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NPCs Custom Equipment


Demivrgvs

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Let's give evil parties some love.

 

Edwin

You know how much I hate vanilla's "+2 spell slots for each spell lvl", it's INSANE to say the least, and really unimaginative. Leaving aside that even a "+1 spell slot for each spell lvl" would still be more than enough, I propose a little incentive to accept this nerf. What about adding an effect, which I'd call Empower Summons (to differentiate it from KR's Augment Summoning), which grants something like +1 bonus to attack rolls, dmg rolls, AC, and +10 hit points to every allied summons?

 

In theory I would have preferred it to affect only summons cast by Edwin, but within IR's limits I can only make it work as a "hidden aura" affecting anny allied summons. That being said, it still is worth it imo. As long as the summoning cap is there its unlikely to dedicate multiple casters to summoning anyway, and with KR you'll have even more reasons to use only Edwin as summoner.

 

Korgan

Did you know he always had a unique item disguised as a common magical axe? I simply suggest to make its uniqueness not only a matter of filename.

 

To try something a litlle different I'd suggest a Bloodlust effect: each successful hit grants +1 dmg for 2 rounds. What do you think?

 

I would have used a base +2 enchantment lvl, but Ardanis correctly points out that a Bloodlust Axe +2 would probably outshine all other SoA axes. That being said, as a +1 weapon I instead fear it would quickly become unappeling. Mmm...

 

The more I look at NPC equipment the more I think we should probably make them upgradeable as soon as possible. :(

 

Viconia

Pretty simple. I'll tweak the two items you get from her "personal quest". Handmaiden's Mace can easily be a +3 envenomed weapon, perhaps with webbed on hit too, or something either drow-related or particularly useful to Viconia. Her Dark Elven Chainmail can easily be a sort of Drowcraft Spellchain which doesn't get destroyed by daylight, and I think making it raise even more her outstanding magic resistance is the obvious choice.

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Edwin

Other thoughts - add +1 INT. More spells, but in another form.

 

Korgan

I would have used a base +2 enchantment lvl, but Ardanis correctly points out that a Bloodlust Axe +2 would probably outshine all other SoA axes. That being said, as a +1 weapon I instead fear it would quickly become unappeling. Mmm...
Ardanis also thinks that changing his axe from a standard battleaxe to a dwarven waraxe should provide additional +1 damage increment, thus standing equal to a +2 axe in terms of damage.

 

Viconia

Yes for both.

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The more I look at NPC equipment the more I think we should probably make them upgradeable as soon as possible

That would be pretty cool. :D

 

Jaheira

Then what about removing the Sword/shield profs for Jaheira?

Yes I've always disliked that too. She has Stoneskin anyway.

 

Edwin

You know how much I hate vanilla's "+2 spell slots for each spell lvl", it's INSANE to say the least, and really unimaginative.

I'd support to nerf his amulet to +1 spell slots for each spell lvl.

 

He should have a second prohibited school of magic too. This amuet should make him a proper Red Wizard of Thay imo. And it all depends on which opposite school you assign to Conjurers within KR in the end. If you really choose Invokation (I'd favor Invokation too), then Divination is more than enough as a 2nd prohibited school for Edwin in my eyes. IR then could check if KR is installed, and if that is not the case adjust his 2nd prohibited school to Invokation. He should still be an enjoyable spellcaster imo, even if he is the only one in the party (for many evil partys for example this is true), thus Divination is more than enough, at least for a 2nd prohibited school.

 

What about adding an effect, which I'd call Empower Summons (to differentiate it from KR's Augment Summoning), which grants something like +1 bonus to attack rolls, dmg rolls, AC, and +10 hit points to every allied summons?

I like the idea, because Red Wizards of Thay are even more specialised than normal Specialists. If this feature stack with KR's Conjurer features I'm all for it. Yes make Edwin the ultimate Summoner.

 

My suggestion would be to allow Edwin to summon creatures with a castime of a standard action. He is the best candidate for such a feature, because one could easily adjust his spell book with alternative versions of the summoning spells.

 

Korgan

Whatever you two end up with, I like the idea of changing his axe into a unique weapon. An axe with a Bloodlust effect fits him pretty well.

 

Viconia

Yes for both. The mace was owned by a Handmaiden of Lolth. I think the whole concept should be about Lolth. A "webbed on hit" effect and the venom seem to be appropriate imo.

 

But on the other hand, she really broke with Lolth. I fail to see this weapon as a personal weapon for Viconia, except Shar herself would bless the weapon as a reward. So what about a more Shar orientated ability (Shadow Weave orientated?) for a possible update.

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Edwin

You know how much I hate vanilla's "+2 spell slots for each spell lvl", it's INSANE to say the least, and really unimaginative.

 

In gameplay terms, Edwin's amulet may provide him with bonus spells, but lore-wise, he actually gets them from being a Red Wizard of Thay. In case anyone's interested, the Red Wizard of Thay kit can be found in the Spellbound box set.

 

However, Bioware apparently made a small mistake while implementing this. Unless Edwin is secretly a Zulkir (very unlikely) he should be getting two bonus spells per level (one for being a specialist mage and another for being a Red Wizard) and not three as he does in the unmodded game. Also, per PnP, spells from a Red Wizard's chosen school should also impose a -2 save penalty on their targets and the Red Wizard should have a +2 bonus to save against them, but that's not implemented in BG2.

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The Red Wizard of Thay kit would be more KR's concern though. There are two possible ways: giving him a NPC only kit within KR or using his amulet to make him a proper Red Wizard. The former would justify to remove vanilla's entire "+2 spell slots for each spell lvl" feature from the amulet.

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Something to think about regarding Yoshi: He's dual-able to fighter, so...that Katana can get much more use. But if you do decide to change things up, I think the best solution is to give him a wakizashi: it's the least departure from original design, and he is able to backstab. All the other ideas mentioned I find appealing!

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Jaheira

Then what about removing the Sword/shield profs for Jaheira?
Yes I've always disliked that too. She has Stoneskin anyway.
Mmm...if we are to add a whole new Revised NPCs component (which will be shared by IR and KR much like "Kensais can wear bracers" one), that could make sense.

 

Edwin

In gameplay terms, Edwin's amulet may provide him with bonus spells, but lore-wise, he actually gets them from being a Red Wizard of Thay. In case anyone's interested, the Red Wizard of Thay kit can be found in the Spellbound box set.

 

However, Bioware apparently made a small mistake while implementing this. Unless Edwin is secretly a Zulkir (very unlikely) he should be getting two bonus spells per level (one for being a specialist mage and another for being a Red Wizard) and not three as he does in the unmodded game. Also, per PnP, spells from a Red Wizard's chosen school should also impose a -2 save penalty on their targets and the Red Wizard should have a +2 bonus to save against them, but that's not implemented in BG2.

As you may have guessed, I knew all of that. :) That being said, I like the idea of making the amulet expand the Red Wizard theme, but the amulet itself should not be the substitute of the kit imo. Anyway, my my concern was the +2 spell slots per lvl, and as you suppose too they probably messed up granting him a total of +3 spells per lvl!

 

What about adding an effect, which I'd call Empower Summons (to differentiate it from KR's Augment Summoning), which grants something like +1 bonus to attack rolls, dmg rolls, AC, and +10 hit points to every allied summons?
I like the idea, because Red Wizards of Thay are even more specialised than normal Specialists. If this feature stack with KR's Conjurer features I'm all for it. Yes make Edwin the ultimate Summoner.
That was the plan. :)

 

My suggestion would be to allow Edwin to summon creatures with a castime of a standard action. He is the best candidate for such a feature, because one could easily adjust his spell book with alternative versions of the summoning spells.
This is too messy imo (it requires heavy patching), and it would need to be installed as a separate component at the very end of any installation to be sure it takes into account eventual changes to any summoning spell.

 

Viconia

Yes for both. The mace was owned by a Handmaiden of Lolth. I think the whole concept should be about Lolth. A "webbed on hit" effect and the venom seem to be appropriate imo.

 

But on the other hand, she really broke with Lolth. I fail to see this weapon as a personal weapon for Viconia, except Shar herself would bless the weapon as a reward. So what about a more Shar orientated ability (Shadow Weave orientated?) for a possible update.

In fact this is not a Viconia's personal item, but I consider it so because only she can obtain and use it. If it gets an update then yes, it could fit her even more.
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Edwin

In gameplay terms, Edwin's amulet may provide him with bonus spells, but lore-wise, he actually gets them from being a Red Wizard of Thay. In case anyone's interested, the Red Wizard of Thay kit can be found in the Spellbound box set.

 

However, Bioware apparently made a small mistake while implementing this. Unless Edwin is secretly a Zulkir (very unlikely) he should be getting two bonus spells per level (one for being a specialist mage and another for being a Red Wizard) and not three as he does in the unmodded game. Also, per PnP, spells from a Red Wizard's chosen school should also impose a -2 save penalty on their targets and the Red Wizard should have a +2 bonus to save against them, but that's not implemented in BG2.

As you may have guessed, I knew all of that. :) That being said, I like the idea of making the amulet expand the Red Wizard theme, but the amulet itself should not be the substitute of the kit imo. Anyway, my my concern was the +2 spell slots per lvl, and as you suppose too they probably messed up granting him a total of +3 spells per lvl!

I also knew that the Edwin's Amulet gives Edwin his Red Wizard bonus spells and one extra spell per level which kinda seems as a bug, but I have been also thinking that as that amulet is a family amulet of Red Wizard family and Edwin always wears it and refuses to swap it even to the Amulet of Power, couldn't the amulet's actual power be to further improve Red Wizard specialization by giving those one extra spell per level and so making it a lot more useful to Edwin to wear than any other amulet.

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Edwin

As you may have guessed, I knew all of that. :) That being said, I like the idea of making the amulet expand the Red Wizard theme, but the amulet itself should not be the substitute of the kit imo. Anyway, my my concern was the +2 spell slots per lvl, and as you suppose too they probably messed up granting him a total of +3 spells per lvl!

Then I'd ask you what is the aim of item, kit and spell revisions? A holy trinity best installed together? What about those people who like IR, but don't like KR? Should they be "forced" to play with nerfed characters just because they didn't install KR? How about an install switch in IR, asking the user if he wants to install KR later, if it isn't already detected? If no, don't install the IR version of those items.

 

Moreover, Death Bringer Assault is a result of Sarevok's training, not something granted by a weapon. If someone wants to use his DBA with IR you're limiting weapon choice.

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Edwin

As you may have guessed, I knew all of that. :) That being said, I like the idea of making the amulet expand the Red Wizard theme, but the amulet itself should not be the substitute of the kit imo. Anyway, my my concern was the +2 spell slots per lvl, and as you suppose too they probably messed up granting him a total of +3 spells per lvl!

Then I'd ask you what is the aim of item, kit and spell revisions? A holy trinity best installed together? What about those people who like IR, but don't like KR? Should they be "forced" to play with nerfed characters just because they didn't install KR? How about an install switch in IR, asking the user if he wants to install KR later, if it isn't already detected? If no, don't install the IR version of those items.

Well...yeah, the three Revisions mods are best installed together, what's so strange about that? That being said I doubt I ever made something with one of them that makes it not usable as a stand alone, did I?

 

On topic. I'm not "nerfing a character" I'm balancing an item, which is kinda mandatory for IR. Even if the amulet would only be nerfed to "+1 spell for each spell lvl" it would still be the best amulet in the game for mages, and something charname or NPCs can only dream to have.

 

INSTEAD, I'm trying to offer Edwin something truly unique that would make him "a better summoner than any charname Conjurer can be". I'm really not sure what's the problem here, other than some powerplayer complaining that his OP mage doesn't have four level 9 spells as soon as he learns to cast them.

 

Sarevok

Death Bringer Assault is a result of Sarevok's training, not something granted by a weapon. If someone wants to use his DBA with IR you're limiting weapon choice.

Well, I was suggesting it because I read tons of "what the hell Deathbringer Assault do?" around in the forums. I thought that both giving an explanation for it, and documenting what it really does would have been a good thing, but I can be persuaded to handle it in some other way (maybe within KR?).

 

Btw, if Deathbringer Assault is really "a result of Sarevok's training", why did he not used it against charname within BG1? He learned it while dead?

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Btw, if Deathbringer Assault is really "a result of Sarevok's training", why did he not used it against charname within BG1? He learned it while dead?

In EE cutscene, Sarevok actually kills Gorion with a Deathbringer blow. Why doesn't he use it against protagonist----maybe he would, but people usually don't melee him. :)

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Btw, if Deathbringer Assault is really "a result of Sarevok's training", why did he not used it against charname within BG1? He learned it while dead?

In EE cutscene, Sarevok actually kills Gorion with a Deathbringer blow. Why doesn't he use it against protagonist----maybe he would, but people usually don't melee him. :)

They don't ? He has like a 100% irremovable magic immunity(by that point of the game), how else can you kill him ? Yes, even after killing his compatriots with magic, he needs to be melee'ed. And summons would be a primary targets for the Db-blow.

 

Now what comes to customizing the NPCs, I would leave it all to the Level 1 NPC mod entirely, it has a lot of advantages, and like zero faults(well except a cumbersome auto customizing routines, but that's not your problem at all).

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