Giving an ability a "shelf life" - possible?

[Rana]

Basically consider an ability like spell triggers and contingencies; a spell which gives an innate ability that waits for the caster to use it and can essentially last forever if the caster never uses it. Is there a way to give the trigger components like this a lifespan, like say, 8 hours?

 

Or perhaps another method - a way of getting a given ability to cast itself after a set duration?

[Daulmakan]

IIRC there's a Wish option that gives you polymorph abilities in the Special Abilities menu. Perhaps you can see how that works.

[lynx]

sure, you could script it.

[Ardanis]

If the problem is how to allow for one use only per activation, then your innate can remove itself on cast via self-targeted 172 opcode.

[Rana]

If the problem is how to allow for one use only per activation, then your innate can remove itself on cast via self-targeted 172 opcode.

 

Not quite.

 

What I'm going for is to have the spell to either cast by itself after a set duration of time passes, or just to have the spell disappear entirely. Basically a 'use it or lose it' scenario

 

This is not a spell memorized in the spellbook - it is an innate ability granted in the same fashion as a spell trigger.

[phordicus]

so it's a "sort of" sequencer? a one-shot spell storage with an expiration?

[Rana]

so it's a "sort of" sequencer? a one-shot spell storage with an expiration?

 

Yes. The other difference is that the sequencers can be stacked - you can have more than one. Hence the desire to create an expiration on them, so someone couldn't presumably sit at an inn and mass stack them by draining spells, resting, then draining more.

[phordicus]

well, it sounds like a script will have to be involved, and since the player scripts only run when the AI is on, using timers is jacked. if only one creature ever will be using this spell you could tack some blocks on to the end of baldur.bcs. less than ideal but until something happens to either activate the other script slots for in-party CREs or allow the reading of a CRE LOCAL from outside that CREs own scripts, it's the only solution.

[Rana]

well, it sounds like a script will have to be involved, and since the player scripts only run when the AI is on, using timers is jacked. if only one creature ever will be using this spell you could tack some blocks on to the end of baldur.bcs. less than ideal but until something happens to either activate the other script slots for in-party CREs or allow the reading of a CRE LOCAL from outside that CREs own scripts, it's the only solution.

 

Bugger. I've been experimenting with Use EFF file to get the desired effect, but Remove Spell (172) won't get me what I want and Activate Spell Sequencer (258) don't seem to want to work in EFF files.

 

Actually if I could just figure out a way to get Create Spell Sequencer and Activate Spell Sequencer/Remove Spell to work on the same spell, then I could just issue a delay on the Activate Spell Sequencer/Remove Spell portion and call it a day.

[Rana]

I think I've found a nice compromise, using a create item effect. The Spell Sequencer creates an item instead of an innate ability - a Charge Crystal in this case, which can be stacked and has a decay duration of 8 hours.

 

This allows the player to sacrifice spells to create charge crystals and use them at their discretion, but if they aren't used within 8 hours, they decay and the spell is wasted.

[Avenger]

I don't understand the problem.

As i understand, you want an innate to be useful for some time only once.

 

So, grant the innate, add a remove innate with some delay and also remove the innate when it was cast (as suggested earlier).

It should be fine, if you are granting this only once.