SR V4 Open Beta (last update 25 October 2018)

[Hoverdawg]

Amazing work!

 

I've uploaded a new build.

 

V4 - Beta 7 (8 October 2014)

- Resist Fire/Cold "replaced" by Resist Elements (25% res vs. all elements)

I know there was a discussion what "elements" should be protected against. What did you go with? Fire, ice..poison?

 

I suppose Acid & Electricity.

[Demivrgvs]

Improved Mantle -> Moment of Prescience

@spanyam yeah it's a bit drastic but I love it. Improved Mantle was just a damn overpriced Mantle while Divination school was in dire need of new spells and this one is going to be an extremely good one.

 

What we need to test here is how AI will react to this, tweak it if needed (I do have a plan b for AI sake), and eventually balance the spell a bit based on play-testing (e.g. considering how it work in PnP duration might be lowered a bit if it's too good, and depending on SCS I'd love to make it not affected by Breach)

 

I do need feedback on this spell, as well as the revised Prismatic Mantle (e.g. I'm thinking to lower the weapon immunity to +2 ones as per vanilla Mantle, as the prismatic shield effect are supposed to be the new real deterrent to keep AI mages safe from).

 

Resist Elements

@Dakk, I went for Fire, Cold, Acid and Electicity. Conceptually I'm not 100% sure about acid but vanilla Protection from the Elements had it, and we do have a ProAcid spell too, thus it makes sense imo.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Demivrgvs

[kreso]

but vanilla Protection from the Elements had it, and we do have a ProAcid spell too, thus it makes sense imo.

No, it didn't.

[Dakk]

 

but vanilla Protection from the Elements had it, and we do have a ProAcid spell too, thus it makes sense imo.

 

No, it didn't.

I agree it doesn't given our Greek-given classification of the Elements. However. This is Forgotten Realms, so I'm inclined to allow some leeway with what their magic counts as Elements...

[Jarno Mikkola]

 

but vanilla Protection from the Elements had it, and we do have a ProAcid spell too, thus it makes sense imo.

No, it didn't.

Which version of the spell are we talking about ? I bet there's one that has it, and another that doesn't... we have about 5 editions of the PnP rulesets, and they have subsets ... so arguing if it did or didn't doesn't work here, as the game engine is the more important fact, and that the game has 6 elements, two of which won't work if there's no death animations, so the rest are; Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Acid.

The original game has Protection From Acid -green scroll, as it does have one for Fire, Ice and Electricity as well. That's all I'll care.

 

The VANILLA BG1 doesn't have the spell.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Jarno Mikkola

[kreso]

Which version of the spell are we talking about ?

 

vanilla

 

I'd vote to keep Pro Acid in Pro Elements. Lightning isn't an element either, and even vanilla spell protected from it. Dakk makes a good point.

[Hoverdawg]

Well, Acid works as an Earth element proxy, and Lightning is obviously connected with Air.

[Dakk]

Well, Acid works as an Earth element proxy, and Lightning is obviously connected with Air.

I'm sure that's exactly how hypotethical Greek magic would have worked :-D

[kreso]

Well, Acid works as an Earth element proxy, and Lightning is obviously connected with Air.

While I can buy Air-Lightning connection, Acid-Earth is really stretching it.

[Hoverdawg]

The only Earth alternative I can think of is getting hit by a rock

[Jarno Mikkola]

... Acid-Earth is really stretching it.

So there's no such things as mineral acids... :whistle:

[subtledoctor]

Well acid is really basically high-ph water right? And lightning is electrified air.

 

Close enough to be considered "elemental," I figure. I mean we are talking about a game where lightning bounces off walls instead of being grounded. (If any part of the BG magic system needs fixing, it's that.)

[zenblack]

Improved Mantle -> Moment of Prescience

@spanyam yeah it's a bit drastic but I love it. Improved Mantle was just a damn overpriced Mantle while Divination school was in dire need of new spells and this one is going to be an extremely good one.

 

What we need to test here is how AI will react to this, tweak it if needed (I do have a plan b for AI sake), and eventually balance the spell a bit based on play-testing (e.g. considering how it work in PnP duration might be lowered a bit if it's too good, and depending on SCS I'd love to make it not affected by Breach)

 

I do need feedback on this spell, as well as the revised Prismatic Mantle (e.g. I'm thinking to lower the weapon immunity to +2 ones as per vanilla Mantle, as the prismatic shield effect are supposed to be the new real deterrent to keep AI mages safe from).

 

Moment of Prescience (bit of a mouthful, how about 3ed "Precognition") - The AI seems to breach this just fine, I did a test run of a sorc in ToB to see exactly how these worked and I have to say I like both of them. While MoP is good and seems to work fine for avoiding most damage (-20 to -23 AC is hard to hit) but it performs just like Imp Mantle did in essence. Prismatic Mantle seems superior because it passively kicks the shit out of anyone attacking. It was my goto spell for protection because you are virtually guaranteed to kill/disable almost anything attacking your mage because of the enormous damage they take or getting mazed. I'm not sure if it is too good because of that but I always ran out of Prismatic Mantle before MoP even not using other spells on those levels.

[Demivrgvs]

@Zenblack thanks for the feedback.

 

Moment of Prescience name is not going to change, Precognition is its lesser 1st lvl variant. It performs similarly to the old Improved Mantle yes (a mandatory feature to replace it), but it also offer a huge protection against any effect that allows a save. Overall the goal was to:

- cover Improved Mantle role for AI use

- possibly perform even better considering the spell lvl (it was a too much expensive lesser PfMW)

- add a great spell to a school that had no spells at all at that level (Divination lacked spells at all levels)

Concept wise I would have loved to make it not affected by Breach, but for AI sake I can live with it remaining a "combat protection".

 

I knew Prismatic Mantle was going to need some tweak to keep its "offensive potential" in check (attacker is struck by a Prismatic Spray every time they hit the protected creature!), I just wanted to get some feedback first (e.g. do players like the spell concept?) before starting the fine tuning. What we need to accomplish is making its prismatic effects powerful enough that players would think twice (or more) before attacking an AI caster using it, but at the same time not too powerful to avoid AI mass suicide when attacking it. Possible actions:

- tweak the prismatic effects themselves (they need to remain similar to PS ones but they can be less powerful variants imo)

- change the "cast each time caster is struck - last hitter" to "once per round when attacked - nearest enemy"

On a side note: do you guys like its new animation? I stole it from IWD.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Demivrgvs

[kreso]

Possible actions:

- tweak the prismatic effects themselves (they need to remain similar to PS ones but they can be less powerful variants imo)

- change the "cast each time caster is struck - last hitter" to "once per round when attacked - nearest enemy"

On a side note: do you guys like its new animation? I stole it from IWD.

My vote goes to no save penalty, conditon "each time struck", but the one who strikes PM should't be affected by it more than 1x/round. On a sidenote, you may lower the protection it offers as immunity to only normal and +1 weapons; SCS compiles scripts even with that tweak; my guess is one could actually remove "immunity to weapons" opcode from here alltogether....