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

[Guest chaoticN]

Armored Casting for Bards don't work for me after installing any later components(Arkanist for example) , it rewrite .itm files in override and they don't work then. And when i am installing only Armored Casting for Bards, it creates many other files, but when i am copy only .itm files from override and uninstall Armored Casting for Bards, then copy only .itm files, it works OK. Don't know why it copy so much files.

[Lightbringer]

Hey Doc!  Been a little while.
I'm checking out your Tome and Blood mod for a an online co-op playthrough with some buddies. I'm impressed! Likely going to go for the Cantrips and Dragon Disciple components, in particular.

[potatoteers]

I had trouble making this mod to work. The sorcerors can't pick any spells at all.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, potatoteers said:

I had trouble making this mod to work. The sorcerors can't pick any spells at all.

Are you using the item ability? Are you using UI mods that conflict with it?

[potatoteers]

14 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Are you using the item ability? Are you using UI mods that conflict with it?

Maybe it was a UI conflict? I used the Classic BG UI 1.5. When I created any sorceror, I had zero spell that I could pick. And if I use the repick spell ability, it told me "don't change any spell now".

The arcanist works fine.

Darn it, I really like the classic UI.

[subtledoctor]

You have an item ability under the backpack icon, it’s called “Arcane Spell Selection” or something like that. You know, like if you have the Sandthief Ring of invisibility, the place where you would use the invisibility power. That lets you choose one spell at a time, you use the ability repeatedly until you have chosen all you can for your level. After you level up, you use it again. 

So far I see no evidence that this isn’t working with your UI mod - you just haven’t found the spell choice ability. 

[potatoteers]

8 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

You have an item ability under the backpack icon, it’s called “Arcane Spell Selection” or something like that. You know, like if you have the Sandthief Ring of invisibility, the place where you would use the invisibility power. That lets you choose one spell at a time, you use the ability repeatedly until you have chosen all you can for your level. After you level up, you use it again. 

So far I see no evidence that this isn’t working with your UI mod - you just haven’t found the spell choice ability. 

Thanks, I will try it later. Right now I uninstalled the "repick sorceror spells every three levels" component, and it worked fine. I will use your method when I get to BG2.

[TyrionBean]

Hey there,

Been a while. I stopped playing for several months but I just started again.

I installed a fresh copy of BG1 and 2 and also: Tome & Blood, Might & Guile, and then CD Tweaks (Installed in that order). Everything seems to work ok with a fighter/mage and archer I've been playing. I even tried a sorcerer and things worked fine with the learning icon in the backpack.

However, I just made a fighter/sorcerer and that's where I hit a snag: The learning spells icon is not there. I start in Chateau Irenicus, and the backpack icon is completely greyed out. I tried resting and it's still greyed out. I was only able to pick spells at the creation screen but not since. When I go to my 'W' key/spells list, it's just blank pages. Nothing listed.

Did I miss something important? Again: Regular sorcerer works fine so far as I can tell. But Fighter/Sorcerer just won't work for some reason. (Tho, I did have access to cantrips and find familiar in the special abilities menu).

[subtledoctor]

On 1/16/2023 at 11:27 AM, TyrionBean said:

I just made a fighter/sorcerer and that's where I hit a snag: The learning spells icon is not there. I start in Chateau Irenicus, and the backpack icon is completely greyed out. I tried resting and it's still greyed out. I was only able to pick spells at the creation screen but not since. When I go to my 'W' key/spells list, it's just blank pages. Nothing listed.

Did I miss something important?

I mean it's not working - you don't have the background item that is supposed to be put on the character at character generation. But I can't tell why it didn't happen. Did you make a character the normal way, or "pre-generate" one? It could be some other mod removed the item. Or... I don't know. Need a weidu.log at the very least, to troubleshoot this.

[subtledoctor]

Meantime, I've updated the mod to version 0.9.45 for improved compatibility with Item Revisions' spellcasting in armor components. You will also need to use IR version 4 beta10 sd17 or later for full compatibility.

[TyrionBean]

Yeah. I saw the announcement on GitHub last night. I'm going to install the new version and try it again. I think I need to install Tome and Blood after CDTweaks since I'm changing the spell tables. I just read that late last night. So I'm going to give that a try with the new version soon and see if it works.

It's just with the sorcerer/mage, as I've said. Other stuff, so far, works great. No complaints.

[Graion Dilach]

Apparently installing the Magus component exposes helmets to all mages and bards. I'm not sure if this is intended but it's definitely not documented.

[subtledoctor]

Well, listen: the readme says "the Magus is a sorcerer kit that can wear and cast spells in any kind of armor, including helmets." And then it says "because of the way the engine works, in order for the Magus kit to be able to equip armor, all other mages and sorcerers must be able to equip armor."

No, the second sentence does not specifically mention helmets. Arguably, it can be inferred from the first sentence. But at the end of the day, I didn't write that code, I don't have it installed, and I am not going to check every item out there and note whether or not it can be equipped by mages. The component necessarily makes a lot of things equippable by mages that aren't normally equippable by mages. It's not a trade-off I prefer to make in my game, but many people do prefer it. (Also TBH helmet usability is weird enough in the unmodded game. Why can cleric/mages wear helmets and cast arcane spells in them? How does being a cleric change what you can equip as a mage? Why can fighter/mage/thieves wear helmets, but bards cannot? There is very little logic here.)

I mean I suppose it could make sense to add op145 effects to helmets, so wizards could wear them but not cast in them, just like armor. But then that would affect cleric/mages as well, and like I say, I didn't write the code and I'm not about to change someone else's code.

[Graion Dilach]

Yes, I can accept all that, regarding the inferred descriptions and explanations. For mages. You don't explain the bards though. That's the bigger issue.

It's actually this section: https://github.com/subtledoctor/TomeAndBlood/blob/master/TomeAndBlood/comp/setup_magus.tpa#L10-L44

[subtledoctor]

Well, like I say, I didn’t write it and don’t have it installed and I’m not familiar with it, so I am not even aware of it affecting bards. And Aquadrizzt seems to be at least semi-retired. 

I fully acknowledge that’s a bit of a weird situation. This is basically two mods sewn together like pieces of Frankenstein’s monster, for install order reasons. 

But I’ll take a look at it when I get the chance. I don’t think Aquadrizzt would mind if a small adjustment could improve the component.