Bard song to slow undead

[subtledoctor]

I'm trying to make a bard song for a religious bard, which will buff allies and penalize undead at the same time.

 

So far I've got it using the inarea.pro to affect anyone nearby, and it uses a few effects that emulate the Chant spell, with their target set to "party (3)". This seems to work; green NPCs get the protrait icon and record sheet indicator of being affected by Chant.

 

At min level 9, I added a new effect, copied from the Hold Undead spell. It's "Hold2" with target set to "preset target" and target IDS set to "General/Undead". It has a saving throw to avoid the effect. This causes everyone in the area to make a saving throw, but only undead are affected if they fail. So basically it's working as intended.

 

But Hold is an OP effect for an at-will song. I'd like to make the song Slow undead instead. So I set the second effect to 177 referencing an .eff file, and target IDS set to General/Undead. Then I set the .eff to Slow targets if they fail a saving throw.

 

But that doesn't work in my testing with skeleton.cre. The .eff effect doesn't seem to be affecting them. Anyone have any idea why?

 

EDIT: timing for all effects in the song .spl is set to "instant/limited (ticks)" with duration set to 100; timing in the .eff file is set to "instant/limited" with duration set to 6.

[Miloch]

EDIT: timing for all effects in the song .spl is set to "instant/limited (ticks)" with duration set to 100

I'm not sure that timing mode does what you want (it's called "trigger" timing in DLTCEP). If you want a real duration, set it to timing mode 0 instead. You can also check the Repulse Undead spell, which does something similar, only wing buffets instead of slows undead.

[subtledoctor]

That's the timing mode for regular bard song and for the Jester 'song' so I just copied it. It seems to work for the Hold effect - in my testing, a skeleton makes a saving throw every round while the song is playing, repeatedly becoming held/unheld as it makes/misses it's save.

 

The issue is that an .eff with Slow wasn't working. Which is weird because I did get .effs to work in bard song, with the proper timing, to buff allies.

 

Are undead immune to the Slow opcode? That could be the problem.

 

What else could be cool for a bard song meant to replace Turn Undead? (This is really a specialty priest kit that is within the bard class.)

 

Maybe simulate Slow by just cutting movement speed and applying thac0 and AC penalties - that might be balanced at mid-levels. And maybe switch to Hold or the Repulse effect at very high levels. (Divine waves of sonic force throwing them back, etc.)

[Miloch]

Are undead immune to the Slow opcode? That could be the problem.

Not normally (that was my first suspicion) but you might check if you have any mods doing this. Also check the actual undead items (e.g. ring95/ring99) to see if they're blocking anything you're trying to do. If slow isn't taking affect, you might be able to get by with a movement rate penalty instead (opcode #176 with a negative modifier). If neither works, it might be something else. Using SPLs with EFFs is always tricky; if something doesn't match just right between the two, it can end up getting ignored.

[subtledoctor]

Got that working, it must have been the Slow opcode.

 

So my bard song now does:

- Chant effect for allies from level 1

- Slower move speed and combat penalties for undead, if they fail a save, added at level 5

- Protection from Evil for allies added at level 9

- chance to Hold undead, if they fail a save with a bonus, added at level 13