Unearthed Arcana present Tome & Blood: more options for arcane casters

[subtledoctor]

Yeah I moved it from level-up to when preparing spells intentionally, for... a reason. I forget the reason now, but I recall there was one. When you level up you also get more preparation slots, so basically whenever you see that plus sign on your portrait, you should prepare new spells the next time you rest, in order to see your new goodies. 

[Guest Cdds]

OK, so it's not a bug, it's a feature

Not a huge deal anyway, because like you say usually you will change memorized spells anyway after leveling up

[Endarire]

To clarify, does this 'bug' mean that preparing spells at the wrong time (before sleeping vs. before leveling) mean you're permanently short on spell slots compared to a normal caster of your level and items?

[subtledoctor]

No. It just means the casting slots you get at level-up don’t register until you hit the ‘prepare spells’ button. But every time you do press that button, it checks your level and makes sure you have the proper number of casting slots. So you can’t inadvertently mess it up. 

[Endarire]

@subtledoctor
Would calling the prepare spells function at level time also ensure the appropriate slots appear?

Edited September 16, 2021 by Endarire

[subtledoctor]

4 hours ago, Endarire said:

Would calling the prepare spells function at level time also ensure the appropriate slots appear?

There's no need to ensure anything. You'll get the appropriate slots one way or another.

I figured out what it is: your casting slots used to be updated upon level-up but that was prone to some edge-case errors: possibly it had to do with leveling up when you had already cast some spells, meaning the various opcode 233 effects could get their wires crossed, or possibly it had to do with leaving and rejoining the party or dual-classing in which case the game removes and then reapplies all of your level-up effects; or more likely, it might have been the mixture of both of those together, i.e. cast some spells with an Arcanist, then have them leave the party while their casting slots are not at a normal number, then rejoin the party and reapply the opcode 233 effects afresh. It doesn't help that when the opcode 233 effects get out of whack, it doesn't just go too high or go to zero; casting slots below zero or above 15 can have weird effects, like give you a crazy number of casting slots in a different spell level.

So I changed it to a more robust system that checks your level every time it updates your casting slots, no matter when that happens, and then I set it to happen every time you use the "prepare spells" ability. Then I changed it again, so that it happens every time you rest, regardless of whether you prepare new spells or now. (This is how the vanilla game basically works: you get new spell slots when youn level up, but you have to rest in order to actually use them.)

The broader 5E casting mod is up-to-date and already works this way; but the Arcanist kit in Tome & Blood has bnot been updated to parity yet, because I have been changing some other stuff in Tome & Blood. The changes are already made on my side (it's a simple one-line change); but they won't be uploaded until all the other changes in other parts of the mod are done. Soon.

Also, I've already fixed the issue that @stekraut mentioned above about multiclass sorcerers. Just haven't uploaded that fix either.

Hmm, I don't actually remember what I am waiting on to upload the new version. Let me take a look.

Edited September 17, 2021 by subtledoctor

[stekraut]

If you have the problems with the "Multiclass Scorcerer" component fixed, i would really linke to try it out.

I will also say "Thank you" for all your efforts with this mod (and the others); it is good that after this long time there is still someone working on mods for those games (i won't be able to to this).

[cdds]

On 9/17/2021 at 3:18 AM, subtledoctor said:

Hmm, I don't actually remember what I am waiting on to upload the new version. Let me take a look.

That made me laugh more than it should  Does that mean a version bump of T&B is just around the corner?

Arcanist is great btw, really enjoying it a lot

Edited September 18, 2021 by cdds

[subtledoctor]

On 9/17/2021 at 7:27 AM, cdds said:

Does that mean a version bump of T&B is just around the corner?

Yes. Just finishing up a new component. 

Edited September 18, 2021 by subtledoctor

[subtledoctor]

...Aaand, here it is: the mod is updated to v0.9.17

This fixes the multisorcerer spell-learning item, and allows Arcanists' casting slots to update every time they sleep, without needing to prepare new spells. It also has a whole new component: Arcane Spell Opposition School Changes.

This component has two subcomponents: on BG2/BGEE/SoD/BG2EE, you can choose to either

1. eliminate opposition schools altogether, or
2. switch over to the IWD system of opposition schools.

On IWD/IWDEE, you can choose to

1. eliminate all opposition schools, or
2. switch over to the BG2 opposition schools.

If anyone has a request for another variation on opposition schools, let me know. It should be pretty easy to add more options.

Tagging @Endarire who wanted no opposition schools with 5E casters. Now you can do that.

Edited September 19, 2021 by subtledoctor

[Endarire]

@subtledoctor
Thankee for tagging me!  I feel like a bag!

How do BG and IWD opposition schools notably differ?

Do your class mods (F&P,, T&B) also give Paladins & Rangers the ability to cast level 6 spells eventually?  What about Bards being able to cast level 8 spells?

[mickabouille]

I think there are already multiple mods doing things like these, for example

•  cdtweaks unnerfed bard spell progression gives level 8 spells to bards (lv 7 from level 21 and lv 8 from level 29) https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-cdtweaks_tables.html#bard
• same mod, there is component that gives paladins and rangers the iwd spell progression to the other games : paladin level 5 spells from paladin level 21 and level 6 spell from level 29 ; same for rangers.

But I've seem it in other mods too I think.

EDIT: just checked, the beta version of iwdification does it too for ranger and paladins.

Edited September 19, 2021 by mickabouille

[GawainBS]

If you disable opposition schools, what's the drawback of Specialists then?

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, GawainBS said:

If you disable opposition schools, what's the drawback of Specialists then?

Can't be multi/dual, which are fairly universally deemed to be way more powerful than single-class mages? And I guess a hardcoded 15% penalty to learn spells outside your specialty.

I personally don't think they need drawbacks. I've long said specialists should be defined by what they can do - not by what they can't. But if you think defining them by an inability to cast an arbitrary set of spells, which is almost entirely unrelated to their chosen specialty, now you can choose either the BG2 or IWD methods of excluding them from some spells.

(And of course, one could imagine other, better-designed drawbacks. I've had the idea for a while that only specialists should be able to cast 9th-level magic in their school...)

[GawainBS]

I was just wondering why you'd chose an unkitted Wizard, except for dualing. Fair enough.