.

I'm with you on the unreliable--I was in favor of tweaking the game's AI so that Mages couldn't cast LB if they were in any indoor area. But concentrating that much damage into a single target might be too much for a Level 3 spell--how about single-target, no striking enemies along the way, but after it hits a portion of the damage splashes out to all creatures within 10 feet?

 

Melf's Minute Meteors[/b]

I'm not sure about making the enchantment level tied to the caster's level, as the main concern probably is that you don't want this spell to allow a caster to deal with adamantine golems using a low level spell.

A low-level caster, no. A high-level caster, why not? If the player wants to use cheese, they will find a way to do so, even if it's just chucking Azuredge.

 

Non-Detection

Making Non-Detection a useless spell IMO.

Yeah--True Sight is pretty much the only Divination spell that the game ever casts, so immunity to it is what's going to make or break Non-Detection. Personally, I think it should beat Detect Invisibility & Detect Illusion, but be beaten by True Sight/Seeing. And ideally get some of the AIs in the game to occasionally cast those low-level Divinations.

 

Protection from Missiles

DavidW did this too for SCS, and if I may quote him: "The logic behind this is basically that magic arrows are two a penny in BG. It's essentially pointless for an enemy mage to use PNM, since any prepared party worth their salt will just swap to magic ones." The archer can just switch to a melee weapon (he's not so bad at using them) or change target. I know it's much more powerful than before, but else it was completely useless.

Well, most enemies I've seen use PfNM in conjunction with PfMW, so in reality the distinction is pretty moot, at least as far as enemies are concerned. But there's too much potential for abuse by the player; one 3rd-level spell can absolutely nullify certain enemies (Sahuagin, Kou-Toans, The Huntress, Fallen Solars, etc) for a ridiculously long duration. True, most enemies in the game fight melee, but the player can easily use Stoneskins + Mirror Image + Fireshields to mercilessly punish them for doing so. Consider making the "Magic" part of the spell decay over time, so that it protects against +3 missiles for 1 round, +2 for 2 rounds, and +1 for 4 rounds, and only against Normal missiles for the remainder of its duration. Either that or bump it up to a Level 6/7 spell.

 

Conjure (Lesser) Elementals

I'll think about keeping the Mental Combat for flavor reducing the duration to only one round, though it would made these spells kinda useless in the thick of a battle.

Well, with Animate Dead, Invisible Stalker, Nishruu, etc. on those levels, they've got some useful on-the-fly summons, so it'd be some good variety to keep a "prebuff period" one there too.

 

Phantom Blade

What's wrong about a spell which is more useful for fighter/mages than pure mages?

For the most part, the pure classes are being left in the dust by the more versatile Dual & Multiclasses, that's what's wrong.

 

Prot. from Acid/Electricity

Because those spells don't confer immunity to the respective type of energy. Anyway I'd like to do something about these spells and their priest's version, like having them all at the same level.

Oh yeah, I forgot that Prot. from Fire/Cold only confers 80% resistance or whatnot. A lot of Tactics players depend on that "Spell disruption even though you're immune to the element itself" bit, though, and how are you going to reconcile total immunity though one source (Prot. from Acid) with that from multiple sources (2 Potions of Fire Resistance)?

 

Feeblemind

What's the point ? To allow a player to rest in order to get rid of it?

Yup. I've been in situations where Tactics Undead Feebleminded the only people in my party who could Dispel, and I was ticked that it was only the Permanent duration (of an innate on esaily-killed enemies like Shadows, no less) that forced me to Reload.

 

Disintegrate

Ardanis already said everything I could say about damage type. Besides this allow Disintegrate to effectivey destroy Mordenkainen Sword as per PnP, which is cool imo.

Given that a failed Save is supposed to cause utter destruction, Disintegrate should probably use every damage type except Soul Eater, essentially an in-game Ctrl-Y.

 

Tenser's Transformation

I would remove the "Disable Spellcasting" aspects, to make this something other than a suicide spell. Perhaps 20% Spellcasting Failure instead?
It's not a bad idea at all, but isn't this spell already very effective? Blades with this spells rocks imo.

Yes, because they had halfway-decent fighting skills to begin with, and their Offensive Spin lets them run away so damn fast. But Tenser's just cripples a pureclass Mage. A level 6 spell that claims to let a Wizard approximate a Warrior should do a damn sight better job of it than Tenser's currently does. I've just thought of an ApR trick that might work: The spell grants +4 to ApR, and since ApR can't go higher than 5, Mages and Fighter->Mages will be at the same level. A second later, the spell applies a -2 ApR penalty, so maybe Tenser's can set the caster's Attacks per Round to 3, regardless of build.

 

Project Image & Simulacrum

I think what I've done to them is the best we can do.

Frankly, in my opinion the best we could do is delete them entirely, but then I don't run Solo Sorcerer games or use Endless Spell strategies, and those who do would obviously raise quite a stink. Still, for an illusionary creature to cause real harm is sheer nonsense. (It could cast Emotion, though.)

 

ADHW

I agree, it shouldn't be party-friendly.
Yeah, but it can't be done without severely screwing the AI. At least it now deals less damage and is ineffective against some of the most powerful foes like liches.

Wait, what? There are few enough anti-Lich spells already, why remove one of the best ones?

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Sword spider form available from Polymorph Self spell does have poison attacks. I'd guess that BG1 was developed under 2nd edition and when it came to BG2 they looked into 3rd manual, saw that SSs have poison and implemented it into the new spell. Among the way forgetting to update the old spiders.

 

Well, Kotor2 data does contain 2DAs with fantasy races and arcane schools... What to expect from a sequel based on the very same engine then?

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Tenser's Transformation -- I would remove the "Disable Spellcasting" aspects, to make this something other than a suicide spell. Perhaps 20% Spellcasting Failure instead?
Tenser - perhaps applying casting speed penalty (say +5) instead of casting failure?
Any kind of logic would make that +4 casting speed penaltyor 20% casting failure, depending what the installer chooses. :p

And leave it at that!

 

Protection from Missiles -- Too strong. A Level 3 spell should not be able to lock out things like Bullets+4, Energy Blades and the entire Archer kit, especially for the kind of duration that the default PfNM has.
So let's leave them out... just like Mantel etc.

 

Animal/Monster Summoning
I like the random once(thus the / means or), but to balance them out is hard... How about:

MSI: 2 Elite Hobgoblin(melee)/two archers and shaman Kobold/two Goblin commandos/10 Gimberlings + 2 hostile Gibberlings. :p (you won't get xp from them ofcourse)

 

ADHWWait, what? There are few enough anti-Lich spells already, why remove one of the best ones?
Isn't that a death spell supposed to be for the living, fleshy(wet) victims, not 100 year old dry liches, best would actually make them immune to the spell entirely.
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Divine Spells

 

Find Traps

I don't know about the latter suggestion, but I'm not sure the former will drastically improve its effectiveness.

No need for it to be 'drastic,' as it's only Level 2. Ten turns of knowing where not to step seems about right.

 

(Un)Holy Smite/Blight

No way, this spell was ridiculously overpowered for its level. Skull Trap isn't "party friendly" and doesn't blind either, and the former is a huge advantage.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the party-friendly bit, which was rather idiotic of me. About Unholy Blight harming Neutral creatures, though: Since the Evil player is pretty much forced into including Jan and Jaheira, I'd have to say that's a bad idea. Perhaps Evil Priests could get a different spell, that only affects enemies regardless of alignment?

 

Summon Insects

I'll devote some time to revising the entire Insect family while I'm working on the Hivemaster, and let you know what my suggestions are, so we can find a happy medium or something.

 

Gust of Wind (Zone of Sweet Air)

Obviously I kept its original effect of clearing the air.

Goody. Just wanted to be sure. The icon is SPWI204a/b/c, by the way, but you'd better let UB know if you decide to use it.

 

Remove Paralysis

A preventive effect would probably make it too useful compared to Free Action.

Not if it only protects against Hold, IMO.

 

Greater Command

Now that I think more about it, the Save to wake up every round, and the "wake up if hit and you've also got this other thing installed" need to be added to Wizards' Sleep, as well.

 

Insect Plague

I think I would agree on lowering it to 50% if . . . I add THAC0 and AC penalty to even the odds and make the spell useful against any type of opponent.

Who says spells have to be useful against everyone? Nishruu suck against Fighters, and you'd never Finger of Death a Gibberling, but so what?

 

Magic Resistance

Well, currently you've got a Level 5 spell that grants a bonus of (up to) 40% to any creature for 3 rounds + 1 round/level, against an HLA that sets MR to 40% for four rounds. Yeah, I'd call that unbalanced.

 

False Dawn

Sunray surely is available to druids in SR.

Good, I hope Sol's Searing Orb is as well. Unless "Sol" is actually the name of an individual, and not merely another name for the sun, as I've been assuming.

 

Confusion

It was temporarily disabled waiting to replace it with something worth of a 7th level slot. Who's going to miss a 4th level mage spell in a slot where you could have HLAs??

True, but it wasn't entirely useless. Besides, just because nobody uses it doesn't mean you should remove it entirely. I'd leave it as is, until you find a replacement.

 

Earthquake

I don't understand, you want me to keep the hostile Earth Elemental so that you can instead add an allied one in your kit?

Yeah, that's basically it. If you're a Druid who's sacrificed the Animal, Plant and Weather spheres to concentrate on Elemental (Earth), it would really suck to see another Druid, who gave up nothing, cast Elemental Earth spells just as effectively as you can. You can tweak the frequency if you like, from 15% to 10 or even 5%, but I'd really like the distinction that Geomancers are allowed to cast Earthquake without getting in trouble with Grumbar.

 

Shield of the Archons

As it's the only form of spell protection they have, I don't feel right about stripping it from them.
You may be right, but the same could be said about clerics not having Stoneskin, and this spell really doesn't seem to have anything to do with nature.

Well, Clerics don't really need Stoneskin, as they have armor. As for Nature, Druids still worship gods, just nature-related ones. Devas don't have anything to do with nature either.

 

Nature's Beauty

Actually I would have loved to talk about this spell with someone. :p I do like the concept you have in mind...though mass charm doesn't seem the most appropriate effect. Nymph's sight is often associated to blind or stun effects (effects which I'd like to add to the Summoned Nymph too).

I've never understood the "so pretty you'll go blind" thing as anything more than an exaggeration of "as radiant as the sun" (in itself an obvious hyperbole) to the point of absurdity. Which is a long-winded way of saying that I've always thought it was stupid. I wasn't exactly going for Mass Charm (that should be a Level 7 Enchantment spell), but more the idea that everybody basically stops fighting to check out the gorgeous babe, and some of them decide to defend her, even if that would technically involve switching sides. Maybe instead of the Save vs. Charm, it should have a 33% chance of Charming enemy creatures, no Save.

Furthermore, I think we should make the spell useless against certains enemies. Nymph's sight should affect only humans and though we could assume Nature's Beauty is a more powerful version, it still shouldn't affects beings like undead or ozee creatures.

Oh yeah, I forgot that to mention that part. Nature's Beauty should not affect creatures who are Blind, or who do not reproduce sexually (Undead, Golems, Slimes, Illithids, & probably Myconids). As for its further effectiveness, the issue is whether the spell really changes the caster's actual appearance, or instead causes them to take on the specific ideal of beauty of the individual victim's mind. If the former, it would only work on Humans, Half-Elves, & Elves, but if the spell works in the latter method, it would affect just about any creature not excluded above--leaving everything from Gibberlings to Dragons as potential victims. Since the spell is listed as Illusion rather than Alteration, I would say that the latter path is the more correct one.

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Blindness

Can't you take the hardcoded Blindness effect and simply grant AC/THAC0 bonuses & penalties on top of it, thus achieving the same result with little effort?
No, as Cure Disease wouldn't work in that case, not to mention it would became incredibly more difficult blocking multiple blindness effects to stack.

 

True Strike

I see your point on multi/dual mages mages currently being too powerful compared to pure ones, and I do agree we should try to balance it out whenever it's possible/appropriate.

Making it grant the THAC0 of a fighter of equivalent level as you suggest implies:

1) at low levels the bonus would be pretty pointless imo, especially considering the spell's duration

2) at mid and high levels it should give pure mages almost the current bonus

3) it would be much less useful for multi/dual mages

A possible solution to 1) would be raising the spell's duration, but that may make this spell too effective at mid levels. Even a 5 rounds duration would allow a mage to discard a tons of Melf's Minute Meteors with a fighter's THAC0. I'll think about it a little more.

 

Lightning Bolt

But concentrating that much damage into a single target might be too much for a Level 3 spell--how about single-target, no striking enemies along the way, but after it hits a portion of the damage splashes out to all creatures within 10 feet?
I've thought about that possibility, or the possibility of making it affect a second maybe a third target afterwards. Will work on it.

 

Protection from Missiles

I'd like to make it scalable, but in BG both +1 and +4 bullets use the same projectile. I wouldn't be able to do what Jarno suggests either without changing many projectiles. I have to think if doing that would be possible without creating issues.

Tenser's Transformation

Keep in mind that this spell shouldn't allow a mage to fight exactly like a fighter of the same level, else what would be the point on being a fighter?

That being said I doubt the trick you're suggesting would work, but I'll try it. If it works it would be great, and I would apply it to many spells.

 

Horrid Wilting

Wait, what? There are few enough anti-Lich spells already, why remove one of the best ones?
As Jarno suggests, how is it supposed to work a dehydrating spell against an undead creature?! Anyway I do think there are other spells to fight them.

 

(Un)Holy Smite/Blight

Oh yeah, I forgot about the party-friendly bit, which was rather idiotic of me. About Unholy Blight harming Neutral creatures, though: Since the Evil player is pretty much forced into including Jan and Jaheira, I'd have to say that's a bad idea. Perhaps Evil Priests could get a different spell, that only affects enemies regardless of alignment?
Evil partis are not "forced" to include anyone, and in its current version evil priests wouldn't use the spell either. At least I would allow the spell to be effectively use against someone.

Your suggestion would make it inconsistent and ideally more powerful than its good version.

 

Greater Command

Now that I think more about it, the Save to wake up every round, and the "wake up if hit and you've also got this other thing installed" need to be added to Wizards' Sleep, as well.
I can't understand what you're saying. Greater Command doesn't allow targets to wake up when hit, they can only wake up successfully save at least once.

Sleep instead doesn't and shouldn't allow multiple saves, targets get up when hit.

 

Magic Resistance

Well, currently you've got a Level 5 spell that grants a bonus of (up to) 40% to any creature for 3 rounds + 1 round/level, against an HLA that sets MR to 40% for four rounds. Yeah, I'd call that unbalanced.
Well, I partially agree. Keep in mind you're comparing a spellcaster's spell with a fighter HLA, I'd see a 5th level spell casted by a fighter as a HLA for him considering he shouldn't have magical skills at all.

Nature's Beauty

I think I can accept blind, stun, and charm effect equally. What matters more to me is which one is better when implemented. I have to think a little more about it.

Oh yeah, I forgot that part. Nature's Beauty should not affect creatures who are Blind, or who do not reproduce sexually (Undead, Golems, Slimes, Illithids, & probably Myconids). As for its further effectiveness, the issue is whether the spell really changes the caster's actual appearance, or instead causes them to take on the specific ideal of beauty of the individual victim's mind. If the former, it would only work on Humans, Half-Elves, & Elves, but if the spell works in the latter, method, it would affect just about any creature not excluded above--leaving everything from Gibberlings to Dragons as potential victims. Since the spell is listed as Illusion rather than Alteration, I would say that the latter path is the more correct one.
I completely agree.
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Blindness

No, as Cure Disease wouldn't work in that case, not to mention it would became incredibly more difficult blocking multiple blindness effects to stack.

Gah. Icky. Ok then.

 

Lightning Bolt

I've thought about that possibility, or the possibility of making it affect a second maybe a third target afterwards.

Yeah, that could be neat.

 

Tenser's Transformation

Keep in mind that this spell shouldn't allow a mage to fight exactly like a fighter of the same level, else what would be the point on being a fighter?

Not exactly like a Fighter, but a close enough approximation to one to actually tempt a pure Wizard to spend a 6th-level slot on it--it doesn't have to compare favorably to PfMW, but it does need to compare to it.

That being said I doubt the trick you're suggesting would work, but I'll try it. If it works it would be great, and I would apply it to many spells.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. I heart successful workarounds.

 

Horrid Wilting

As Jarno suggests, how is it supposed to work a dehydrating spell against an undead creature?! Anyway I do think there are other spells to fight them.

Yeah, I brain-farted on the "bone dry" vs. "dessication effect" bit. I assume you've already granted the same immunity to Skeletons & Skeleton Warriors, but what about the other Undead? I suppose the "wettest" would be Vampires, but I don't think even they should take more than, say, 40% of the maximum damage. You could use an EFF/IDS to cast a weakened, single-target version of the spell at them . . . and heck, maybe you already have.

 

(Un)Holy Smite/Blight

Perhaps Evil Priests could get a different spell, that only affects enemies regardless of alignment?
Evil partis are not "forced" to include anyone, and in its current version evil priests wouldn't use the spell either. At least I would allow the spell to be effectively use against someone.

Your suggestion would make it inconsistent and ideally more powerful than its good version.

I disagree--the fact remains that there's no such thing as a well-balanced Evil party using just the BioWare NPCs, and we can't assume that the player has installed anybody else. Of course, the ideal solution to this is obviously to have more Evil NPCs, but that's another can of worms altogether.

Above, when I suggested a different, truly party-friendly spell, I was actually suggesting a different spell, not an upgrade to Unholy Blight. Probably the best solution would be to keep Unholy Blight as harming Good targets only, but introduce a third variant that harms Good & Neutral, and let players choose which spell they want to use, based on whether they have Neutrals in the party or not.

 

Greater Command

I can't understand what you're saying. Greater Command doesn't allow targets to wake up when hit, they can only wake up successfully save at least once.

I just read--somewhere--that there's another mod that allows sleeping enemies to wake up when they're attacked, and your Greater Command incorporated it. Dang it, where did that post go? Now I don't even remember if it was here or Pocket Plane. Crap.

 

Magic Resistance

Well, I partially agree. Keep in mind you're comparing a spellcaster's spell with a fighter HLA, I'd see a 5th level spell casted by a fighter as a HLA for him considering he shouldn't have magical skills at all.

Yes, I see that side of it too, of course. I sometimes grant HLAs that are duplicates of spells given to other classes (e.g., my Hunter of the Occult can choose Shield of the Archons), but I wouldn't make an HLA that's inferior in every respect to a spell that can be cast from almost the very beginning of SoA.

Much thought will have to be given to this. Perhaps the HLA could have a Saving Throw bonus added in?

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Miscast Magic: most useless spell ever. Sorry, the effect is nice, but it is a single target level 3 spell so a mage must not be protected by any spell deflection/turning, no (minor) globe, not (improved) invisible, and then fail a save; after all that, it only affects the next spell he casts and even then the effect might be beneficial to him.

It should be simple enough to change the spell so that on the initial failed Save, it forces the victim to have a Wild Surge every round for the full duration.

 

Polimorph Others: what are the stats of the squirrel? On the few enemies I manage to cast this spell on I noticed a loss of couple points of thac0 but they kept many hit points and some nasty abilities that should be removed; I'd like the enemies to be changed to neutrals too ( a squirrel shoudn't hold a grudge right? )

I have to agree: I just cast Polymorph this morning, on Amalas, the ruffian in the Copper Coronet who challenges you to a duel. I did it as a joke, thinking it would be funny to punch out a squirrel. Well, it was nearly funnier, because he came close to kicking my ass. Granted, I was only a Level 11 Bard, but I had good stats, Mail of the Dead, a Spear+1 . . . I had to resort to the fact that the Squirrel's slow movement rate meant I could run circles around him, firing my bow. It took nearly 80 arrows to finish him off. (Is there even room on a squirrel to stick 80 arrows?)

But no, raj, the polymorph shouldn't turn them Neutral. Their mental abilities are unchanged.

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Phantom Blade
Mages will need a THAC0 bonus to make this useful, but then that would make the spell overpowered for Fighter/Mages. It is possible to just set THAC0, as opposed to just increment/decrement, right?
Yes it is possible, but I don't know if I want to do that. What's wrong about a spell which is more useful for fighter/mages than pure mages?

What's wrong with a spell that's useful for both fighter/mages and pure mages? I like the suggestion that the item creation spells should give mages a decent chance at hitting the target if they're willing to risk getting up close.

 

Phantom Blade, Tenser, Black Blade of Disaster...

The problem with assigning a set amount of attacks per round is that fighter's additional attacks would stack anyway. I can prevent it for multiclasses with a lot of work, but I can't prevent it from happening for dual classes.

Setting THAC0 instead may be reasonable but currently it's Tenser's main feature, giving it to all these spells would make Tenser less appealing. I have to think about it.

Why can't you detect dual classes? I thought I read that they fell under the multiclass definitions in class.ids as soon as they regained the abilities from their first class.

 

Miscast Magic

If most players do think it currently is too weak we may raise the duration, maybe scaling it with caster's level (up to a maximum of 5 rounds).

I've not used it much since it doesn't sound like it would be too effective. Maybe changing it to an AoE or adding an additional effect would help.

 

Protection from Missiles

I'd like to make it scalable, but in BG both +1 and +4 bullets use the same projectile. I wouldn't be able to do what Jarno suggests either without changing many projectiles. I have to think if doing that would be possible without creating issues.

Could this be done by checking the enchantment level of the default weapons and assigning them .pros based on enchantment level, then checking all other ones and if they used a default one previously, assign them the proper new one based on their enchantment level, and if they used a custom one, add it to the list of the projectiles to block for that equivalent enchantment level? I probably should have investigated this before potentially looking silly.

 

Tenser's Transformation

Keep in mind that this spell shouldn't allow a mage to fight exactly like a fighter of the same level, else what would be the point on being a fighter?

That being said I doubt the trick you're suggesting would work, but I'll try it. If it works it would be great, and I would apply it to many spells.

Perhaps this could grant single-class wizards wizards the +1/2 attacks the warrior classes get at 7th (?) and 12th (?) level. Maybe points in various weapon styles? Everyone would benefit from bonuses to (pick some): AC/damage reduction/saving throws/THAC0/damage. Limited durations + the need to combine multiple spells to achieve this could balance it against non-casters. Yeah, this isn't my thing.

 

(Un)Holy Smite/Blight
Oh yeah, I forgot about the party-friendly bit, which was rather idiotic of me. About Unholy Blight harming Neutral creatures, though: Since the Evil player is pretty much forced into including Jan and Jaheira, I'd have to say that's a bad idea. Perhaps Evil Priests could get a different spell, that only affects enemies regardless of alignment?
Evil partis are not "forced" to include anyone, and in its current version evil priests wouldn't use the spell either. At least I would allow the spell to be effectively use against someone.

Your suggestion would make it inconsistent and ideally more powerful than its good version.

Though I don't play evil too often, I really like the idea that the evil version would affect all enemies. It would only be slightly more powerful than the good version (since the vast majority of things you fight while in a good party are evil) and it would possibly make better sense RP-wise - good priests and their deities wouldn't want to hurt other good characters, but evil priests...? They'd want to hurt any potential enemies, and neutral or evil characters would be just as likely to disrupt their dastardly plans as good characters would.

 

True Strike

I see your point on multi/dual mages mages currently being too powerful compared to pure ones, and I do agree we should try to balance it out whenever it's possible/appropriate.

Making it grant the THAC0 of a fighter of equivalent level as you suggest implies:

1) at low levels the bonus would be pretty pointless imo, especially considering the spell's duration

2) at mid and high levels it should give pure mages almost the current bonus

3) it would be much less useful for multi/dual mages

A possible solution to 1) would be raising the spell's duration, but that may make this spell too effective at mid levels. Even a 5 rounds duration would allow a mage to discard a tons of Melf's Minute Meteors with a fighter's THAC0. I'll think about it a little more.

We want Infravision back. ...Improved Infravision?

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Horrid Wilting

Yeah, I brain-farted on the "bone dry" vs. "dessication effect" bit. I assume you've already granted the same immunity to Skeletons & Skeleton Warriors, but what about the other Undead? I suppose the "wettest" would be Vampires, but I don't think even they should take more than, say, 40% of the maximum damage. You could use an EFF/IDS to cast a weakened, single-target version of the spell at them . . . and heck, maybe you already have.
I've done the other way around, I've not made those creatures immune to the spell, I've made the spell ineffective against them. Horrid Wilting won't affect any creature flagged as undead.

 

Protection from Missiles

Could this be done by checking the enchantment level of the default weapons and assigning them .pros based on enchantment level, then checking all other ones and if they used a default one previously, assign them the proper new one based on their enchantment level, and if they used a custom one, add it to the list of the projectiles to block for that equivalent enchantment level? I probably should have investigated this before potentially looking silly.
Let's talk about these technical thing when we catch each other online. :p I would be glad to make this spell scalable: something like normal arrows at 4th level, +1 at 8th, and so on. Maybe capping at +4 at 20th as I don't recall any +5 missile weapon (and we may just leave it bypass this spell if it does exist).

 

Phantom Blade, Tenser, Black Blade of Disaster...

Why can't you detect dual classes? I thought I read that they fell under the multiclass definitions in class.ids as soon as they regained the abilities from their first class.
Well, I guess they don't unfortunately, I've found out yesterday that they don't for items usabilities. I'll look more into it asap.

 

Miscast Magic

It should be simple enough to change the spell so that on the initial failed Save, it forces the victim to have a Wild Surge every round for the full duration.
Yes it is, it's what I was suggesting. Would making it last 5 rounds ok for most of you?
I've not used it much since it doesn't sound like it would be too effective. Maybe changing it to an AoE or adding an additional effect would help.
There's already the AoE version of it, Sphere of Chaos, which also last longer, though only mages get it.

 

Unholy Blight

I disagree--the fact remains that there's no such thing as a well-balanced Evil party using just the BioWare NPCs, and we can't assume that the player has installed anybody else. Of course, the ideal solution to this is obviously to have more Evil NPCs, but that's another can of worms altogether.
I once played a party composed Korgan, Viconia and Edwin, led by an Assassin. There's nothing this party can't do.

Above, when I suggested a different, truly party-friendly spell, I was actually suggesting a differentspell, not an upgrade to Unholy Blight. Probably the best solution would be to keep Unholy Blight as harming Good targets only, but introduce a third variant that harms Good & Neutral, and let players choose which spell they want to use, based on whether they have Neutrals in the party or not.
What I was saying is that I don't think anyone will ever use an Unholy Blight spell affecting only good characters (to fight amnish guards? wow). Making it affect neutrals characters allows it to became more useful, you just have to kee the few neutral characters in the party out of the way (Jan shouldn't be in the frontline anyway).
Though I don't play evil too often, I really like the idea that the evil version would affect all enemies. It would only be slightly more powerful than the good version (since the vast majority of things you fight while in a good party are evil) and it would possibly make better sense RP-wise - good priests and their deities wouldn't want to hurt other good characters, but evil priests...? They'd want to hurt any potential enemies, and neutral or evil characters would be just as likely to disrupt their dastardly plans as good characters would.
Good roleplaying point of view...I'll think about it, but I still do think this spell as well as Unholy Word should remain "alignment based".

 

Infravision

We want Infravision back. ...Improved Infravision?
And what would it be for? If you can code the supposed penalties in dark areas I would be glad to restore the original Infravision, but I guess it would be an extremely hard work to do for a single spell, if it is doable at all!
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I see many references to Tactics but no one to SCS(II), wonder if you did play the latter along with SR Six, because that's the recommended path.

 

ADHW: as for pnp, all undeads are immune to it, it's a good thing and there're other ways to fight liches ( false dawn, prismatic spray and meteor swarm got a good buff, and without SCS or SR you can't breach/pierce a pro magic energy from them so horrid isn't very reliabe ); are mordenkainen swords immune as well?

Quick suggestion if they are not, make them :D It makes sense because they have no fluids, but if that leaves too few ways to deal with magic swords I'd remove the acid immunity making them corrode-able.

 

What's wrong with a spell that's useful for both fighter/mages and pure mages? I like the suggestion that the item creation spells should give mages a decent chance at hitting the target if they're willing to risk getting up close.

 

Agreed. Do you remember Jermien trying to kill his stone golem with a phantom blade? He's fully buffed with stoneskin and mirror images and still he sucks hard :p These spells have a casterlev/round duration, and pure mages have only one attack/round so they trade a mid/high level slot for a very limited and risky malee power; polimorphing or shapechanging is already a lot more effective ( it was even without the SR changes ) because of the added attacks.

Setting a mage attacks to 2 when using these spells would make them attractive and prevent a multi/dual abuse.

I'd add divine power to the list as well ( set attacks to 2 ), because its effect are very limited ( clerics already have a good thac0, and the strength buff is weak, so they usually only gain 4-5 thac0 from that spell, with very little sinergy with strength buffs ) and single class clerics need some malee ability.

One word about the cleric spell Champion Strength, even more useless: it's a draw upon holy might that can ( and should, being duhm cheaper ) be casted on others but disables spellcasting :p I can't think of a situation I'd give up the casting power of a party member for a single target buff, so being it 5th level what about removing the drawback? ( making it +1str,dex,con every 4 levels or +1/5 instead of +1/3 )

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Tenser's Transformation

That being said I doubt the trick you're suggesting would work, but I'll try it. If it works it would be great, and I would apply it to many spells.

Actually, don't bother. I remembered last night that you can't apply ApR penalties--only bonuses. STOOPID game engine! I suppose you could make Phantom Blade & Black Blade use one of the unused/abandoned weapon proficiencies, like Large Sword, so at least Fighter/Mages wouldn't get their bonuses from weapon specialization, but I think that's the best we can do.

 

 

Horrid Wilting

Horrid Wilting won't affect any creature flagged as undead.

Hm. Well, I do think Zombies, Ghouls and Vampires should recieve something like 20-40% of the damage . . . but since nobody is going to waste an ADHW on creatures who won't even take half damage, I guess the complete immunity is a negligible difference.

 

Protection from Missiles

I would be glad to make this spell scalable: something like normal arrows at 4th level, +1 at 8th, and so on. Maybe capping at +4 at 20th as I don't recall any +5 missile weapon (and we may just leave it bypass this spell if it does exist).

Given it's still a Level 3 spell, I would make it protect against Normal from Level 1, +1 at Level 10, and +2 at Level 20. If it's going to protect against things like +3 and +4 ammo, it shouldn't have a duration any longer than PfMW.

 

Miscast Magic

It should be simple enough to change the spell so that on the initial failed Save, it forces the victim to have a Wild Surge every round for the full duration.
Yes it is, it's what I was suggesting. Would making it last 5 rounds ok for most of you?

Actually, since I think the original Miscast Magic imposes a 75% chance of spell failure, the new version should cause only a 75% chance of a Wild Surge each round, but for the same duration as the original.

 

Unholy Blight

I once played a party composed Korgan, Viconia and Edwin, led by an Assassin. There's nothing this party can't do.

Except kick a lot of ass against mid-level enemies. I have no doubt that Korgan by himself can get the job done, but IMO a well-balanced party contains three Warriors, not just one. The game already slaps Evil players in the face by giving them only Korgan (and Sarevok, if you wait that long) while Good players have Minsc, Keldorn, Valygar & Mazzy (and Anomen, if you consider him much of a Warrior), so there's no need to rub it in by giving Good a powerful, low-level, party-friendly AoE spell, and denying the same thing to Evil. I agree that Jan shouldn't be on the front line, but Jaheira and Haer'Dalis frequently are, and there are plenty of times when the enemy gets into your back rank anyway.

 

What I was saying is that I don't think anyone will ever use an Unholy Blight spell affecting only good characters (to fight amnish guards? wow). Making it affect neutrals characters allows it to became more useful . . .

I agree, the main fault here is the extreme lack of Good-aligned enemies (I'm not even sure the Fallen Paladins are still Good), but we can't really change that. Perhaps, we should seriously consider giving Evil Clerics an AoE spell that uses EnemyAlly as its sole criterion. Sure, keep Unholy Blight alignment-sensitive to avoid canon inconsistency, but Holy Smite needs a counterpart that's actually useful in-game.

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