Dakk's deranged discussions: Walls-of-Text inside!

[Dakk]

WEAPONS

First posted in v3-thread, with Demi's reply. "Moved" here so me posting rather extensive reviewing of all IR components won't make people's heads explode. Except for Demi's that is.

 

Axe of the Unyielding

Have the enchantment bonus been lowered (from +5 to +4), why? ADD: Also, is it now -4 to negate vorpal?

There's not a particular reason, but many:

* one handed weapons within IR are often less enchanted than two-handed ones

* within V3 I'm lowering the overall power of "player's weapons"

* this weapon still is one of the most heavily enchanted one handed weapons in the game (and Vorpal effect is probably the most powerful effect for a weapon against non-bosses)

* +4 enchantment is enough to hit any kind of monster (e.g. +5 is only needed to bypass SR/SCS Improved Mantle)

Yes the save is -4 just like it was in vanilla (though undocumented in the old description).

Cool, sound’s reasonable!

 

Taragarth

If you have UB will they be the same in BG1/BG2? Did you find a location for it in BG2? Can all IR Bastard Swords be wielded with two hands (as per Tweak Pack component)?

I don't think The Bloodbrand is available in BG1 at all, is it? Compatibility with UB has always been "a problem". I've not included it, but Tweak Pack component should work well over IR.

Doh, you were of course referring to UB2. Well as long as there is no conflict for those of us installing UB2 I’m good =) And good to know!

 

Albruin

Will you make it easier to find?

I've not moved it, but Ardanis component may have, and I've been too "distracted" lately to remember it.

He’s moved it alright.

 

Iron Bow of Gesen

Why is "piercing" damage specified – is this unusual in some way? Chain lightning sounds alright!

Because arrows generally deal "missile" damage, not "piercing".

*cough* Yes.. well I knew that

 

Darkfire Bow

Is it both fire&cold resistance, and does the Darkfire Shield inflict 5 points of BOTH fire&damage (i.e. 10 points)?

Both, should I "nerf" it?

I think it’s alright to keep it!

 

Long Bow of Markmanship

So a user with 0 pips in Long Bows can use it without an hindrance and with full High Mastery-bonuses?

If he can equip the bow (e.g. clerics can't), than yes. Speaking of which...because of a damn hardcoded issue I'd have to make it grant Grandmastery, or completely change the effect. Lower proficiency bonuses can lead to tremendous exploits during level ups.

Yes I seem to recall that being an issue. And removing the proficiency points for plain THAC0 would not work, for then it would stack with proficiency I suppose… It’s a unique feature so I’d rather keep it, so let it grant Grandmastery and then maybe removing the damage bonus and/or lower enchantment to balance it?

 

Bone Club

Doom is not cumulative with the spell of the same name I presume?

Yep, non-cumulative. Should I make it more clear?

If you feel like it. The Doom-effect is similarly dished out by the Ravager so if so clarify it there too.

 

Club of Detonation

I have no playtesting data to support it, but to me a 1/10 chance of a non-party friendly fireball exploding in your midst sounds quity risky/bad. As in cursed weapon-risky? Same goes for the 1/20 chance (with 10d6 damage!) of the upgraded weapon.

It's a vanilla's effect I didn't removed, and I actually can't because it's highly tied to the weapon's extended background (which I stole from UB if I'm not wrong, and it's really great). I'm not sure a party-frinedly fireball would make sense, would it? Anyway, the improved version also grant +40% fire res, and if properly handled (e.g. by a fire immune character) the effect can be devastating.

Then you have persuaded me!

 

Crossbow of Affliction

How does Affliction work as a Combat Ability? Strength is not affected while equipped, but if you fire STR will decrease? If so, will it go up again after 4 rounds even if you continue firing?

I've done a tricky job here, because a "while equipped" STR penalty was not a hindrance at all. Now STR is reduced to 90% (thus non cumulative) whenever you fire a bolt with it. The effect goes off 4 rounds after your last fired bolt, finally making the weapon behave exactly as hinted by its description.

Very nicely done.

 

Longtooth

There really can't be too many daggers.. did you restore it?

I'm quite sure Ardanis did.

He sure did.

 

Boomerang Dagger

Is the doubled damage (2D4) intentional? Also, do you mean the OBC-component of Fixpack (Mixed-Use Dagger Fixes)? ADD: I see you've removed the "thrown bastard-sword damage.

Yep, no more bastard sword damage. DO NOT INSTALL Mixed-Use Dagger "fix", because IR handles the whole "ranged/melee" thing much better.

BWP BWS sadly “automatically†installs the Mixed-Use Dagger component of Fixpack, I did not immediately detect any problems when I CLUAd in a few throwing daggers – is there something broken I’m not noticing?

 

Halberds

No changed BG1 halberd?

I'm quite sure Suryris's Blade is a BG1 weapon too.

Gotcha, well then there’s halberd love to be had then!

 

Dak'kon's Zerth Blade

Did we ever reach a consensus regarding making this happen / is it doable?

Doable, and I've worked on it, though I haven't finished it.

No stress, if it’s a lot of work forget it and tinker with KR instead

 

Short Sword of Backstabbing

Are there any differences between RR version and this? RR also has speed factor 0 IIRC.

IR's one too. There shouldn't be much difference between the two versions...my only "complain" is that this word ir really overpowered for BG1.

It is a bit overpowered, but I feel it’s potential for abuse is somewhat limited anyway.

 

Sling of Seeking

What was the consensus on STR-bonus to slings? I know the discussion is out there somewhere… If we go for it the proposed ability sounds alright.

If I'm not wrong we decided to not give STR bonus to all slings.

Then it’s all good.

 

Ashideena

Is this the one Bassilus wields? I'm not awesomely fond of the effect, and in either case the Rift Hammer would suit him better (unless it's OP for BG1)…

In fact I've switched the two hammers since V2 and Bassilus wields the Rift Hammer.

Fantastic!

 

Blade of Searing, Taralash, Fire Tooth, Dagger of the Star, Celestial Fury, Hindo's Doom, and Impaler

I like all you’ve done with these.

 

Maces

No changed BG1 mace?

Was there a unique mace in the first place?

Many of the BG1 items with +2 or higher enchantment that lack special abilities are unique and have custom histories (e.g. World's Edge, Suyryis' Blade, Krotan's Skullcrusher...).

Oh yes, blun11 you're right, and it seems unused in BG2 thus I can actually make it more clearly unique...the question now is, how?

 

P.S Speaking of Koveras' Ring of Protection, should I simply restore its "unique name"? The original background had no tie to Koveras and the ring shares everything (bam included) with the plain Ring of Protection +1, that's why I didn't make it effectively unique.

What Mike said is what I was referring to, there are a BG1 items that are highpowered in the BG1-setting (probably all +2 and better) that’s not unique. Not saying you should go on a modding spree, but BG1 maces are the only group not being revised by IR, so maybe at least revise the Skullcrusher? =) I’d love to come up with ideas but I’m drawing a bland at the moment alas. The World’s Edge I seem to recall Mike (or Ardanis) discussing somewhere else, and that it was no conflict with names or some such with BGT (= two different weapons, Harbinger and World’s Edge?) Re Koveras’ Ring of Protection I don’t even recall what it is…

 

What’s your opinion of adding illithium for the Mace of Disruption and (my pet peeve) removing charges from Staff of Curing and Staff of Striking?

 

---

Thanks for reading I've printed everything in the Item Index (a bit north of a hundred pages), reviewed it all and commented on ambiguous items and those you've asked for input on - for all categories. My idea was that once Weapons are "done" I'll drop you my input for Armors and so on. But this time I can refrain from posting the entire statistics for every item I comment on . Let me know if you hate the general idea btw...

[Mike1072]

Taragarth

If you have UB will they be the same in BG1/BG2? Did you find a location for it in BG2? Can all IR Bastard Swords be wielded with two hands (as per Tweak Pack component)?

I don't think The Bloodbrand is available in BG1 at all, is it? Compatibility with UB has always been "a problem". I've not included it, but Tweak Pack component should work well over IR.

Doh, you were of course referring to UB2. Well as long as there is no conflict for those of us installing UB2 I’m good =) And good to know!

I am clueless as far as Bloodbrand is concerned, but I must point out that there is no UB2. UB is for BG2 and BG1UB is for BG1.

 

Boomerang Dagger

Is the doubled damage (2D4) intentional? Also, do you mean the OBC-component of Fixpack (Mixed-Use Dagger Fixes)? ADD: I see you've removed the "thrown bastard-sword damage.

Yep, no more bastard sword damage. DO NOT INSTALL Mixed-Use Dagger "fix", because IR handles the whole "ranged/melee" thing much better.

BWP BWS sadly “automatically” installs the Mixed-Use Dagger component of Fixpack, I did not immediately detect any problems when I CLUAd in a few throwing daggers – is there something broken I’m not noticing?

Because the BWP installs the Mixed-Use Daggers component before IR, it gets overwritten and is as good as not being installed. I believe the note you quoted from the item topic was referring to this component, but it is now outdated.

 

Here's the documentation of the component:

Daggers that can be used in melee and thrown are an irresolvable bug: when thrown, daggers should get an extra attack per round, but there's no way to apply this bonus without also granting it when he dagger is being used in melee. This component grants the extra attack but at the expense of removing melee abilities.

IR instead makes it so the daggers have two forms that you can switch between: a ranged version that provides an additional attack per round, and a melee version that can be dual wielded.

[Dakk]

Taragarth

If you have UB will they be the same in BG1/BG2? Did you find a location for it in BG2?

I don't think The Bloodbrand is available in BG1 at all, is it? Compatibility with UB has always been "a problem".

Doh, you were of course referring to UB2. Well as long as there is no conflict for those of us installing UB2 I’m good =)

I am clueless as far as Bloodbrand is concerned, but I must point out that there is no UB2. UB is for BG2 and BG1UB is for BG1.

Well.. I've got all kinds of excuses for that, but let's just go with a; double-DOH!

 

Boomerang Dagger

Also, do you mean the OBC-component of Fixpack (Mixed-Use Dagger Fixes)?

DO NOT INSTALL Mixed-Use Dagger "fix", because IR handles the whole "ranged/melee" thing much better.

BWP BWS sadly “automatically†installs the Mixed-Use Dagger component of Fixpack, I did not immediately detect any problems when I CLUAd in a few throwing daggers – is there something broken I’m not noticing?

Because the BWP installs the Mixed-Use Daggers component before IR, it gets overwritten and is as good as not being installed. I believe the note you quoted from the item topic was referring to this component, but it is now outdated.

 

Here's the documentation of the component:

Daggers that can be used in melee and thrown are an irresolvable bug: when thrown, daggers should get an extra attack per round, but there's no way to apply this bonus without also granting it when he dagger is being used in melee. This component grants the extra attack but at the expense of removing melee abilities.

IR instead makes it so the daggers have two forms that you can switch between: a ranged version that provides an additional attack per round, and a melee version that can be dual wielded.

Yes that's the component, and if IR supersedes it in all ways I'm good with that. I find IR's form-switching to be a very elegant solution. Possibly the OBC-component could be deprecated(?), but if it's like you say IR overwrites it, no harm no foul I suppose...

[Demivrgvs]

What's your opinion of adding illithium for the Mace of Disruption and (my pet peeve) removing charges from Staff of Curing and Staff of Striking?

I'm quite sure Ardanis added the illithium for the Mace of Disruption in the Underdark. If he didn't I'll do it.

 

Staff of Curing doesn't have charges anymore. Actually I had better plans, like a sort of healing aura, but it seems Taimon has been as busy as I am and never fixed the repeating EFF opcode.

 

Staff of Striking's charges are replenished on rest in V2, but I heard about a possible issue regarding infinite charges ages ago...anyway I'd either keep the X charges/day system or seriously nerf/change it, because a +3 weapon with additional +6 damage is hugely overpowered in BG1 without charge restrictions.

 

 

Thanks for reading I've printed everything in the Item Index (a bit north of a hundred pages), reviewed it all and commented on ambiguous items and those you've asked for input on - for all categories. My idea was that once Weapons are "done" I'll drop you my input for Armors and so on. But this time I can refrain from posting the entire statistics for every item I comment on . Let me know if you hate the general idea btw...

I'm scared imagining how much it will take me to read that, but you're welcome.

[Dakk]

Staff of Curing doesn't have charges anymore. Actually I had better plans, like a sort of healing aura, but it seems Taimon has been as busy as I am and never fixed the repeating EFF opcode.

 

Staff of Striking's charges are replenished on rest in V2, but I heard about a possible issue regarding infinite charges ages ago...anyway I'd either keep the X charges/day system or seriously nerf/change it, because a +3 weapon with additional +6 damage is hugely overpowered in BG1 without charge restrictions.

 

Good stuff! Per day sounds perfectly alright IMO. Speaking of the repeating EFF opcode, there was a few weapons and armors I thought might suffer from the broken opcode (eg. aura-effects) but decided you probably coded it someway else. Should I flag for aura-effects as described in the item-index.. or do you know what your doing?

 

Thanks for reading I've printed everything in the Item Index (a bit north of a hundred pages), reviewed it all and commented on ambiguous items and those you've asked for input on - for all categories. My idea was that once Weapons are "done" I'll drop you my input for Armors and so on. But this time I can refrain from posting the entire statistics for every item I comment on . Let me know if you hate the general idea btw...

I'm scared imagining how much it will take me to read that, but you're welcome.

 

Haha! Well, it's not THAT much, I only comment on a fraction of the items... The reason I post them in the forum is so people can post feedback (much as Mike did) to my proposed changes. But seeing as a lot of what I've got is really just (requests for) clarifications and friendly reminders (much like my input for SR), I could at your discretion just PM you and/or Mike the .doc (or .pdf) file directly so you can peruse my comments and take from it what you will. It's entirely up you

 

If so let me know!

[Dakk]

Regarding Foebane I've tried it out a bit and find it somewhat "lacking" - at least in comparison with other powerfully enchanted weapons.

For example, in comparison to Purifier:

Foebane +4
Combat Abilities:
Foe Bane: additional +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage against undead, shapeshifters, and all extra-planar beings
Vampiric: drains one to four hit points from the target and transfers it to the wielder
THAC0: +2 bonus
Damage: 1D10 + 2

Purifier +4
Equipped Abilities: 
Magic Resistance: +10% bonus
Combat Abilities:
Holy: deals 3 additional points of damage against all of evil alignment
Cleansing: 15% chance evil creatures hit must save vs. spell at -4 or be purified by this blade, suffering various effects depending on their level
Target's Hit Dice - Effects of Cleansing
14 or more - Deafened
<14 - Blinded, and deafened
<10 - Paralyzed, blinded, and deafened
<5 - Killed
THAC0: +4 bonus
Damage: 1D10 + 4

 

Foebane +5
Equipped Abilities:
Saving Throws: +1 bonus
Combat Abilities:
Foe Bane: additional +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage against undead, shapeshifters, and all extra-planar beings; deals +6 additional damage against evil creatures
Vampiric: drains one to four hit points from the target and transfers it to the wielder
THAC0: +3 bonus
Damage: 1D10 + 3

Purifier +5
Special Abilities:
Draw Upon Holy Might (twice per day)
Greater Restoration (once per day)
Equipped Abilities: 
Magic Resistance: +15% bonus
Combat Abilities:
Holy: deals 6 additional points of damage against all of evil alignment
Cleansing: 15% chance evil creatures hit must save vs. spell at -4 or be purified by this blade, suffering various effects depending on their level
Target's Hit Dice - Effects of Cleansing
19 or more - Deafened
<19 - Blinded, and deafened
<15 - Paralyzed, blinded, and deafened
<10 - Killed
THAC0: +5 bonus
Damage: 1D10 + 5

FB+4:

• 1d10 + 2, add 2 vs special creatures
  
• Vampiric, extra hp
  

Pur+4:

• 1d10 + 4, add 3 vs evil
  
• MR +10%
  
• Cleansing, powerful effects
  

FB+5:

• 1d10 + 3, add 2 vs special creatures, add 6 vs evil
  
• Sv throw +1
  
• Vampiric, extra hp (same as unupgraded)
  

Pur+5:

• 1d10 + 5, add 6 vs evil
  
• MR +15%
  
• Cleansing, upgraded powerful effects
  
• DUHM x2
  
• Greater Restoration x1
  

The Purifier seems to come out strongly on top no matter if you measure pure damage output or abilities (special, equipped, combat). Possibly the Purifier is a bad example, and it's meant to be outstanding, then you can disregard

[Demivrgvs]

Regarding Foebane I've tried it out a bit and find it somewhat "lacking" - at least in comparison with other powerfully enchanted weapons.

 

...

 

The Purifier seems to come out strongly on top no matter if you measure pure damage output or abilities (special, equipped, combat). Possibly the Purifier is a bad example, and it's meant to be outstanding, then you can disregard

The Purifier is indeed a bad example mainly because I made it too powerful (though class-restricted weapons are generally slightly better on purpose) and it's going to be slightly nerfed in V3. Foebane is a little underpowered in its un-improved version imo (though Vampiric effect is indeed one of the most effective abilities ever), but once upgraded it's really powerful. I may try to make the +4 version slightly more appealing.

[Dermit]

If you wanted to make Foebane a little more interesting, you might take note of this.

 

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Keryvian

 

Or for better info download the old "Fall of Myth Drannor" sourcebook from Wizards site (it's free).

 

According to the old source book it had the following abilities:

 

All Baneblades are unusable by evil alignments, grant +4 to hit/dmg and saving throws (not stacking with weap enchantment), grant an extra THACO level to it's assigned class and race (in this case any race, warrior class or multi) or a penalty to non allowed ones, flaming effect (blue in this case) that does double base weapon damage to it's assigned enemy class (1d10 of extra damage in effect) and provides lighting.

 

Feather Fall (n/a really, maybe immunity to wing buffet)

 

A Guardian ability (similar to the Dancing Sword)

 

A Jump Ability (another n/a, teleport w/o error perhaps)

 

A rather unique Vampiric ability, where once per day the next attack does double damage and the hp goes to the wielder for healing only (I think we can all agree the current version is simpler).

 

A Spell Reflection ability as well (a bit op maybe)

 

All put together this would make for a pretty weird and possibly overpowered weapon, also I think you've mentioned limiting spell like abilities (though they could be reserved for these high level weapons). Wouldn't blame if you choose not to, but the name implementation would be nice.

 

I don't have the resource but the Wiki makes it sound like the 3rd Edition version works a bit different. Keen, the jump ability and a warding effect (glyph of warding maybe) as well as the bane effects. Could be more workable if you want a P&P version of the sword.

[Demivrgvs]

If you wanted to make Foebane a little more interesting, you might take note of this.

 

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Keryvian

 

...

 

I don't have the resource but the Wiki makes it sound like the 3rd Edition version works a bit different. Keen, the jump ability and a warding effect (glyph of warding maybe) as well as the bane effects. Could be more workable if you want a P&P version of the sword.

I do have PnP sources for this sword, but what I was saying is that the non-upgraded version needs a small boost. The +5 one is fine imo: +3 weapon, +5 vs. almost all most powerful creatures (demons, fallen celestials, undead, ...), can hit any creature, outstanding damage vs evil creatures which are 90% of your opponents, small save boost, and uber-effective vampiric effect (this is what makes it uber-cool imo). Does it need improvements?

[Dermit]

I don't think so, though it couldn't hurt to incorporate more of the lore. Maybe up the saving throw as well?

[Dakk]

I don't think so, though it couldn't hurt to incorporate more of the lore. Maybe up the saving throw as well?

I just noticed (a coupla years later) that Demi did, indeed, up the saving throws. It's now +1 / +2 instead of - / +1. I really like it now.