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Question re: Friends Spell


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Hey folks. Thought I'd pick the brains of the hive mind over here, see what you guys think.

 

In PS:T, the Friends spell is cumulative with itself. Cast it multiple times, and you will gain 2-8 points of charisma each time, and easily get up to 25 charisma regardless of what your base charisma is. So here's my questions:

 

1) Does it behave like this in BG1?

2) Does it behave like this in BG2? (scanning old threads, it seems that in BG2 it always gives you 6 points, and you guys tried to make some fix to it but had to retract it back in v3-v4? Couldn't figure out what that fix was supposed to be.)

3) Assuming it is cumulative in BG1/BG2, would you consider this a bug? Never mind "it's an engine bug, we can't fix it" issues. Assume you -can- fix it. Would you?

 

Considering it doesn't work that way in PnP, or in any other stat-buffing spell I can think of, I'm inclined to consider it a bug. Doesn't help that it pretty much "breaks" charisma in that it eliminates the need to put any points into it.

 

I'd like to see it work like the strength spells, where if you have a base 15 charisma, and you cast it and get 4 points, and then cast it again and get 6 points on the roll, you wind up at 21 charisma. Cast it again for a 3 point boost, and nothing happens. So, basically, it "stacks" only in that if you get a higher roll on the random bonus, it overwrites the previous casting. The most bonus you should be able to get at any given moment is 8 points.

 

I'd be interested in hearing what you guys think about this.

 

Qwinn

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Yes, cumulative applications is a bug and should already be resolved in the fixpack. The change that was reverted should only have been a lame attempt to actually make it give 2d4 Charisma bonus. I don't remember that BG/TotSC even has Friends, but the effect necessary to fix the issue of cumulation doesn't exist there anyway; I don't know that PST even has the capability to define probability ranges, which is necessary for granting a random bonus amount.

 

The way you wish it to work in PST may not be possible regardless (I can't see a clean way to do it in even BG2). Spells are unable to query existing values in most cases, so you won't be able to even check a player's Charisma to try to limit the bonus for subsequent castings.

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Thanks! That helps lots.

 

Yes, vanilla PS:T can handle 2-8 charisma bonus (I even have a "maximized Friends" tweak). As for how to fix the cumulative thing, it helps to have a really talented engine hacker handy :)

 

Qwinn

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