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Unearthed Arcana presents Faiths & Powers: Gods of the Realms


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Following in the footsteps of a colleague, I'm going to create some threads over here for feedback and discussion of various mods I have worked on.  The first one up is...

FAITHS & POWERS - new kits, new classes, new spells, new HLAs, new rules, and more!

This mod is geared toward all of the divine classes in the BG games.  It introduces lots of new kits; several new class combinations; new spells, and a sphere system for more specialized divine spellcasting; a new weapon usability and proficiency system that liberalizes what priests can and cannot use; and more.  It is huge, in both scale and ambition. 

This all started a few years ago when Grammarsalad decided to try to continue the work left unfinished by Mordeus and Requiem in their amazing Faiths of Faerun project.  I joined him and we started over from scratch.  Over time we have bounced between adding more material, and refining the existing material, and adding more material, etc.  As of this writing the mod is at version 0.83.6, which is to say the 6th bug-fixing-and-feature-adding iteration of the 83th structural iteration of the mod.

You can download the latest release here.

An extensive Readme by Grammarsalad is here, but FYI some kits are missing from that document and some newer features are not mentioned.

Below I will list the various features of the mod.  But I want say up-front (and probably many times afterward), that the mod is designed to be completely modular.  You can install almost any part of this mod in almost any combination with almost any other part of the mod.  Want to have new paladin kits and multiclass druids, but keep the vanilla spell lists?  No problem.  Want a truckload of new cleric kits and a sphere system to further differentiate them, but no changes to their equipment and no changes to paladins and rangers?  No problem.  It's up to you.  You can even change a lot of the specific details of the way the mod's systems are implemented - like which spheres a deity has access to, or which spells are in which sphere, or how "minor access" works, etc.

COMPATIBILITY NOTES:
- This mod is more or less limited to the EE 2.0+ engine.  I am currently looking into making some of the kits available on the pre-EE engine, and making them compatible with the Divine Remix sphere system (which is the only sphere system I know of that works on the pre-EE engine).  But even with just the bare kits, I'm not totally sure, because I don't know whether any of their special abilities might use EE-only opcodes I I know several of them definitely do).  And I don't even know if anyone would even care about that - I don't know if anyone out there actually uses DR's sphere system, or would like more kits to go with it.  So long story short, no E.T.A. for this.
- This mod is expressly designed to work with the kits in Divine Remix v8, the Frosty Journey IWDEE kitpack, the I Hate Undead kitpack, and other mods with kits (like a bunch of NPC mods) which are not expressly incompatible with this mod.

Here is what is currently included in the mod:

1] Sphere Systems

Not A sphere system - sphere systemS. Five different sphere systems, to be exact! The different sphere system options are:

  • The original Faiths & Powers System. This has 24 different spheres, which are similaar in theme to the old AD&D spheres, though some names have changed to be a bit more descriptive or distinctive. (E.g. the sphere of Divination is called the sphere of Knowledge, since "Divination" is an arcane school of magic.) The spheres are made up of original divine spells, IWD divine spells, some original arcane spells, and some new spells original to this mod. In some cases, spells fit into spheres at different spell levels than you are used to from the base game, based on both the power of the spell, and the need to fill out the spheres are every spell level. For example, Slow Poison might appear as a 1st-level spell instead of a 2nd-level spell. As a result, the spheres are very specialized and have at least 1 spell at each spell level. You can see all of the spheres, and the spells in each sphere, over here. (You may see some duplicates of spells in the same sphere - this is to account for different mods being installed alongside this one, you will not see duplicate spells in the game.)
  • A "2E" sphere system trying to be brutally faithful to the AD&D pen-and-paper source material. This has 24 spheres exactly matching 24 of the original AD&D spheres, and the spells in those spheres are the specific spells in those spheres in AD&D, and all spells keep their original spell levels without any alteration. I personally don't love this, because the BG games only contain a small subset of the spells in AD&D, so there are big holes in some spheres. But tabletop D&D purists may prefer this. To get a sense of what this is like, it should be extremely similar to the Divine Remix sphere system. You can see all of the spheres, and the spells in each sphere, over here.
  • A sphere system called "Vanilla" which basically mimic the original game's divine spell lists: all "cleric" spells are in one sphere, all "druid" spells are in another sphere, all shared cleric/druid spells are in a third sphere, and divine casters get spells as you would expect: clerics and paladins get the "cleric" and "shared" spheres, while druids and rangers get the "druid" and "shared" spheres. Why, you ask, would somebody install a sphere system mod that just mimics the unmodded game? There are some reasons to do this. First, this enables the option to let divine casters learn and cast spells like sorcerers do (see below). Second, some particular kits can cross over to the other side of this divide. For example, the cleric of Baervan Wildwanderer (Aerie's patron deity) can get druid spells instead of cleric spells. (Which is more or less what that kit gets in the pen-and-paper game.)
  • A sphere system called "Vanilla Plus" which mimics the unmodded cleric/druid spell system as described above, but adds a unique Faiths & Powers mechanic to it:  every kit will get their normal broad cleric or druid spell list, and will also get "focus access" to two of the FnP spheres. So for example, a cleric of Helm will get all cleric spells, plus focus access to the spheres of Knowledge and War. "Focus access" means the spells in those spheres will appear in your spellbook on level lower than they normally do. So for example, all clerics might get Free Action as a 4th-level spell, but a kit with focus access to the sphere of Exploration will also get Free Action in their spellbook as a 3rd-level spell. Additionally, recall that some of the FnP spheres include arcane spells; with this system you will get any arcane spells in your "focus access" spheres. So that kit with focus access to Exploration will get Freedom as a 7th-level cleric spell.
  • Finally, a "New Faiths & Powers System," which I designed more recently after playing a game and finding the original FnP spheres to be a bit too specialized. This system hews a bit closer to the pen-and-paper source (the spheres or Law and Chaos are here), and it has a bit broader overlap in both which spells are in which sphere, and which spheres kits have access to. You can see all of the spheres, and the spells in each sphere, over here.

The specialization created by the sphere system extends even to high-level play.  Instead of a single boring list of HLAs for all clerics, every kit will now have a unique list of HLAs available to it, determined by its sphere access.  This is generated dynamically at the time the mod is installed.  To round out the ranks of the HLAs available to players we have borrowed a few from the Refinements mod, and created a few out of whole cloth.

 

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2] Spontaneous Casting

If you install this component, then all divine casters in the game will get an innate ability they allows them to choose how to cast spells. You can choose normal spell casting, which gives you access to all appropriate spells (all spells in your spheres or all cleric or druid spells) and then you have to memorize certain ones - just like in the base game. But you can also choose to cast like a sorcerer. This option will remove all spells from your spellbook, and then give you an ability (under the "use item" button that looks like a backpack) to choose new spells. You are limited to about six or so known spells at each spell level, just like sorcerers, co choose wisely. If you have "focus access" to any spell spheres, these will be known automatically without counting against that limit. And if you have already installed the "sorcerers can change out one known spell every 1/3 levels" component from the Tome & Blood mod, then a spontaneous-casting cleric will also be able to change out known spells every so often.

 

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3] Cleric kits.

In a world with dozens or hundreds of deities (the Zakharans say 10,000), it's crazy to limit the player to choosing from just three. So we originally set out to give the player a lot more freedom, to be a priest of a deity that really reflects the particular character you are making. At the moment, the list of cleric kits included and/or supported by the mod looks like this:

 

- Magistrati of Azuth
- Monitor of Azuth
- Doommaster of Beshaba
- Sworn of Cyric
- Glyphscribe of Deneir
- Watcher of Helm
- Authlim of Iachtu Xvim (DRv8)
- Painbearer of Ilmater
- Doomguide of Kelemvor
- Firewalker of Kossuth (DRv8)
- Dawnbringer of Lathander
- Mistwalker of Leira
- Paingiver of Loviatar
- Talon of Malar
- Nightrunner of Mask
- Woodscout of Mielikki
- Minion of Moander
- Weavekeeper of Mystra
- Abjurist of Mystra
- Seeker of Oghma
- Holy Strategist of the Red Knight (DRv8)
- Silverstar of Selune (DRv8)
- Darkcloak of Shar
- Windrider of Shaundakul
- Heartwarder of Sune
- Stormbringer of Talos
- Battleguard of Tempus
- Broken Blade of Tempus
- Hand of Torm
- Luckrider of Tymora
- Waveservant of Umberlee
- Feywarden of Corellon Larethian (DRv8)
- Hammer of Moradin
- Alaghor of Clangeddin
- Fastpaws of Baervan Wildwanderer
- Hoodwinker of Baravar Cloakshadow
- Bloodstalker of Urdlen
- Horn Guard of Yondalla
- Defender of Arvoreen
- Misadventurer of Brandobaris

The kits marked "DRv8" can be had in the latest version of the excellent Divine Remix mod.  This also supports every NPC mod with a custom divine kit that I could find; those are not all listed here though.

All of the systems in Faiths & Powers also fully support the kits in the I Hate Undead kitpack and the Frosty Journey IWDEE kitpack, as well as all NPC mods that I'm aware of which install their own divine-class kits (Finch, Sirene, Nephele, etc. etc.).  My approach here is, if a mod author designed a kit for his/her NPC, we want to respect that design choice.  That kit will be left as-is, but will be integrated into the sphers and item usability systems of this mod.  If you want mod-added NPCs to use the kits added by FnP, that's not a problem: I designed a whole other mod for that.  (And there is also Level1NPCs, and maybe SCS lets you do that too.)  If I've missed an NPC that you use in your game, let me know and I will integrate it into our systems.

 

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4] Druid kits.

The mod improves the druid class in several ways. First, it greatly expands the number of shapeshifting abilities druids can use, with each kit getting a unique list of between four and eight shapeshift forms. Second, it adds a few new druid kits and adds a whole new variety of druid-like kits, called Mystics, which are focused on magic relating to the elements. Like Zealots, Mystics are fundamentally differentiated by their spell access, so they are only installed if the sphere system is as well.

In all, the kits available to the player in the druid class are:

 

- Forest Druid
- Totemic Druid
- Hivekeeper Druid (replaces the Avenger*)
- Northern Druid
- Lost Druid
- Beast Lord
- Elementalist
- Earth Mystic
- Fire Mystic
- Air Mystic
- Water Mystic
- Light Mystic
- Shadow Mystic

* I am aware that the Avenger is a popular kit, but hear me out.  The PnP Avenger kit is sort of useless, and would not work well in these games; the BG2 Avenger is a complete fabrication, with no relation to any actual D&D kit.  The Hivekeeper plays a similar role - a more exotic and dangerous version of a druid.  And if what draws you to the vanilla Avenger kit is mixing arcane and druidic magic... well, you will not be disappointed with this mod.  Read on!

We also support the Oozemaster druid kit from the Divine Remix mod.


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5] Paladin kits.

Faiths & Powers broadens the scope of the paladin class, releasing the class from the strict Lawful Good ethos and redefining it as a class of divine Champions. With heavy armor, powerful melee abilities, and spells determined by their deity's spheres, each kit is a unique divine warrior.  Additionally, each deity will grant certain special abilities to their Champions. Further, there are several different archetypes within the Champion class: Defenders have disease immunity and can cure disease, and can Lay On Hands, and have a passive aura of protection for their allies; Inquisitors are immune to Hold Person and similar magic, and can banish illusions like the Oracle spell, and can dispel magic; and Zealots are immune to dear and charm effects, and can remove fear from others, and can enter a divine frenzy with combat bonuses and immunity to sleep/confusion/feeblemind/maze/level drain.

Some deities only allow their Champions to choose particular archetypes.


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7] A revised usability and proficiency system.

While the core 2E rules envisioned clerics that can only use blunt weapons, the Forgotten Realms campaign that BG is based opened this up a bit. There is very little in the way of hard rules, aside from some comments about the use of blades in a few sourcebooks. But in the Forgotten Realms, most priests were more like "specialty priests" devoted to particular deities, rather than generic Christian-style clerics modeled after Charlemagne's companions. And many specialty kits allowed or encouraged the use of all sorts of weapons - no great deal is made between those that cut and those that smash.

Given that the BG devs chose to make a game in this campaign world, and chose to include three specialty priest kits - one of which was for Helm, whose priests are specifically allowed to use bastard swords, Helm's favored weapon - it is curious that the game hews to the generic weapon rules. Curious and, I think, a mistake in judgment. So we developed a system to allow different kits to each have their own rules for the use of weapons and armor, without being limited by the small number of kit-based usability flags.

The basic rule of thumb in implementing this is, most priests can use daggers, short swords, spears and crossbows. They are all fairly simple and common weapons. More powerful weapons like long swords, bastard swords, greatswords and halberds are limited to particular kits, generally priests of war-like deities. Some kits, of deities that really have nothing to do with battle, like Deneir, might have even more limited usability than the generic cleric. Some kits are restricted to leather and chain-based armors, while others can use heavy plate mail. Some few kits can actually reach specialization with their deity's favored weapon, instead of being limited to mere proficiency.

Each kit has its own limits, and again, if a player wants to dig through the mod files a bit, you can change these pretty easily. (E.g. find the priest of Helm kit, change "u_bastard_swords = 2" to "u_bastard_swords = 5" and now Helmite clerics can reach grandmastery.)

As with so many other things, this system is totally optional - you can modify its implementation, or decline to use it at all if it is not to your taste.

 

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8] Multiclass kits.

This part of the mod is bundled as a separate "mod”, because it can install a LOT of kits (well over 100), and multiclass kits are best installed after all single-class kits.  The idea is, you will install FnP in your regular mod order, and then later, after all other single-class kits have been installed, you come back and apply the FnP_Multiclass mod.  The mod includes six bespoke, custom-tailored multiclass kits:
- Cleric/mage of Mystra
- Cleric/mage of Azuth
- Ranger/cleric of Mielikki
- Ranger/cleric of Shaundakul
- Cleric/thief of Mask
- Cleric/thief of Brandobaris

Finally, there are two special, extra components in the FnP_Multiclass mod.  The first one installs more multiclass druids, so now you can play:
- Druid/ranger
- Druid/thief
- Druid/mage

And, if you have already installed the Multiclass Sorcerers component from Tome & Blood:
- Sorcerer/druid

The second special component installs multiclass variants of the Shaman class.  You will be able to play:
- Barbarian/shaman
- Shaman/ranger
- Shaman/thief
- Shaman/mage

Finally, there is a component that clones every single one of the FnP cleric kits (and DR kits and other supported kits) into one or more multiclass kits as appropriate in each case.  So you will end up with a Fighter/Watcher of Helm kit; a Mage/Seeker of Oghma and a Thief/Seeker of Oghma; etc.

As with most other things, these kits will work with or without a sphere system and the revised item usability. If the revised Forest Druid is installed in the main portion of the mod, then these multiclass druids will use the new expanded shapeshifting; if not, then they will use the vanilla druid's shapeshifting and other special abilities.

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Edited by subtledoctor
fixed spoiler formatting
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EDIT why is this post-formatting system so damn broken.  I can't even edit anything in the bottom half of that post, and it is all messed up.  Can I get a little help from a moderator please?

Why isn't there an option to turn off the WYSIWYG nonsense and just see all the formatting as code??

Edited by subtledoctor
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I've updated the first post to fix the formatting issue.

37 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

(FWIW, in that case better not to process BBCode at all - it seems to be partially processing it and then failing at some point.  Better to just show the BBCode tags in plain text, at least then it would be possible to edit it and manually change them over to the WYSIWYG functions.)

The software used to store post content in BBcode format.  The editor had the option to swap between the WYSIWYG version and a text editor for the underlying BBcode.  The rewrite of the software (IPS 4+) changed the format that posts are stored in to HTML.  The editor can accept BBcode and transform it into HTML, but not the other way around.

This wouldn't be so much of the problem if the editor didn't have various quirks and bugs that mangle things every once in a while.

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@subtledoctor I've followed you over here on your recommendation. I've been playing around with the latest FnP update and have noted a few things that don't seem to be working right (unless I've borked the install, weidu log below).

- Some of the bespoke Cleric multiclasses aren't getting priest spells under the FnP sphere system. Ranger / priests (woodscout, windrider) work fine, but the mage / priests (abjurist, monitor) only have the common spells (bless and heal, I think). As far as I can tell (haven't tested nearly all), the generated multiclasses (fighter / hand of torm, etc.) seem to get all their sphere spells just fine.

- This is not a bug per se but a compatibility issue (and so you may not care!), but monk / priests from Monastic Orders don't get priest spells under the FnP system, just like the bespoke mage multiclass priests above. Is there a way to have priests without specified spheres simply inherit a default list or something?

- This may be an error on my part, but none of the sorceror / priest classes appear despite (I think) following the install order you required and using your latest version of TnB

As an aside, I hope you know I'm reporting all these things because I like playing around with different classes and am fascinated by all the new things you're trying, not because I am in any way complaining! 

WeiDU.log

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@IvanKaramazov thanks for the feedback! 

- The Monitor/Abjurist thing should be easily fixable. I’ll take a look soon. 

- Single-class clerics without defined spheres will get a default set, but multiclass clerics don’t. It will be easy enough to support cleric/monks from Monastic Orders. Maybe I’ll even do what I sorcerer/priests and add fully-kitted versions, instead of just the generic one. 

- I’ll test sorcerer/priests again. Do you have the regular multisorcerers? Including the generic sorcerer/cleric?

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2 minutes ago, IvanKaramazov said:

@subtledoctor Regular multisorcerers work fine, including the sorcerer/cleric. Kitted cleric/monks sounds ludicrously fun, though the total kit numbers must be skyrocketing at this point.

Not a problem. 😉  In fact I have something else planned that will dwarf these numbers. 

3 minutes ago, IvanKaramazov said:

@subtledoctorAlso, sorcerer/monks? Or is that too obscene?

No - probably totally doable. I haven’t paid any attention to MOoFv4... but if there is a mage/monk, I can make it into a sorcerer/monk. 

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Reported elsewhere:

Aerie seems to a generic "cleric/mage" on my current install. No deity or kit. So she's getting only the placeholder spells.

Man, I just spent SO long debugging this, tweaking things in the NPC kits function just so, a little change here and there, wondering why it failed in every iteration when the logic of the code seemed completely sound.

Well, it turns out, the mod wasn't actually running the function.  🤪

I'm working on the n ext proper release (some tricky bug fixes, as well as, hopefully, support for SR 4b17).  In the meantime, you can run the attached hotfix mod.  It should give multiclass kits to everybody who needs them.  You can install this on top of a full set of mods; it only cannot change Aerie if you have already met her, so you need to install this, then load a save from before you enter the Circus Tent.

Edited by subtledoctor
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2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Well, it turns out, the mod wasn't actually running the function.  🤪

I'm always glad when I notice I'm not the only one. Wondering why cutscenes do not trigger or NPC scripts are not being executed while forgetting to compile them is also a great thing.

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Found another relatively serious bug: if you install certain Divine Remix kits (Selune, Ilmater) and then install the FnP_Multiclass modlet, it can cause crashes when trying to choose a multiclass kit in CharGen.

 

EDIT - making good progress.  Gonna be some fun goodies in the next release!

Edited by subtledoctor
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