Polytweak, initial release

[polytope]

I like the changes to Vampires. Otoh, I think that granting immunities a la Harmony shield to armor may actually nerf single classed fighters even more. This way, a single classed fighter can still stack them if he wants, but if you remove immunites from hand-held items it will nerf them even more in comparison to multiclasses. Also, it may cause AI issues.

 

In vanilla the best weapon + shield combo for immunities in SoA is Dragonslayer + Harmony but this leaves you with the problem of enemies that require +3 weapons to hit. Blackrazor could be swapped for Dragonslayer late game, but not everyone want's to turn evil for it - also they might prefer +2 to all saves anyway. Replacing the shield with a plate mail or somesuch is actually better for most fighters, since they're now free to use Dragonslayer offhand and a better weapon main hand, or a 2-hander if Cavalier...

 

It shouldn't screw up AI scripts provided the armor uses the same file name as the shield (SHLD25.ITM).

 

The only problem I forsee is if a mod like Wisp's randomizer equips a creature with the Plate of Harmony in their shield slot - I don't know whether the randomizer reads item type and usability before equipping stuff.

 

Btw, sorry to see your no-reload berserker die in ToB, he looked really promising.

 

Anyway I made some changes to Spell Immunity, it now works kinda like vanilla Spell Shield - absorbing only the first spell from a school:

 

 

Much more balanced, I think, duration could possibly be increased to 3 rounds/level as with the other spell protections (I still have the horrible looking original SI graphics on my testing install...).

 

While I was at it, dispel magic no longer displays an erroneous "dispel effects" string or animation on creatures who didn't get dispelled:

 

 

Other changes I made to Dispel Magic, scales by 10% per level above target rather than 5% (previously scaled by 10% per level below, 5% per level above - I'd prefer it to be consistent), has a 5% chance of critical success or failure rather than 1% (wasn't even implemented in vanilla), doesn't auto-dispel illusions, but only if the casting level check succeeds, now dispels Mordy swords, lastly it's capped at 30th level (and a 30th level dispel magic has a 50% chance to work vs level 30+ opponents anyway). Bards and clerics had a rather anomalous advantage over archmages in vanilla with respect to dispel checks (impossible for a level-capped wizard to dispel either level-capped bards or clerics, even with ToBEx fix it's still only a 1% chance i.e. useless). Potions and such effects are now checked at the user's level.

 

I actually did most of the work on dispel magic years ago, then took a long break from modding/playing, so it never got packaged into a mod.

 

I also consider Dispel Magic temporarily (1 round) incapacitating golems on a successful level check vs their HD (i.e. Clay Golem is 10th, Iron Golem 18th).

 

I think of making certain buffs undispellable, Stoneskin would be one (RM is otherwise as good as an AoE insta death vs groups of lower level mages), on the other hand Stoneskin should now take a full round to cast (IMO the most imbalancing thing about stoneskin is the ability to recast it instantly with AoP as soon as your enemies wear through it - AI mages usually have a contingencied SS and perhaps a sequencered one rather than trying to recast it in combat).

 

Regeneration would also be undispellable (very annoying to see a 7th level, single target buff which is obviously meant for fighters keep getting dispelled right at the start of combat), spell duration also increased but regeneration rate reduced a little - or maybe it would be enough to make it unaffected by Haste (which would also make it unaffected by Slow)?

 

Another spell that I think needs a change is Spell Shield; in it's "fixed" version (packaged with SCS) it makes certain high-level enemy mages really tedious:

1. Mage is buffed with Spell Trap, SI:Abj, SI:Div, Illusions, Globe of Invulnerability and Spell Shield
2. Party shoots some Secret Words/Ruby Rays at him
3. Mage casts Time Stop (hard to interrupt because of his layered buffs), uses it to recast his protections (since they prioritize defense now)
4. More Ruby Rays...
5. Mage uses his Spell Trigger (SI:Divination, II & Spell Shield - again!)
6. You're out of antimagic now unless you have a sorcerer

I had this experience with nearly every high level ToB mage, they were no longer really threatening, just tedious.

 

The other issue is that Spell Shield is very powerful in the player's hands, because enemy mages are willing to waste their most dangerous antimagic spells like Spellstrike and Warding Whip on a Spell Shield.

 

I think Spell Shield was originally added by the devs so that certain boss-type mages couldn't just be breached, but since Breach is blocked by spell protections with SCS this role is redundant.

 

I propose Spell Shield be changed to simply give +3 save vs spells/wands and +15% MR, at level 14 increases to +4/+20%, at level 20 caps at +5/+25%.

 

Now Spirit Armor will improve save vs death instead of spells (more appropriate for Necromancy), Improved Invisibility will no longer grant save bonuses (not to save vs spells, anyway), so Spell Shield could be a sort of replacement in the role of a saving throw buff without leading to OP stacking.

Edited May 20, 2014 by polytope

[kreso]

Well, berserkers aren't the most survivable of KR kits anyway - finishing SoA without reloading was (for me at least) a feat by itself - my characters usually die prior to Spellhold. All in all, I enjoyed my run, and that's what matters I guess.

As for your mod's changes ;

 

SI blocking 1st school spell - does it mean that one can cancel SI:Abj by casting Pro Evil on a mage? I hope not... Otherwise, I like nerfing down this spell, since it's crazy.

Like the "dispel vs potions" a lot. While I use IR potions in my game which are undispellable, albeit last for very short (even if some are removed via breach), caster level use seems exellent.

Undispellable stoneskin - T-down. Stoneskin is OP anyway, the only thing I'd change is less skins - max 4 or 6. It would still be incredibly useful (i.e. stops poision, criticals, backstabs etc.) but not as wild as it is now. Tweaking casting time could easilly break SCS AI - there's no way to survive 6 seconds interval where a mage needs to stand still. While I understand about mages using it in seq/trigger to be cast instantly, I don't think this would end up favouring the AI none. The moment a mage would choose to cast this spell, he would die.

Some buffs could indeed be made undispellable, agreed. It's a shame that all buffs on your fighter are removed instantly with a 3rd level spell.

I tweaked the spell once myself so that it sets mage's physical resistances to 90%, was undispellable and lasted for 1 turn only......with TobEx "concentration check" it made for an interesting game.

Agree with "mage battles becoming tedious come ToB". I had the same experience against Liches when collecting Kangaxx bones (the amount of buffs they use is incredible). It only made the battle last longer, but by no means harder.

What I would do with such battles is add more enemies - i.e. a Lich could have some Greater Mummies (in PnP there's actually a fair bit of "unique" Greater Mummies), Demons beside those it gates, even some custom made monstrosities. With a party of 6 against a single Lich he really doesn't stand much of a chance anyway - one can simply swap fighters in front of him and heal the wounded ones in the meantime.

You could add a "downtime" for Spell Shield (can't be used more frequently than 1xturn or similar) to avoid OPness in player's hands.

Personally, I hate the whole anti-magic shebang BG2 uses - tons of protections vs tons of protection removals.

[polytope]

SI blocking 1st school spell - does it mean that one can cancel SI:Abj by casting Pro Evil on a mage? I hope not... Otherwise, I like nerfing down this spell, since it's crazy.

Like the "dispel vs potions" a lot. While I use IR potions in my game which are undispellable, albeit last for very short (even if some are removed via breach), caster level use seems exellent.

 

You could dispel SI:Abj with a single Pro Evil, or SI:Div with Know Alignment (True Sight will work differently), but only if the enemy mage doesn't have Spell Turning or equivalent.

Ugh, it looks like my tweaked Spell Immunity has the same annoying bug as other protections like Spell Turning/Deflection/Shield. Occasionally it will go "uber" and start absorbing/reflecting an unlimited number of spells: Actually I have managed to "overload" a Minor Spell Deflection that went "uber" with about eighteen spell levels total (should be four), but usually when this bug appears it makes the spell as good as total immunity to the school as in vanilla, maybe that's a reason not to change the duration from vanilla 1 round/level.

This bug is anyway only a real problem when it happens with Spell Shield, everything else can be removed with Pierce Magics and suchlike...

Undispellable stoneskin - T-down. Stoneskin is OP anyway, the only thing I'd change is less skins - max 4 or 6. It would still be incredibly useful (i.e. stops poision, criticals, backstabs etc.) but not as wild as it is now. Tweaking casting time could easilly break SCS AI - there's no way to survive 6 seconds interval where a mage needs to stand still. While I understand about mages using it in seq/trigger to be cast instantly, I don't think this would end up favouring the AI none. The moment a mage would choose to cast this spell, he would die.

 

 

I can't remember the last time an enemy mage turned the tide of battle in his favour by recasting Stoneskin mid combat - at most it let him throw a few more meteors. If a mage is out of ProMW type spells and illusions and is forced to use his action for the round to cast defensively he's on the ropes anyway. Contingencied stoneskin at least usually gives them time for another spell since their aura is still clear - that wouldn't be changed.

 

Dragons are another story - stoneskin gives them a round or so of physical damage immunity to continue their vicious melee attacks, but they cast instantly.

 

On the other hand I remember several times when the ability to quickly recast stoneskin made a tough melee enemy or enemies very simple to tank - SCS dragons are quite easy in Chapter 3 even with triple hp provided you have the appropriate elemental protection, enough Stoneskin spells, enough Breach spells and vanilla Spell Immunity.

 

What I would do with such battles is add more enemies - i.e. a Lich could have some Greater Mummies (in PnP there's actually a fair bit of "unique" Greater Mummies), Demons beside those it gates, even some custom made monstrosities. With a party of 6 against a single Lich he really doesn't stand much of a chance anyway - one can simply swap fighters in front of him and heal the wounded ones in the meantime.

You could add a "downtime" for Spell Shield (can't be used more frequently than 1xturn or similar) to avoid OPness in player's hands.

 

 

Good idea about allies for liches, undead for most types and perhaps elementals and salamanders for the elemental lich.

 

Downtime for Spell Shield is out, because SCS AI recasts it by trigger.

[polytope]

This is going to be another long post, I had some time this weekend to work on fighter classes, which reminded me of the most useless HLA ever, Whirlwind Attack - which everyone takes just once to unlock GWW.

Turns out in it's original concept whirlwind was supposed to hit every enemy within ten feet, so I changed it a bit:

Now with every sucessful attack made by the fighter, all hostile creatures in a 10 ft radius (except the one initially struck) take extra damage - 1d6 per 4 levels up to 7d6 at lvl 28 (slashing damage for most warriors, crushing for fighter/priests and piercing for fighter/thieves).

The ability to deal "AoE" damage should be interesting for warrior classes. It should also be useful for enemy fighters, usually the logical thing for the player to do is focus the entire party on attacking one guy at a time, the ability for an opposing warrior to strike and damage every nearby character - even if he is being tanked by soemone with stoneskin or summons - should at least complicate this tactic.

Not sure about the animation - I wasn't just going to reuse blade barrier here (though I have used the "old" bg2 blade barrier for the blade's new defensive spin).

As for power attack, since I discovered a way to get opcodes to effect creatures that are normally unaffected this HLA can now knockdown even enemies that are immune to the "sleep" effect, such as undead - also power attack now gives a +6 bonus to damage, and incurs a -3 penalty to mainhand weapon THAC0 and -6 offhand. Probably best to exclude kensai's from choosing this one as their kit negates the disadvantages (it won't be a prerequisite for critical strike anymore).

Critical strike, this is the hardest one to balance. Its vanilla version is either almost useless, as against enemies with helmets (autohit is really nothing special for an epic level fighter) or overpowered against enemies without.

Proposed new list of effects for critical strike (basing this on the critical hit charts from Combat & Tactics), lasts 2 rounds:

• +2 bonus to critical hit roll (doubled by 2 handed weapon style, or sws if anyone ever used it)
• 20% chance to inflict 2 extra "damage dice" - would translate to 2d10 slashing for regular fighters, 4d4 crushing for F/Cs and 2d8 piercing for F/Ts, no save and works even vs opponents with helmets (overlaps with Sarevok's unique ability, though)
• 20% chance to stun for 1d3 rounds, with a penalized save vs polymorph
• 20% chance to inflict bleeding, no save initially, then 3d4/round until a (penalized) save vs death is made (mainly a concern for the player, battles with HLAs are over very soon)
• 20% chance to inflict weakening wound, considered a disease (much like contagion spell, reduces str/dex/con and slows target) allows a save
• 10% to reduce the target's hp by 20% - this is quite powerful against bosses and highly resistant creatures

Stun is an overused effect, but the others are not too common (either on weapons or as special abilities).

I wonder how GWW compares to these new abilities, say CS in the above example gives a 10% bonus to damage due to increased critical hit chance, and about a 20% damage bonus (5-6 points average) due to the bleeding/extra damage dice/hp penalty, then the 30% increase in total damage output looks worse than the potential 250% increase in dps going from 4 to 10 apr due to GWW, that's assuming no Improved Haste though; going from 8 to 10 apr is indeed only about a 30% bonus.

Even so, GWW lasts only one round and CS will now last 2. Perhaps I should enforce a 1 round cooldown between GWW's (this might cause AI problems, the scripts might assume GWW lasts for 1 round regardless of SCRIPTINGSTATE4) or alternatively a chance on every hit during GWW to penalize THAC0 and damage, so while you could chain GWW back to back after a time it becomes pointless due to the penalties... either option seems "realistic", the GWW spamming warrior should get tired eventually.

Hardiness, I think there's nothing wrong with it per se, but it's far more powerful for certain classes than it should be:

1. Reg fighter w hardiness, the 40% resistances effectively gives him 167% of his normal hp, respective to physical attacks, this is balanced imo
2. Barbarian with hardiness, or fighter with Defender flail has 60% resistance, so effectively 250% of his normal hp, getting OP here
3. Barbarian with hardiness + DoE has 80% DR, so 500% normal hp, which is ridiculous and fighter/clerics are just as bad, characters with this much DR are almost unkillable by physical damage because each potion of Superior Healing effectively heals 200 hp, not 40.

The same problem is evident with any item granting damage resistance, I can't reduce the amount of DR hardiness grants, because high level fighter scripts have a trigger that goes like:

CheckStatLT(Myself,40,RESISTSLASHING)

...and would potentially waste time trying to recast it.

I thought instead about changing the barbarian's abilities, rather than damage resistance he gets +1hp per level after the 9th and during his rage takes one point less damage from every attack made on him (rather than vanilla constitution bonus, which also rather bizarrely healed the barbarian). Cleric armor of faith could instead grant an AC bonus (1 initially, 2 at level 10, 3 at 19) and resistances only vs elements (because elemental attacks usually ignore AC), it would still do the job of a blanket protection (and probably better at low levels, where AC is more important than resistance).

Also, the barbarian should only get a movement rate bonus during his rage (i.e. during fights when it is tactically important), otherwise he is always getting ahead of the party and potentially alerting enemies before you want to. A passive movement rate bonus might be good for the ranger kits though, since they have stealth...

I've revised the berserker and barb's rage a bit because they were far to similar in both concept and utility, since barb gains strength during rage, it should grant him immunity to weakening/incapacitating effects like unconciousness, hold, stun, slow (not web or entangle though), knockback and ray of enfeeblement; in contrast berserker rage should grant immunity to emotion affecting magic like charm, fear, confusion (Finger of Death too, per 2nd edition).

Both rages scale with level now (zerks in BGTutu are well known to be OP).

Berserker:

• lvl 1, +5 hp, +3 to hit, +1 to AC, +3 to damage, immunities, loses control for 6 seconds upon striking an enemy, control is restored immediately upon killing the enemy thus forcing a fight to the end, note that ProMW or similar will prevent a hit, so the berserker remains raged for one round attacking them, then "realizes" what's up and regains control (if someone else makes the kill of the enemy whom berserker is attacking he will also stay raged for one round)
• lvl 7, +10 hp, +3 to hit, +2 to AC, +3 to damage, immunities, loses control for 4 seconds upon striking an enemy, control is restored immediately upon killing the enemy
• lvl 13, +15 hp, +3 to hit, +3 to AC, +3 to damage, immunities, loses control for 3 seconds upon striking an enemy, control is restored immediately upon killing the enemy
• lvl 19, +20 hp, +3 to hit, +4 to AC, +3 to damage, immunities, loses control for 2 seconds upon striking an enemy (with 3-4 apr and good THAC0 even a 2 second duration means they'll be hard to command), control is restored immediately upon killing the enemy

Penalties are the inverse of bonuses, lasting for half the duration. Berserkers can no longer be "gibbed" by damage from rage expiry (hilarious) but will fall unconscious, which seems more appropriate anyway - the hp loss will also no longer be absorbed by stoneskin or mirror image for berserker->druids or berserker->mages.

Barbarian:

• lvl 1, +2 strength, +2 move, -2 AC, immunities & damage reduction, loses 5 points strength upon end of rage, regained at 1 point per round, cannot re-enrage until strength penalty expires (i.e. 5 rounds)
• lvl 10, +3 strength, +3 move, -2 AC, immunities & damage reduction, loses 4 points strength upon end of rage, regained at 1 point per round, cannot re-enrage until strength penalty expires
• lvl 19, +4 strength, +4 move, -2 AC, immunities & damage reduction, loses 3 points strength upon end of rage, regained at 1 point per round, cannot re-enrage until strength penalty expires

Barbarian rage will now last 1 turn.

Edited June 1, 2014 by polytope

[Demivrgvs]

Interesting mod Poly.

 

Whirlwind Attack

Now with every sucessful attack made by the fighter, all hostile creatures in a 10 ft radius (except the one initially struck) take extra damage - 1d6 per 4 levels up to 7d6 at lvl 28 (slashing damage for most warriors, crushing for fighter/priests and piercing for fighter/thieves).

Arda suggested the same to me back then, but it has a bunch of things I don't like:

- damage type not necessarily related to the weapon used (this may partially be fixed with an overcomplicated workaround)

- dmg output not related to the character real stats

- could be exploited to bypass PfMW because it automatically hits secondary targets

 

Power Attack

I discovered a way to get opcodes to effect creatures that are normally unaffected...

May I ask how?

 

Berserker & Barbarian

Good ideas man, very very similar in concept to what I did within KR. I like your thinking.

 

(Berserker) loses control for 3 seconds upon striking an enemy, control is restored immediately upon killing the enemy

Kreso tested something almost identical for KR, and we kinda reached the consensus that removing control completely ruins the class, even if it's just for a short amount of time.

[kreso]

Berserker:

loses control

As Demivrgvs said, don't do this.

 

 

The same problem is evident with any item granting damage resistance, I can't reduce the amount of DR hardiness grants, because high level fighter scripts have a trigger that goes like:

CheckStatLT(Myself,40,RESISTSLASHING)

...and would potentially waste time trying to recast it.

This you have nothing to worry about - nobody has more than one memorized .

[polytope]

Hi Demi & Kreso

 

Interesting mod Poly.

 

Whirlwind Attack

 

Arda suggested the same to me back then, but it has a bunch of things I don't like:

- damage type not necessarily related to the weapon used (this may partially be fixed with an overcomplicated workaround)

- dmg output not related to the character real stats

- could be exploited to bypass PfMW because it automatically hits secondary targets

 

First two I'm not overly concerned about; allowing full damage bonuses and special effects of weapons as an AoE - even if it could be done - would be overpowered (currently the 20-odd reflected damage per hit is already very good, better than GWW against hordes).

 

The last is a problem, but unlike to occur often. Enemy fighters tend to converge on characters, while enemy mages (with SCS scripts, anyway) run away, so it would be rare for a mage to stand next to a fighter long enough for the whirlwinds to strip his skins through ProMW.

 

May I ask how?

 

Opcode #283, apply effect as a curse, ignores normal #101 vs the effect. You can always add a short duration #101 vs #26 (remove curse) if you don't want it reversible.

 

In v3 I use it for "physical" knockdowns (Power Attack, Minotaur charge, Earthquake - the last has a much shorter duration than vanilla) on creatures that are immune to sleep, also to make undead flee in fear from the Turn Undead ability (player clerics will have this as a spell like ability, enemy AI only ever tries to turn summoned skeletons so will still use vanilla turning for now - less than ideal, but it tests okay).

 

Kreso tested something almost identical for KR, and we kinda reached the consensus that removing control completely ruins the class, even if it's just for a short amount of time

 

In my tests the ability for a berserker to regain control by delivering the deathblow to an enemy made him more viable (particularly because he didn't turn around and start attacking Viconia or whoever), though I suppose there are some creatures that uncontrollable berserk is simply to dangerous to use against though, such as mindflayers, dragons and the stronger golems.

 

Another possibility would be to have the uncontrollable berserk trigger during the berserker's usual "fatigue" period between rages, since the barbarian already suffers a strength penalty after rages this would distinguish the kits further. The berserker won't suffer combat penalties (indeed he gains an extra +2 hit/damage from the berserk opcode unless you specifically try to work around it), but will become progressively more dangerous to use in combat the longer his enraged state persists.

 

This you have nothing to worry about - nobody has more than one memorized .

 

I'm convinced Illasera has more than 1 hardiness, she reuses it if you breach her first one.

Edited June 1, 2014 by polytope

[kreso]

You'll still have problems with this WW implementation - it makes no sense for a ranged weapon to inflict any other damage than either missile or piercing. I don't know if you can switch damage type according to weapon used (this way, one can blast arrow-immune creatures with arrows, provided he has a valid target - if not, send a mage with stoneskins ahead and shoot at him).

WW against PFMW actually isn't so rare to happen - don't you focus down mages first, if you can?

Especially with Haste, you'll have little problems placing your fighter in the mages' vicinity.

In ToB when WW is aquired, a lot of fights (Gromnir's castle, Sendai's enclave) happen in relatively small areas, and given their high levels, mages use a lot of high powered, long casting time spells - they're bound to get bushwacked, even unintetionally. They also use summons - if you're near the mage, so are the summoned creatures.

Finally, if one has 6-person party; a mage has no choice but to stand near one of them.

 

 

In my tests the ability for a berserker to regain control by delivering the deathblow to an enemy made him more viable (particularly because he didn't turn around and start attacking Viconia or whoever), though I suppose there are some creatures that uncontrollable berserk is simply to dangerous to use against though, such as mindflayers, dragons and the stronger golems.

 

This was what made me drop the "uncontrolable" idea completely - it's ok vs low-powered hordes, but shouldn't Berserker rage actually make him stronger? Add in Sequencer - Stoneskin/Fireshield:Red/Fireshield:Blue and you'll see just how bad "berserk effect" can be. Don't forget mages use Invisibility Minor sequencer, which makes him switch target to anyone nearby. If by any chance Viconia is trying to cast Heal on him while that happens, it's one dead Drow. This can be worked around (grant him invisibility detection) but it's nonsensical.

I did also try "cure berserk" on IDS target "dead". While this was fairly ok in BG1 and early SoA, post-underdark it's effectivness drops drastically as your mages gain some decent damage spells.

For more info on the matter, there are about 150+ my posts in KR forum concerning the berserker and some of the tweaks I made to make him work a la PnP. It just doesn't go in BG world.

 

As for Illasera, she indeed has 2 - but I've been playing with KR Hardiness for a long time (20% Physical res) and it causes no issues. She never re-uses it while the first one is active, she's simply too busy killing your party. You can probably tweak Hardiness to your heart's desires and it will casue no AI glitches.

If it still worries you, patch her to have an extra ammount of phyisical res.

Edited June 1, 2014 by kreso

[polytope]

Another longish post, I'm starting to use this thread as a diary, so I don't forget what I've been doing...

You'll still have problems with this WW implementation - it makes no sense for a ranged weapon to inflict any other damage than either missile or piercing. I don't know if you can switch damage type according to weapon used (this way, one can blast arrow-immune creatures with arrows, provided he has a valid target - if not, send a mage with stoneskins ahead and shoot at him).

WW against PFMW actually isn't so rare to happen - don't you focus down mages first, if you can?

Especially with Haste, you'll have little problems placing your fighter in the mages' vicinity.

In ToB when WW is aquired, a lot of fights (Gromnir's castle, Sendai's enclave) happen in relatively small areas, and given their high levels, mages use a lot of high powered, long casting time spells - they're bound to get bushwacked, even unintetionally. They also use summons - if you're near the mage, so are the summoned creatures.

Finally, if one has 6-person party; a mage has no choice but to stand near one of them.

 

Regarding area damage from Whirlwind, I will certainly make Absolute Immunity spell protect against it (as it blocks every weapon). Any other combat protection can be bypassed by some weapon in your possession by the time your warriors are epic level (unless soloing).

I'm still not convinced that there are many battles where you will have a melee enemy standing next to a ProMW-using enemy mage for a full round to act as a target and SURVIVE the ten hits needed for the AoE damage to remove the mage's stoneskins.

About archers and WW, it currently only works with melee weapons but I've designed a "reflected shot" ability for archers (same idea, deals d4 damage/4 levels up to 7d4, hits only one additional target and lasts two rounds). The only enemy archer with WW attack is Illasera (she doesn't even use it with my version of SCS...) but that's easily fixed by giving her GWW instead and REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~"WARRIOR_WHIRLWIND"~ ~"WARRIOR_GREATER_WHIRLWIND"~

in her script.

Concerning the berserker, it just occurred to me that the slayer forms granted with Ascension are a good approximation of how the ability should work (except for turning into a giant lobster and taking damage from it ofc), the character has control for a few rounds, but an increasing chance to lose it thereafter. For AI scripting purposes I have to limit the rage + fatigue period to no more than 15 rounds total, so say 12 rounds max rage, plus 3 rounds cooldown period. Rage has normal benefits for the first 6 rounds, each round thereafter the berserker has a 10% cumulative chance to be uncontrollable in that round up to 60% on the 12th and final round but the option to "calm rage" is added as an innate ability, which drops the berserker out of his enraged state immediately.

Thus, the player can still get most of the benefits of enrage but after a while must choose between debuffing his berserker or risking a loss of control. For AI controlled enemies, berserker rage ends automatically after 6 rounds (easy enough to do with EFF files).

I have to wonder about the strength loss at the end of the barb's rage, which could be fatal if you've been fighting spirit trolls or even a mass of shadows, or could immobilize the character (also often fatal). I might sub it for a plain penalty to attack/damage rolls although I'd like it to be more different from the berserker's post-rage fatigue.

I did some work on spells and items this weekend.

Spell changes

I want to replace either Skull Trap or Flame Arrow. Flame Arrow is one of 3 fire-damage spells at the same level, very redundant, also it's not useful before level 10 (level 15, really) and OP by level 20. Skull Trap on the other hand is an annoying short range fireball (hard to protect your own party from, as well) unless you're going to use cheese and trap enemy spawn points with Skull Traps.

I already have a great replacement spell in mind - Lance of Disruption - which deals crushing damage (2d12 +2/level, up to 2d12 + 30, save for half) and ignores MR when cast on golems/skeletal undead.

Glyph of Warding has the same issues as skull trap, I'm replacing this with Static Charge (capped at 10d6 damage). Also this is now available to druids and rangers, so as to make druids somewhat more useful in combat compared to clerics (who have better buffs and Holy Smite). I recoloured the Static Charge effect to blue, to fit with other electrical effects in BG2.

Save-or-die spells, I thought about making these deal massive damage on a failed save like in pathfinder so they would be somewhat useful versus bosses i.e.

• Finger of Death, 2d8 +7/level, succesful save reduces damage to 2d8 +1/level (also makes beholder fights a bit less luck-based).
• Wail of The Banshee, 8 points damage per level, save for none (stronger penalty vs vanilla, -2 at 18th level)
• Slay Living, 12d8 + 1/level, succesful save reduces damage to 2d8 +1/level (multiple attempts are allowed to hit the target, spell discharges only on hit or after two rounds)
• Harm, 10hp damage per level (save for half) also applies instantaneous minimum hp effect between 1 and 4 so target can't be reduced below 1d4 hp by this spell (one round to hit the target).

Protection from Magic Energy (a spell that never made sense) will now become Protection from Necromantic Energy. It gives the same benefits as Death Ward, except it will not protect from PW:Kill/Symbol Death (which aren't Necromancy) but will protect from Vampiric Touch, (Un)Holy Smite, Harm and Horrid Wilting, this is powerful so will stay a single target buff (this shouldn't cause AI issues provided it sets SCRIPTINGSTATE2 like Death Ward).

A few spells now need their damage type changed: Magic Missile changed to missile damage - it's supposed to remove stoneskins per the description and currently doesn't, Sunray changed to heat/fire damage.

Item changes.

Kundane

I've completely redesigned this weapon, it now

• Grants no extra apr
• Is a +3 weapon for hit and damage
• 25% chance to deal 2d12 acid damage and heal the wielder by 3hp
• 5% chance for 25 acid damage and healing 6hp

There's no short sword in vanilla that deals elemental damage (fire is already covered by Angurvadal, electricity by Crom/Storm Star, cold by Spectral Brand) or has useful abilities for a fighter (the entanglement from SSoM is mainly useful for thieves, and the upgrade to level draining is only provided in late ToB). Kundane shouldn't be OP as it's harder to get than the FoA imo, particularly with SCS, although the fighter in Planar Prison who currently wields it could be tougher considering she has 2 special items, (gauntlets of weapon skill and kundane), but 9 in every stat...

Flail of Ages

• +3 version, 15% chance to deal an extra 3d6 damage total (divided between fire/cold/acid), and slow target for one round, grants +5% MR
• +4 version, 15% chance to deal an extra 4d8 damage (now adding poison or electricity), and slow 1 round, grants +10% MR
• +5 version, 15% chance to deal an extra 5d10 elemental damage, and slow as above, grants +15% MR, no more free action

Defender of Easthaven

Almost doesn't need tweaking with the changes to AoF and barbarian abilities, but add missile resistance (strangely the original flail gives piercing but not missile resistance) and remove crushing resistance (due to overlap with Roranarch's horn - which will now be +25% blunt resistance, or half vanilla value).

Soul Reaver

For some reason I dislike the THAC0 penalty on each hit, now 20% chance to drain 1d4 strength while raising wielder's strength by 1 point, 3 round duration, works only on living creatures.

Gram the Sword of Grief

Gram of myth was supposed to be sharp enough to cut an anvil in two, but how to implement this? I ruled out vorpal effect (it'd be a clone of the silver sword) as well as bleeding or extra slashing damage (overlaps with the new CS ability, and Sarevok's DBA), instead Gram now has a 10% chance per hit to lower the target's slashing damage resistance by 15%, lasting one turn. Dragon form Abazigal and Tamah both have "slashing" claws, so this ability can work against the party in the fight with Abazigal.

I dislike the idea of "upgrading" a +5 artifact like Gram, also in vanilla it's not even very useful because to upgrade it you need to have defeated Abazigal and completed most of Sendai's enclave, leaving hardly any battles where level-draining enemies is possible and useful.

I would rather make the Ice Star "upgradeable" with the Heart of the Damned to level drain on hit (save vs death at -2), it would give players at least one blunt weapon with an interesting effect besides FoA - the Heart of the Damned will also be moved from Sendai's Enclave to Von Goethe (a bit more appropriate as well).

Girdle of Inertial barrier

+25% resistance to fire/acid/missile damage and +5 saves vs breath, no magic damage resistance

Since "magic damage" is now only dealt by necromancy spells, I restrict MDR boosting items to the Improved mace of Disruption (as a replacement for level drain immunity), Carsomyr (replacement for blanket Magic Resistance, Holy Avenger MR is supposed to apply only to "evil" spells anyway) and Valygar's armor (again, it makes sense here, although acid resistance doesn't...).

AI frequently checks for 50% MDR as a trigger, so 40% for carsomyr, 20% for the mace.

Shield of Reflection

It is as OP as the SoB (though in different situations) but I can't change it's equipping effects without screwing up archer AI, so going to to "replace" it with a new shield granting

• +2 AC (as per original)
• +1 strength
• +2 critical hit roll

Might be an appealing alternative for non dual-wielding fighters

Shield of Balduran

• Simultaneously casts Physical Mirror and Spell Turning once per day (a replacement for the shield of reflection)
• No more passive beholder ray reflection or strength penalty
• Immunity to glitterdust/sunray/colour spray (flavour reasons, mostly) and a 10% chance to temporarily blind attackers by "reflection" on a failed save vs spell (this effect cannot trigger more than once per round, in case of insect plague for instance)

Edited June 8, 2014 by polytope

[kreso]

Interesting idea about berserker...but how will he "calm emotions" when you have no control over a berserk character? You want to give him the ability to snap out before 7th round begins (i.e. after that it's too late?) or similar?

This might work ofc, there is a small conceptual issue - how will a crazed battle lusted berserker who is gonna go crazy on his own fellows in few seconds calm himself? In PnP, "Calm emotions" is cast by others on him.

 

Fwiw, I tried another tweak to "berserking" to make it work - what I did was create 2 spells - one which casts a spell each round for 5 rounds and one which is cast by it containing berserk opcode with 6 seconds duration (same idea as True Seeing). Then I experimented the numbers/conditions/etc - example:

1 round berserk - 2 seconds interval with control; 4 sec berserk - 2 sec control etc....

Wasn't pleased with the results, I'm afraid. While it did extend berserker's life span, it seemed as if all I ever did was wait for those 4 seconds to pass so a potion could be drank in that small window of opprotunity....

 

 

Magic missile - I tweaked this spell once like this, but it bugs the AI - PFME still protects you from ever getting hit by it. AI doesn't account for it. I'd also change Skull Trap to do slashing damage (iirc, this is how it worked in BG1, and I like it much more than magic damage), again, screws the SCS AI. One could (possibly very easilly, but I don't code... ) tweak SCS scripts to take this into account, however.

MAGICDAMAGERESISTANCE should be replaced with with a RESISTMISSILE check for Magic Missiles targeting.

 

Regarding area damage from Whirlwind, I will certainly make Absolute Immunity spell protect against it (as it blocks every weapon). Any other combat protection can be bypassed by some weapon in your possession by the time your warriors are epic level (unless soloing).

I wouldn't agree on this; but if you patch Apsolute Immunity to protect from it it's easy enough to patch the rest of mages' defensive arsenal against bushwacking.

 

Anyways, seems nice overall. Another pointss to note :

a) be careful about negative resistances (-15% adds up rather quickly to lethal effects, remember Acid Katana from Tactics)

b) you should rename Shield of Reflection if you go this route (it's not reflecting anything, and filename should be changed otherwise it will still protect against ranged attacks - AI won't account for it).

 

AI frequently checks for 50% MDR as a trigger.

It's <30% for magic missiles/skull traps, <50% for ADHW.

[polytope]

Interesting idea about berserker...but how will he "calm emotions" when you have no control over a berserk character? You want to give him the ability to snap out before 7th round begins (i.e. after that it's too late?) or similar?

This might work ofc, there is a small conceptual issue - how will a crazed battle lusted berserker who is gonna go crazy on his own fellows in few seconds calm himself? In PnP, "Calm emotions" is cast by others on him.

 

Yes, I'd planned for him to be able to snap out of his rage any time prior to going uncontrollable. I don't see anything conceptually wrong with a berserker making an effort to calm himself before reaching an "uncontrollable" frenzy but I need to find a balance between concept and playability anyway. At least this way you're guaranteed several rounds of useful "rage" without any chance of attacking the wrong target.

P.S., you can actually prevent an uncontrollable berserker from attacking the party, simply make enrage work so that any berserker in the party has their SPECIFIC set to a certain value and grant the rest of the party (target type 3) protection from creature type (opcode #100) vs that SPECIFIC value, I haven't used this because of the possibility of coincidental overlap with any chosen SPECIFIC value and enemy SPECIFICs.

In the above case, a blotto berserker can still get himself killed easily by attacking groups of mind flayers and dragons and such. Like the wild mage the berserker probably just isn't a great choice for the protagonist in an ironman game.

 

Magic missile - I tweaked this spell once like this, but it bugs the AI - PFME still protects you from ever getting hit by it. AI doesn't account for it. I'd also change Skull Trap to do slashing damage (iirc, this is how it worked in BG1, and I like it much more than magic damage), again, screws the SCS AI. One could (possibly very easilly, but I don't code... ) tweak SCS scripts to take this into account, however.

MAGICDAMAGERESISTANCE should be replaced with with a RESISTMISSILE check for Magic Missiles targeting.

 

Anyways, seems nice overall. Another pointss to note :

a) be careful about negative resistances (-15% adds up rather quickly to lethal effects, remember Acid Katana from Tactics)

b) you should rename Shield of Reflection if you go this route (it's not reflecting anything, and filename should be changed otherwise it will still protect against ranged attacks - AI won't account for it).

 

Concerning MM vs ProME, I believe remove magic and breach are higher priority (mages will always try to breach ProME on a fighter), so by the time mages get to MM in their scripts your non spell-casters should be vulnerable anyway. The situation that I really want to avoid is not a mage failing to cast spells on a potential target (particularly relatively weak spells like MM), but rather wasting spells and time on an invulnerable target (which they actually do in my version of SCS, mages who Wish for TS + Improved Alacrity consistently spam MM at party members protected by globes).

 

There would be more of an issue if for instance ADHW was changed from magic damage (because it's a high priority spell used early in the encounter), so I'm not going to do anything like that.

 

About negative resistances, with Kuroisan's katana it takes only 4 successful hits to lower acid resistance by 100%. On the other hand with Gram having a 10% chance to lower slashing resistance by 15% it takes just over four Greater Whirlwinds worth of attacks (assuming 100% hit rate, which is wrong anyway) to completely negate 75% physical resistance (I didn't actually test this in game, just going off raw probabilities). There is a chance though (about 8-10%) of getting 3 or more "resistance lowering" hits in the space of one GWW (and ofc, there is a larger chance of getting none at all).

 

I could always change Gram to have 30% chance to lower resistance by 5%, which would make it more consistent and less likely to rapidly lower resistance by "chaining" special hits together, although for some reason -5% looks silly to me and it rules out any associated animation or special effects (because it would trigger too frequently and be an eyesore).

 

As for Shield or Reflection/Balduran ofc I'll remove them from stores and replace with a new file to avoid AI issues. This method runs into problems if someone installs Wisp's Randomizer though (either before or after Polytweak).

Edited June 9, 2014 by polytope

[kreso]

 

P.S., you can actually prevent an uncontrollable berserker from attacking the party, simply make enrage work so that any berserker in the party has their SPECIFIC set to a certain value and grant the rest of the party (target type 3) protection from creature type (opcode #100) vs that SPECIFIC value, I haven't used this because of the possibility of coincidental overlap with any chosen SPECIFIC value and enemy SPECIFICs.

I tried that. Fwiw, I think I tried everything anyway .

Ardanis told me not to do that, and he was ofc right - it messes up the game. Note that he becomes "non-targetable" this way - so you can't cast beneficial spells on him. Given that PnP Rage actually makes him immune to healing; and it's inconvinient to get near him, this wasn't so bad, but far worse issues arise with this tweak.

 

Re acid katana - yes, it reduced resistance quickly - Acid resistance. But assuming 3 of your front-liners wield slashing weapons you'll see that what Gram can do to enemies now isn't all that much different in effect.

[kreso]

P.S.

 

If you really want to stick to berserk opcode, you'll get much better results if you split berserk time into smallest chunks possible (1 second) which are cast with a 1 sec delay in between each other. This way berserker doesn't attack frendlies (even if he turns to them, next berserk instance applied "resets" him and he charges the enemy).

[polytope]

assuming 3 of your front-liners wield slashing weapons you'll see that what Gram can do to enemies now isn't all that much different in effect.

 

 

I was bored, so ran some tests of Gram vs other weapons to determine if it was OP (base 20 strength and GM in each case). Versus a 75% resistant, 200hp monster:

• Plain 1d10+5 weapon, 33-34 hits to kill on average
• Staff of the Ram +6, 23 hits average
• Gram much more random because of the proc, as little as 14 or as many as 21, say 17-20 average
• AoU main hand, Crom offhand - takes about the same number of rounds to kill as Gram if more attacks (the creature is immune to vorpals)

This is a "worst case" scenario, most boss creatures have less or equal physical resistance (Gram shines against that kind of enemy, since only two special hits are needed to bring 75% resistance down to 45% i.e. roughly doubling the damage). FoA would actually be even better if the creature was either vulnerable to elemental damage or to Slow... Foebane too, depending on MR. New Gram is not broken IMO, the duration of lowered resistance could be reduced to four rounds or so although that makes it much less effective against the party's fighters during the fight with Abazigal.

 

Regarding other item changes...

 

I've just realized my tweaks to Soul Reaver make it look pretty superfluous. Minsc and Keldorn can't use it (Keldorn has the Holy Avenger anyway). Sarevok can use it, but has his own improved Sword of Chaos with Ascension, he also doesn't benefit much from the strength bonus effect (going from 18/100 to 19 or even 20 is very minor). Not to mention you can get a vorpal 2-handed sword shortly after the Underdark

 

I consider changing this item into either a long sword or bastard sword, each has pros and cons:

 

Long sword - there aren't any really powerful long swords in SoA, but it looks too similar to blackrazor. Perhaps I'll remove haste + strength buff from blackrazor for consistency with other level drain effects (after all, vampires don't haste or strengthen themselves by hitting you...)

 

Bastard sword - the only highly enchanted bastard sword besides Foebane is Purifier, the paladin-only sword, so another alternative is good. It feels kinda silly though that there are two other unique bastard swords in the Underdark (3 if you count Albruin, which I never get, or miss getting).

 

Nalia's family ring: Changing her kit to Swashbuckler actually gives her a far too low AC with this ring considering it's stackable with other protection items. I might change it to grant luck as per the wizard spell (+1 luck, +1 all saves, +5% all thieving skills) not cumulative with the spell itself. Fire resistance can stay...

 

P.S.

 

If you really want to stick to berserk opcode, you'll get much better results if you split berserk time into smallest chunks possible (1 second) which are cast with a 1 sec delay in between each other. This way berserker doesn't attack frendlies (even if he turns to them, next berserk instance applied "resets" him and he charges the enemy).

 

It's really hard to balance the berserker because any proposed disadvantages EXCEPT loss of control end up overlapping with either the kensai or barbarian kits. Berserker definitely needs some sort of a penalty during his rage, whereas barbarian possibly doesn't (besides a cooldown period between rages) because he's already penalized by the armor restrictions and lack of weapon mastery.

 

Another idea I had was that the berserker could gain a "negative" regeneration rate while enraged (have to be careful with this as it can cause bugs) but on the other hand gain hp back with each attack on an enemy. It would have the intended effect of forcing him to stay in melee, it'd work even if Improved Hasted since his number of attacks double but his rate of hp loss also doubles. Problem is that regular haste doubles the rate of hp loss without doubling attacks... Also it would make it very easy to weaken enemy berserkers simply by running away from them (the penalty could be implemented differently for them, I suppose. Maybe a simple penalty to max hp, reducing them to around 75% of norm perhaps). Lastly, I would need to make the berserker immune to silence during his rage so that he can snap out of it (via special ability) at any time when he's out of enemies to fight.

 

It's possible the berserker doesn't even need a post-rage fatigue period if he suffers a significant debuff of some sort during rage.

Edited June 11, 2014 by polytope

[kreso]

Lastly, I would need to make the berserker immune to silence during his rage so that he can snap out of it (via special ability) at any time when he's out of enemies to fight.

 

Iirc, ToBEx allows for "cast while silenced" flag.