SR V2.9

[Ardanis]

Mirror Image

Let the images disappear only through magic detection spells and after the duration of the spell is finished. Being struck shouldn't make it disappear.

 

The Caster with MM will have no protection whatsoever when AoE attacks hit him but single-targeted melee and range attacks will just have this chance of hitting: 100% / number of images.

 

All this makes more sense than the P&P version: why would the images struck disappear? The trick would still be on and even in melee a struck image won't be singled out from the attacker because of the dance that quickly repositions the images swirling around the caster.

 

This is the Reflected Image approach but with this revision Reflected Image becomes a unnecessary spell and a Level 1 slot will be freed. I never liked Reflected Image as it's always been a minor Mirror Image spell of little/no use.

 

To balance the spell, some nerf would be needed: I would suggest increasing Casting Time from 1 (2 in SR) to 4 and limit the duration from 3 rounds + 1 round per level of the caster to 3 rounds + 1 round every 2 levels of the caster.

 

I am just hoping that Mirror Image can be recoded the way I am suggesting.

It can be, as the issue with AoE vulnerability not being tied to the actual MI state seems to be solved here. However there're two more issues, one old and one new:

1) like Demivrgvs has said, it's very time consuming and a pain in a certain place to code it

2) the spell would be even more effective than PFMW, protecting against some spells as well

[Guest Guest]

Am I right in thinking that SR will eventually do a lot of what Divine Remix set out to do with regard to priest spell selection? I believe that compatbility between the two mods is something that hasn't been looked at too much, but I fear that they may not work too well together.

 

Maybe at some point in the future some sort of Divine Remix addon for SR could be made, that removes any overlaps and inconsistencies when using the two mods together.

[Salk]

It can be, as the issue with AoE vulnerability not being tied to the actual MI state seems to be solved here. However there're two more issues, one old and one new:

1) like Demivrgvs has said, it's very time consuming and a pain in a certain place to code it

2) the spell would be even more effective than PFMW, protecting against some spells as well

 

1) This is a problem I can't dispute of course. I understand it might take long time and be difficult. I am no modder so I can nothing but contribute ideas.

 

2) Yes, the spell would become very effective, no doubt. But I don't think it's so difficult to nerf it. Example: we could limit the number of images to 4 instead of 8. It'd be already quite a nerf. Also what I suggested above with longer casting time and shorter duration.

[lac]

I'm in favour of having the contingencies available to Enchanters. And I like the idea of splitting the death spell into two spells -- ons that sends gated creatures home and the other which is good at killing things. I'd like it if the killing things spell worked on the difference between the caster level and the victim level principle, rather than simply killing certain classes of monsters outright.

 

While talking about changing the spell school for certain spells -- I've never understood why phantom blade was an evocation, myself.

 

Merry Christmas (to those of you celebrating it today) and God Jul (for those of you I should have wished this to yesterday)

 

Laura

[Ardanis]

we could limit the number of images to 4 instead of 8

I think it was working right (100%/num of images) in BG1, but in BG2 it's always an image that gets struck.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I think it was working right (100%/num of images) in BG1, but in BG2 it's always an image that gets struck.

No it's not, but you have to be lucky or a thief to get past the illusion. Try a Fighter with the first ToB caster in the very beginning(forest with the stone faces)... done it a hundred times as I needed to check my mod...

[lac]

Plague:

 

neat idea. But I suspect few people will walk around with enough cure disease spells memorised that a plague-ridden party isn't about to suffer several casualties.

 

1. will party member corpses also cause plague in innocents when they are carried past them?

 

2. any chance that the plague will kill all the clerics in the temple of your choice before the cleric can heal you of the disease? Seems an interesting way to get rid of the church of your choice, to say the least.

 

3. What about dying of the plague? Are you then still vulnerable to catching it again later, or will raised characters have suitable antibodies (or however we are imagining this thing to work)?

 

4. I can see it now. For some outrageous sum of money, clerics in the Church of Talos will arrange to have you infected, and cured. Would it be ethical for the Helmites?

[Demivrgvs]

Mirror Image

Mirror Image

Let the images disappear only through magic detection spells and after the duration of the spell is finished. Being struck shouldn't make it disappear.

 

The Caster with MM will have no protection whatsoever when AoE attacks hit him but single-targeted melee and range attacks will just have this chance of hitting: 100% / number of images.

 

...

 

I am just hoping that Mirror Image can be recoded the way I am suggesting.

It can be, as the issue with AoE vulnerability not being tied to the actual MI state seems to be solved here.

Mirror images are hardcoded, and thus them being dispelled when hit is not a feature I can remove (at least I really don't know a way to do it).

 

Both making AoE spells destroy them and Salk's suggestion about images being unaffected by hits make sense, though very different in concept. Anyway as much as I'd like to make AoE spells bypass Mirror Images, I really don't think I can do many things with this spell which is almost completely handled with hardcoded features.

 

Phantom Blade

While talking about changing the spell school for certain spells -- I've never understood why phantom blade was an evocation, myself.

Because the blade is made of pure magical force shaped as a blade. Evocation school does this sort of things. It neither alterates an existing material/object to model a weapon, nor it conjures a real weapon, thus it's neither Alteration nor Conjuration.

 

Divine Remix

Am I right in thinking that SR will eventually do a lot of what Divine Remix set out to do with regard to priest spell selection? I believe that compatbility between the two mods is something that hasn't been looked at too much, but I fear that they may not work too well together.

 

Maybe at some point in the future some sort of Divine Remix addon for SR could be made, that removes any overlaps and inconsistencies when using the two mods together.

You're right, especially starting from V3, SR will "do a lot of what Divine Remix set out to do with regard to priest spell selection". Anyway my approach is slightly different because I find DR's sphere restriction too...restrictive! I don't like to remove so many spells from a cleric, but I do like to have a much more appropriate druid's spell selection and to make it really different from cleric's one.

 

Furthermore I think sooner or later I'll add arcane and divine classes/kits revision to SR, making the slightly conceptual "incompatibilty" with DR even more evident. I do like the work/ideas behind DR's kits though, and SR's ones will probably be extremely similar, they just won't use the sphere system to restrict their spell selection. Long story short, my solution would be very similar to how clerics are handled in IWDII.

 

For the time being I think there aren't technical compatibility issues, but some spells are re-arranged in a different way by DR compared to SR (e.g. Cure Moderate Wounds in SR is a 2nd level spell instead of a 3rd level one). To avoid these issues just don't install any SR's spell which is either already added by DR, or moved to a different level by SR.

[SixOfSpades]

Mirror Image

Demivrgvs is absolutely right about it being hardcoded, and while my ideal solution to the problem of AoE spells is quite different from yours (the Cloudkill should damage the caster as per normal, but leave the images completely unscathed) my hypothetical workaround would be extremely ugly, would involve a ton of labor, and might not even work when it was finished. The idea of having AoE spells immediately disperse all Images is quite doable, although the result wouldn't be perfect (all AoE spells could be coded to also strip Illusion spells of Level 2 or below, except that this would also dispel Invisibility), and frankly the idea doesn't make sense to me. Mirror Images are "killed" when they are "hit" not because they take damage, but because their credibility as a decoy has been ruined. AoE spells shouldn't affect the Images at all, because hitting all 9 Edwins with a Fireball is not going to reveal (to you) which is the real Edwin. But yeah, unfortunately it looks like we're just going to have to accept Mirror Image the way it is, immunity to (damage-dealing) AoE spells and all.

 

Energy Drain

Yeah--if you're going to increase the number of level it drains, it should be blocked by Magic Resistance.

 

Spell Immunity

I'm of two minds about whether or not you should be allowed to stack immunities to different schools. I don't like any creature being able to make themselves literally invincible, even for a short time, as that gives the player no option but to run away, turning what was supposed to be a good fight into an exercise in abusing the AI. I would approve of stacked immunities only if more of the spell schools had some Lich-appropriate spells that were actually worth blocking.

 

Taunt (Enchantment)

. . .

Those failing to save vs. spell rush forth in fury to do battle with the spellcaster.

I'm pretty sure you can make a spell cause affected creatures to switch to a new AI script, but can you show me how it could be done? A while back, I tried to make a spell that would make the target turn his back to you, but I never could get it to work.

 

Plague

Just because it hasn't specifically been said, I very much doubt Demivrgvs has any plans whatsoever to include this spell in SR, and I don't blame him. Even if he were interested in adding entirely new spells to the mix (which he might do in a future version of the mod, but not this one), the Plague spell has enough "what-if"s tied onto it to give any modder pause. I might possibly make the spell myself, but I'd probably make it specific to a kit focused on decay and pestilence, a hypothetical Priest of Talona perhaps. But let me answer a couple of questions:

No, plague-ridden corpses would not spread the epidemic, because as soon as a character dies, all spells actively affecting them cease to be. Certain enchantments with a Duration of "Permanent after Death" will still retain their effect, but even they are ignored until the character concerned has been brought back to life.

No, the plague would not kill all the clerics in a temple, because strictly speaking the spell can't kill anybody (except innocent townsfolk, who have almost no hitpoints to begin with). The only actual damage done by the spell is to remove 10% of your current hitpoints, every round. So Plague will take any character down to just 4 hitpoints--but it can't bring them down any lower than that.

I'm undecided about previously-Plagued creatures having "antibodies" to ever catching it again. Sure, this immunity is something from which only the player could recieve any benefit (because enemies don't live long enough for it to be relevant), but then, the long duration of the spell is also something from which only the player would feel any grief. Yes, a forward-thinking player could memorize a bunch of Cure Diseases and then deliberately Plague his own party so he'd never have to worry about it again . . . but we could also go through the game and pick out enemies who have previously been Plagued, thus leveling the playing field once again.

I'm not sure about Plague being a part of Talos's portfolio; sure, it's a misfortune that could randomly befall you, but Talos seems to prefer calamaties of a more elemental nature. Besides, there's no way that the spell would be added to the list of Temple services. Causing widespread disaster among nonbelievers is all well and good, but I think they would want it to happen on Talos's say-so, not that of whoever walks into the temple with coin in his pocket. Followers of Helm, meanwhile, would probably throw you in prison for even suggesting such a thing.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Mirror Image

Demivrgvs is absolutely right about it being hardcoded, and while my ideal solution to the problem of AoE spells is quite different from yours (the Cloudkill should damage the caster as per normal, but leave the images completely unscathed) my hypothetical workaround would be extremely ugly, would involve a ton of labor, and might not even work when it was finished.

By work you mean that one would have to unhard-code it... making the spell summon creatures out of them(using the CreateCreatureObjectCopy(S:ResRef*,O:Object*,I:Usage1*,I:Usage2*,I:Usage3*) -function) and then color the creatures to have the blueish color on allied images, the creature needs to have immunity to all elemental damage, have no resistance to melee damage, and 1 hitpoint. It's doable, well should be. The scripting might be a headache, but it should be possible to make the creature begin to cast the exact moment the caster would.

[Salk]

Taunt (Enchantment)

. . .

Those failing to save vs. spell rush forth in fury to do battle with the spellcaster.

I'm pretty sure you can make a spell cause affected creatures to switch to a new AI script, but can you show me how it could be done? A while back, I tried to make a spell that would make the target turn his back to you, but I never could get it to work.

 

I am sorry, I have no idea because I am no modder. I just thought this spell was nice, original and seemed by mere instinct possible to code. It could so well take Reflected Image's place as Level 1 arcane spell.

[Demivrgvs]

By the end of the morning I'll post an update (quite a few divine spells has been done).

Spell Immunity

I'm of two minds about whether or not you should be allowed to stack immunities to different schools. I don't like any creature being able to make themselves literally invincible, even for a short time, as that gives the player no option but to run away, turning what was supposed to be a good fight into an exercise in abusing the AI. I would approve of stacked immunities only if more of the spell schools had some Lich-appropriate spells that were actually worth blocking.

As I said, my hands are tied on this matter, I can make them non-stackable but I cannot prevent the AI stops from using SI via contingency and stack them anyway (something players are not allowed to do).

 

Taunt

Those failing to save vs. spell rush forth in fury to do battle with the spellcaster.

I'm pretty sure you can make a spell cause affected creatures to switch to a new AI script, but can you show me how it could be done? A while back, I tried to make a spell that would make the target turn his back to you, but I never could get it to work.

"Set AI script" opcode (82) is what you're looking for. I've used it for control undead, and I'm even thinking of using it to improve how charm and domination spells work (not for V3 though).

[Jarno Mikkola]

Spell Immunity

I would approve of stacked immunities only if more of the spell schools had some Lich-appropriate spells that were actually worth blocking.

As I said, my hands are tied on this matter, I can make them non-stackable but I cannot prevent the AI stops from using SI via contingency and stack them anyway (something players are not allowed to do).

Well, if you make the spell, as it's casted(well, when the projectile hits ), remove to all the other SI's, you'll get the wanted effect, don't you? And if not, you can put short delay(Wait(1)) for SI:Abj if you so wish, to make it stay last. After all, one should never have but one of the things...

[Demivrgvs]

I've a few things to discuss and quite a few progress reports too.

 

I'd like to add two 6th level spells to clerics, Control Undead and Death Spell. The latter should actually be Banishment, and I may rename it if necessary and make it affect only summoned creature. What do you think about it?

 

Using a sort of "sphere system" clerics shouldn't be able to cast False Dawn, Searing Orb, and Sunray because they belong to 'Sphere: Sun' which is only granted to druids and Morninglords of Lathander. As of now I've not restricted any of these spells, let me know if you think some of these should really be druid-only.

 

False Dawn

I've finally managed to create an animation which is much better than the "sunray each round" currently used. The caster will glow and emanates light as a small sun. Furthermore I've two changes in mind which should make False Dawn more appealing imo. Fire damage against undead should be changed from 'fire' to 'magic' and the blindness effect may affect all type of creatures instead of just undead. The net result imo would be a quite effective disabling spell with a large friendly AoE, instead of a spell which can only be used in very few occasions.

 

Nature's Beauty

Which was the conclusion on this matter? Make it a sort of lesser Mass Charm (probably my favourite solution), or replacing permanent blindness with limited blindness and/or stun effect? If we chose the hard way (for me to code ) we may use all the three suggested effects and make them take place based on caster-opponent difference in levels (a la Holy Word) or something like that. What I don't think we should keep is the 'death' effect, but I may be wrong.

 

 

The following spells have been completed and the first post has been updated consequently.

Summon Insect

For the duration of the spell (6 rounds), the target fights with a -2 penalty to attack rolls and armor class. In addition, each round, the victim suffers 2d3 points of damage from insect bites, has a 100% chance of spell failure, and must make a saving throw vs. death at +2 or run away in fear. If a successful save vs. breath at -2 is made, the target manages to avoid most of the swarm, reducing damage from bites by half and completely negating the spell failure penalty.

Insect Plague

For the duration of the spell (6 rounds), those affected (Target, and enemies within 30') fight with a -2 penalty to attack rolls and armor class. In addition, each round, the victims suffer 2d3 points of damage from insect bites, have a 100% chance of spell failure, and must make saving throws vs. death or run away in fear. If a successful save vs. breath at -4 is made, the target manages to avoid most of the swarm, reducing damage from bites by half and completely negating the spell failure penalty.

Protection from Acid/Cold/Electricity/Fire

These four spells have been added to both clerics and druids as 5th level spells, while the only two previously existing ones (Prot. vs. Fire at 3rd and Prot. vs. Lightning at 4th) have been disabled. They now grant complete protection from many elemental based spells of the respective type, which means those spells won't cause a "damage animation" on the protected creature anymore. Furthermore side effects caused by these spells (e.g. slowness caused by Ice Storm and Acid Fog, Blindness caused by Incendiary Cloud) won't affect the recipient.

 

Physical Mirror

I've extended the range of missiles affected by the spell: "This spell does not convey any protection from magical attacks such as Fireballs, Lightning Bolts or Magic Missiles, but magically created missiles such as Melf's Acid Arrows, Melf's Minute Meteors, and Flame Arrows will be reflected back."

 

Sol's Searing Orb

I've done a lot of work for this spell (I had to create 9 new .itm files and several .eff files) but I'm quite satisfied with the achievement, especially the new animation. Instead of the old/classic small fire explosion on hit the orb now produces a flash of light which I've been able to obtain thanks to Galactygon work on animations. From the spell's description: "When it hits, the gem bursts with a brilliant, searing flash that causes 1d6 points of fire damage for every level of the caster (up to a maximum of 20d6) and blinds for 6 rounds. The victim is allowed a saving throw vs. vs. breath at -5 penalty. If successful, only half damage is sustained and the target is not blinded. Undead creatures suffer double damage." The orb affects 1 creature, is considered to be of +6 enchantment, and the caster has +4 bonus on attack rolls to hit the target.

 

Fire Storm

In PnP the AoE of this spell is shapeable ("Two 10-ft. cubes per level"), making it extremely more useful (e.g. 10' around caster can be left untouched to protect him and his allies), and I've managed to implement it. Each round a 10' radius area centered on the caster won't be affected by the spell. I've also added an .eff file to make sure Fire Elementals won't suffer "damage animation" from this spell.

[lac]

wow. lots of work. fantastic and thank you!