Help with simple spell editing

[Gay Lord]

I'd like to do some basic editing of the spells in my BG1 game. I'd like to change the class and level for numerous spells to match my own idea of how they should be arranged. For example, I want to make Flame Blade a L1 mage spell and Blindness a cleric spell. I know very little about modding so looking around the web, DLTCEP seems the tool to use.

 

Am I correct in thinking that all I have to do is load a spell, change the class and level values in the upper left section of the General properties tab, and save?

 

If so, next how can I figure out which spell version the game is using? For example, when I search for Magic Missile, there are about a dozen variants to choose from. Is there an easy way to figure out which version I should edit?

 

Lastly, will these changes carry over to scrolls, or would I have to edit them too? For example, If I made Flame Blade a mage spell and there was a scroll of FB in the game, would a PC mage be able to learn the spell from it, or would the game still consider it a druid spell, and thus unlearnable, making the level up screen the only way to learn spells I've changed?

 

Is there anything else I should know to make this work?

[Mike1072]

The spells that player characters learn follow a naming convention. Arcane spells are named spwiXYY.spl (where X is the spell's level and YY is a number) and divine spells are named spprXYY.spl. Spells only appear on level-up screens if they use this naming convention and their level matches the level in the filename.

 

Whether a spell can be learned from a scroll or not is defined in the scroll item file, as is which spell that scroll casts.

 

To accomplish what you want, you'll need to do the following for each spell:

1. Copy the .spl you are changing to its new filename so it will show up in the right spot
   
2. Modify the new .spl, including changing level, spell type, and priest type / mage spell school
   
3. Disable (by making unusable to all) or overwrite the old .spl file so the spell doesn't show up at its old spot
   
4. Modify the appropriate scroll to reference the new .spl filename and add/remove the ability to learn the spell if you changed it to/from arcane