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Opposite schools and specialist mages


subtledoctor

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Pathfinder is nice and all, but lot of stuff can't be implemented/can be partially implemented/is outright useless for BG2. Hero points? :p

I could tweak it thou, so that it applies massive penalty which diminishes over time; that would make it overly powerful however, thus I think this is an ok spell.

Besides, I'm not overly worried on copying Pathfinder spell effects/durations etc, spells which work like Pathfinder (or any source) in BG2 are less than there a fingers on one hand.

I guess Necros could use Bestow Curse (I got a red Remove Curse bam somewhere) but I have different ideas for kits SCS uses.

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I found an exellent spell for Diviners. Unravel Destiny, which will replace Know Oponnent as innate. Implemented as vanilla Doom (all rolls are at -2) + 1d6 damage whenever subject takes damage.

 

Scrap that.

Here's the real deal.Too bad it's such a high-level.

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I've said it before, but an easy way to buff Diviners is to emphasize their ability to know, and therefore influence, the future (even if only subconsciously). So they get spells that change the odds of things. Doom, Luck, Malison, etc. It's in the same vein as SR's True Strike and Moment of Prescience. This way they only need something at 7th level.

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Interesting. Well, I want to avoid more spwixxxx.spls like the plague...SR does a fine job with useful spells, I don't want to fill the spellbooks even more, that way I've done nothing for the kit which loose two schools, doubly so for Diviners) Maybe an ability or aura which takes 1 from all enemy rolls and gives one to your own party's rolls? Easy enough, and I like it, will swap it for their Curse, which seems underwhelming anyway. Sold. :)

That won't be enough however, so I'll keep Predicition of Failure as well.

 

Ok, now I've got Abjurers, Diviners, and Transmuters mostly done. I need to find one more bam for Transmuters somewhere, and that would be it for these three most unused kits. Invokers will get "only" 30% damage increase with Fire/Cold/Electric damage, and they're done - nothing else. I've read that at level 14 they could become immune to Lighting Bolt, but that's fairly weird. Maybe breath save bonus...I don't know the relative power of them without playing them.

 

Illusionists - meh. I'd love to give them something like Shades, but I'd like that to summon something really cool, and w/o a large & nice shadowy animation - can't do. Weird/P.Killer are doable, but Demi will probably implement them in SR some time since he likes the kit, hence this is out as well.

Another idea is to grant them a "real" Imp.Invisibility (Greater invisibility) which will be re-applied constantly, so they would be able to cast spells and attack w/o "breaking" it. This I fear would lead to everyone playing fighter-illusionist or ill/thief, so it's out as well.

Maybe permanent Displacement? Again, too powerful for multiclasses.

The only thing left I have for ideas is Screen spell. This could be implemented as a real power spell, with all party members having the effects of SI:Divination (not SR's Non-Detection, but vanilla version of the spell, with protection from spell school Divination). I wouldn't give them that before level 20, to make sure multis don't gain such power any time soon.

7% chance per level to dispel hostile illusions? They do loose both Necro and Evocation, leaving mostly Conjuration spells for damage.

They will also have Blinding Ray innate, and will be able to cast it whenever they have a clean aura - save or be blinded for a round, those who save -1 THAC0, no save. It's hard to balance this class since gnomes use it in multiclassing.

 

Necromancer, Conjurer and Enchanter kits are both used by SCS AI.

Hence, these will get permanent features.

Enchanter will get inborn +2 vs spells at level 1 and 13. At level 5 they will be Charm-immune. Each melee hit they make will make their target Dazed on a failed spell save (unable to do anything for one round). They will get this at level 2.

Finally, they will have Aura of Despair at level 15 - this will be permanent as well, affecting all enemies around him with -2 penalty to THAC0, damage and spells save.

 

Necros will be made similar, with save vs Death bonus, immunity to Hold, and at level 15 whoever strikes a Necromancer in melee will be punished - just how is yet to be decided. I'm very tempted to use a sort of "temporary level-drain fireshield", which would also increase Necromancer's HP a little whenever he's struck in melee. This would be permanent and undispellable, with a unique animation. :)

 

Conjurers I have no idea how to tweak. I could give them sorta Blink when they take damage, and innate Acid arrow (which AI won't use).

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This should be all finished by tomorrow evening. Stuff done:

 

Abjurer

 

 

- 10% resistance to damage at 2nd and 11th level (all damage)

- +1 AC aura at 1st, +2 at 5th, +3 at15th, +4at 20th level

- Banishment at 9th level

- Mage's Disjunction at 19th (single target dispel which destroys everything and is stopped by Spell Shield, but otherwise removes whatever is removable)

- immunity to chosen energy type at 24th (fire, acid, cold, electric,but only one) - still needs to be implemented, but should be quick to do

 

 

 

I'm pondering about Anti-Magic shell, but I'm not sure about giving him that. Other than elemental immunity, he's fully done and packaged.

 

Diviner

 

 

- Diviner's Luck at 1st (+1 to all rolls)

- Greater Scrying at 9th (undispellable True Seeing)

- Prediction of Failure at 17th (single target, -4 to rolls, - 2 to damage, doesn't bypass MR, if save vs spells (at -4) is failed target is affected by Wild Magic, with -50 to WM roll)

- a No-name aura which gives allies +1 to Luck and -1 to Luck for enemies, at level 11 - this I still need to create, will be done tomorrow

I left EEyes out, since Demi will apperantly give that to them, and I think that the kit is powerful enough as it is now.

 

 

 

Enchanter

 

 

- +2 vs spells save at level 1 and 11

- immune to charm at 5th

- at 13th Free Action 1xday

- at 14th Aura of Despair (not Dorn version) - every enemy near him suffers -2 THAC0, AC, and save vs spells penalty

 

Still to do - Daze on melee hit, but he's fine even without it (who uses Xan in melee anyway?). Thus, done and packaged.

 

 

 

Necromancer

 

 

- +2 vs Death at 1 and 11

- immune to Hold at 9th level

- from level 14 onward, shield of negative energy - +25% Magic damage resistance, whoever strikes him in melee suffers penalties similar to level drain (apperantly LD opcode doesn't really drain oponnents, so this gives -1 to THAC0, loss of memorized spells etc. to simulate level loss). It's a temporary effect (apart lost spells, but this would really hurt only f/ms) lasting 5 rounds. Necromancer gets healed by 2 HP (this raises his max HP as well) whenever the shield triggers, doing the same damage to hitter. Needs refining, but mostly done. Uses a black/semitransparent fireshield animation, and is permanent.

Another option for this is something like Wheel of Bones with slashing damage hitting nearby enemies. I don't know, I haven't really tested this in practice.

 

 

 

Transmuter

 

 

- Physical augmentation at level 1 and 19 (+1 to STR, DEX, CON)- due to lack of specific bams they get everything, otherwise I'd make this selectable

- Telekinesis at 11th - gains two abilities.

ttr_zpskk8wcxuc.jpg

 

Telekinesis Blast blows stuff far away, AoE centered on him. This needs a lot of balancing.

ttttr_zpsrlo9vdws.jpg

Telekinesis Pull is a single-targeted spell which; guess what, pulls stuff towards him.

- gains specialization in staff and one pip in two-handed style at level 5

- gains +2 to breath and poly saves at 9th level

 

Still to implement -their own Alchemy ability + potions + potion spl files.

I have several more ideas with Telekinesis, somewhere around 19th/20th level. Need I say more? :D

vader_zpsumqkaybj.jpg

 

 

 

Invoker gets +30% elemental damage bonus. Fully done, yey. :jump:

Kit descriptions aren't done, but will take about 10 minutes total.

 

Conjurers I have no idea how to make better without castable spells (I'll probably give them an innate Acid Arrow, and let SR augment their summons).

Ilusionists are usually multiclassed anyway, so I'll leave them out for now.

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Forgive my lack of knowledge, but those changes you suggest kreso, are they to be implemented into KR?

KR will do similar stuff, but I don't agree on quite a few things Kreso did. He got struck with a modding frenzy (like his favorite kit) and did all this stuff too fast without discussing it with me, else I guess I could have let him do some work for me. :D

 

@kreso, is it too late to give my 2 cents? For example, Conjurer is easier than you think, I was simply planning to give them an "aura" to boost nearby summons (I wanted to use something similar for Edwin's amulet). I could also add stuff via scripts (e.g. within SR), but I think letting KR work on its own without directly altering spells is better if possible.

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I for one use Xan once a while.

 

Forgive my lack of knowledge, but those changes you suggest kreso, are they to be implemented into KR?

I use Xan often, but not as a melee fighter. I'll probably do it (even tonight, if I find the time), since I think every kit should gain some unique innate very early.

I doubt KR mages will go this way - I'll make this a seperate mod, if Demi decides to include some stuff for KR I'm fine with it ofc.

Subtledoctor provided a downloadable archive which banns two schools from spec.mages (rather than just one like vanilla game), and the idea behind this mod is to use it is well. I wouldn't suggest using my mage kits without it (it won't break anything so player can do what he pleases).

It can be installed with or w/o SR, but I'd definitely reccomend SR - and other Revision mods naturally (some stuff makes zero sense otherwise, mostly Enchanter's save vs spells bonus and negative aura - it should only affect *mind* spells, not a Fireball or similar - one thing I hate about vanilla is save system where save vs spells is all you ever need).

 

 

@kreso, is it too late to give my 2 cents? For example, Conjurer is easier than you think, I was simply planning to give them an "aura" to boost nearby summons (I wanted to use something similar for Edwin's amulet). I could also add stuff via scripts (e.g. within SR), but I think letting KR work on its own without directly altering spells is better if possible.

Modding frenzy :D is over, trust me. I'll refine some stuff when I actually test it in game, but I won't make more mods any time soon.

Yeah, I had a similar idea for Conjurer, but I'm not sure about it - I'd like him to buff only his own summons, not something your Sorcerer plunges onto the field, and I can't do that :( . I guess one could use "learn spell" opcode with unique summons on him - but AI won't use it - hence I dropped this idea as well.

I would give this ability (buff summons with an aura) to Beastmaster & Animal summons (even those Druids use) rather than a Conjurer who is still a powerhouse, regardless of Invocation & Divination ban.

Regardless, I'm not overly worried about conjurers or illusionists - conjurers are arguably still the best mage kit apart WM, and illusionist gain better race and multiclass potential with extra spell per level. Hm. Maybe they should (they do in PnP) get 3rd banned school - then I'd buff illusionist w/o worries about multi ending up broken.

I was thinking about Edwin as well - and one thing I'd do for him is change his kit into a proper Red Wizard of Thay, not a damn Conjurer with *3* extra spells per level. I'll see if I can do that in a few days.

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Maybe they should (they do in PnP) get 3rd banned school - then I'd buff illusionist w/o worries about multi ending up broken.

I think this could be doable AND would be a real balance factor with multis.

I'll check subtledoctor's mod code later, if I can get it done (@subtledoctor - is it easilly doable?) Illusionists will be banned from three magic schools - Necromancy, Invocation and (taaa-dam, take that mr.Illusionist/figher!) Abjuration. :D

Then I would buff illusionist kit, and I'd actually play a fighter/illusionst without feeling like I'm cheating.

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But why would an illusionist be able to conjure real monsters ? Ouh shit this army is for real... it's a cheesed conjurer, not an illusionist. Get him, kill him.

I would much rather remove the Conjuration school from them than the invocation. This does remove the conjuration school summons, but there can be illusion school summons, similar like the tent werewolves. And trap summons. A creature that explodes or just harms the attacker plenty when it's killed/attacked. I would set up the summons to have a specific identifier(aka .ids entry) to specify what's whose. Example, Necromancers Skeletons get gender.ids entry 22, Conjurer monsters gets entry 20, and Illusionists get entry 24. And they can all have various auras that target only their own summons.

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But why would an illusionist be able to conjure real monsters ? Ouh shit this army is for real... it's a cheesed conjurer, not an illusionist. Get him, kill him.

I would much rather remove the Conjuration school from them than the invocation.

Well, it's not like PnP makes much sense in the first place :D.

I'll leave things like Demishadow summons/Phantasmal killer/Shades to SR; Demi will do a much better job with them anyway.

Anyhow, speaking of Illusionists, they will likely see the light of day tonight as well.

They'll have Blinding Ray innate (usable at will, Color Spray projectile), they will be outright immune to any invisibility-removing effect (apart Dispels/True Seeing/innate monster abilities to see through invis - I'd give them immunity to that as well but I'm afraid it's not possible :(, I fear using 206 vs 193 will make them immune to benefit from True Seeing...I may be wrong, will check), will have immunity to most harmful illusions (SR Shadow Door, Nature's Beauty and similar - I'd replace this with a save vs illusions but not really doable), and as a really high-level ability (24th or so level) they'll be able to create Simulacrum images of your entire party for a brief time ( this I've yet to create).

Imo, it should be a fun kit for creative players, even with about 50% spells being unusable.

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But why would an illusionist be able to conjure real monsters ?

I would much rather remove the Conjuration school from them than the invocation.

I kind of agree with Jarno here. Illusion/Phantasm magic seems much closer to invocation magic, to me. In both cases you can form an image from your imagination and give it form and substance - consider simulacrums, and the Bigby's Hand spells, they do almost the same thing.

 

Frankly, I'd prefer to simply take those spells away from the Invocation school. Invokers manipulate energy, they blow stuff up. Especially in the context of this game, they don't need anything else. I'd move the Bigby's spells to Illusion, as I say a different form of the same effect as Simulacrum. And I'd move sequencers to Enchantment (you're literally enchanting a small object to hold spells). And Mord's Sword to Enchantment as well.

 

But, There's no right or wrong answer here. The whole point of the modlet I posted is that anyone can adapt it for their own use, and it should be compatible with other mods.

 

kreso, no need to keep the modlet separate from what you're building here, I never intended it to be an independent mod. You can incorporate it as a component of your mod. Attribution-wise, I think the list code in the .tpa files comes from Mike1072's work on IR; and the spell restriction/scroll usability code was by Aquadrizzt; and I think I just added the description patches and the check for SR. To my knowledge all relevant parties are okay with you using it.

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