Skills and Abilities Mod

[polytope]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:25 PM, Quester said:

Cool kits. The Battle Master and Shield Breaker both sound very powerful. I think the BM needs some more disadvantage to balance out the positives. Think about it: if you wanted to make a two-handed focused fighter, wouldn't you always select this kit over the unkitted fighter?

The trick with making balanced new kits is to not make the true class obsolete.

 

23 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

1. My first impression is that these kind of seem like better fighters? If I wanted to make a fighter using 2-handed swords, what possible reason would there be not to take the Battle Master kit? (EDIT - ninja'd by Quester... I would tone down the Battle Master's Improved Haste, or make it usable more rarely, or implicitly limit it with some cost - if it's non-magical, maybe using it should fatigue the character?

I used to think along these lines, but have come to the realization that kits should be more powerful than the base class, because kits are (by default, before mods allowed kitted multiclasses and dualling into rather than from a kit) the reward for being single classed (gnomes being the exception). It's totally fine for sorcerers, berserkers, priests of Lathander and totemic druids to be better than plain mages, fighters, clerics and ordinary druids, because they don't advance as anything else.

As for the short duration IH-like ability, I doubt it will be much overpowered for a 2-handed weapon user, whose attacks per round will be about on par with a dual wielder under regular haste, the battlemaster gets the first use at 4th level, but it's not that much better than Haste from a mage on a dual wielder at level 5, neither in terms of apr nor duration (8 rounds if cast by a 5th level mage, and affecting multiple targets), while at level 8 could still only maintain it for one turn, by level 12 he can keep it up for 15 rounds, but a mage or sorcerer with slightly less xp could just cast Improved Haste, lasting the same duration, so it becomes more of a convenience that relieves pressure on mages to memorize only buffs rather than a uniquely powerful bonus.

19 hours ago, morpheus562 said:

Shield Breaker: I've played around with the duration and amount each hit reduces damage reduction. I have no issue with a -3 penalty to damage, I just wanted to start it at -2 to see how it does. For Sunder, I'll make it so it is not stackable and cannot be chained.

I just remembered I once experimented with this ability on Gram the Sword of Grief, as a replacement for its poison which isn't so useful at that stage of the game; I playtested it for a while and looking at the item file I used 15% chance per hit to lower resistances by 10% for six rounds: This averages about the same as -3% on every hit for three rounds (in terms of how much you can lower resistances), but is more random.

Randomness in the proc means the damage penalty for the shieldbreaker is at least a true penalty in some combats when it doesn't trigger, whereas lowering resistances on every hit guarantees that after a few hits the character is subsequently doing better damage than a regular fighter.

[morpheus562]

I'm going back and forth on Shield Breaker a lot, and I'm sure it will get many refinements down the road. Here are some of the options that I am sorting through and testing. I originally liked option 2 the most; however, once enemies start taking damage they won't stay up long enough to reach the 4 rounds.

• Option 1: Each successful hit bestows a -5% cumulative reduction in the target's physical damage resistance that lasts for 3 rounds
• Option 2: Each successful hit has a 25% chance of bestowing a -10% cumulative reduction in the target's physical damage resistance that lasts for 4 rounds
• Option 3: Each successful hit has a 25% chance of bestowing a -20% cumulative reduction in the target's physical damage resistance that lasts for 2 rounds

[Quester]

Option 2 does sound like it might be balanced enough. Powerful but not overpowered.

[Rizzen]

I played with 2 paladins (1 cavalier). The aura and divine fortune are too strong. A paladin gets incl. his class bonus +8 too saving throws. (class bonus +2,auras 2*+2 and divine fortune). Add a +2 ring and you have +10 saving throws. Like this you basically never fail a save mid chapter 2. As a divine caster you always want to get divine fortune, it's just too good. I suggest to reduce the bonus for aura and divine fortune to +1.

[morpheus562]

Thank you for your feedback, I will take a look at it!

[subtledoctor]

Also could make paladins immune to  their own aura - if  the idea is their  aura protects their allies. They already get an innate bonus for themselves.

[Quester]

Hey, so the Battle Master has Indomitable as a kit feature, but if you install the new fighter abilities component, that gives Indomitable to all fighters?

[Quester]

I see components for Spell Scroll Crafting in PI, but I can't find any info on it in the readme. Can you shed some light?

[morpheus562]

Indomitable is being removed from all fighters and will only go to the battle master. The scrolls is being done by @Grammarsalad.

[Grammarsalad]

On 10/18/2022 at 8:49 AM, Quester said:

I see components for Spell Scroll Crafting in PI, but I can't find any info on it in the readme. Can you shed some light?

You can find the most updated information here:

https://github.com/Grammarsalad/Spells_and_Magic/issues/7

It is still in development, and there probably won't be an option for scroll creation failure in the first release (Lol, I don't expect that to be too popular anyway).

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Grammarsalad
More detail

[morpheus562]

New optional component I am playing around with: Overhaul PfMW, Mantles, and Absolute Immunity. I think this will make many of these spells that would originally be passed over more useful. Additionally, Prot from Physical Damage, Mantles, and Absolute Immunity will continue to protect from vorpal weapon strikes and undead killing attacks (i.e. Azuredge, Mace of Disruption, etc.). I've gone ahead and nerfed Carsomyr in my other mod, Forgotten Armament, so it has a percentage chance of dispelling on hit instead of always dispelling. That way these will not always be knocked down against a user wielding Carsomyr.

Minor Protection from Physical Damage (previously Protection from Normal Weapons)

When the spell is cast, it sets physical damage resistance for slashing, crushing, piercing, and missile damage to 40%. It is important to note that this spell will override and replace protections granted from previous castings of Minor Protection From Damage, Protection From Damage, Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Protection from Physical Damage (previously Protection from Magical Weapons)

When the spell is cast, it sets physical damage resistance for slashing, crushing, piercing, and missile damage to 90%. Additionally, the user becomes immune to any vorpal or slaying effects. This spell cannot be cast on anyone who is protected with Minor Protection From Damage as well as anyone protected by Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. Due to the nature of this spell, with the short casting time and duration, it is mainly used to buy the wizard a few rounds in the thick of combat. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Mantle

When the spell is cast, it improves physical damage resistance for slashing, crushing, piercing, and missile damage by +60%. Additionally, the user becomes immune to any vorpal or slaying effects. This spell is incredibly powerful yet has a very short duration, and this combined with the very short casting time makes this spell useful only in the thick of intense combat. It is important to note that this spell will override and replace protections granted from previous castings of Minor Protection From Damage, Protection From Damage, Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Improved Mantle

When the spell is cast, it improves physical damage resistance for slashing, crushing, piercing, and missile damage by +80%. Additionally, the user becomes immune to any vorpal or slaying effects. This spell is incredibly powerful yet has a very short duration, and this combined with the very short casting time makes this spell useful only in the thick of intense combat. It is important to note that this spell will override and replace protections granted from previous castings of Minor Protection From Damage, Protection From Damage, Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. This effect lasts for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.

Absolute Immunity

When the spell is cast, it confers complete invulnerability to all damage, regardless of the source. Additionally, the user becomes immune to any vorpal or slaying effects. This spell is incredibly powerful, hence the short duration. However, the casting time is also very short, making this spell incredibly useful in the thick of combat, where buying a few seconds can mean the difference between life or death. It is important to note that this spell will override and replace protections granted from previous castings of Minor Protection From Damage, Protection From Damage, Mantle, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity. This spell lasts for the duration or until dispelled.

Edited October 27, 2022 by morpheus562

[Rizzen]

This means I have a chance to interrupt spellcasting as long as my weapon has some elemental damage? This would be a heavy nerf to these spells. Additionally a Wizard slayer could apply his 25% miscast magic though any of these protection, which is great. Finally the WS is super useful, probably OP.

PfMW (or PfPD) is still way more useful than Mantle or Improved Mantle. I think I would still cast PfPD everytime and just ignore the other 3 spells.

[morpheus562]

40 minutes ago, Rizzen said:

This means I have a chance to interrupt spellcasting as long as my weapon has some elemental damage? This would be a heavy nerf to these spells. Additionally a Wizard slayer could apply his 25% miscast magic though any of these protection, which is great. Finally the WS is super useful, probably OP.

PfMW (or PfPD) is still way more useful than Mantle or Improved Mantle. I think I would still cast PfPD everytime and just ignore the other 3 spells.

That's a good call out. I think I can make protection from physical damage set damage resistance at 90 instead of 100.

[Endarire]

Do mantle and absolute immunity stack to produce healing from being hit by physical damage?

[subtledoctor]

Unfortunately I think messing with PfMW will do very little  except make enemy mages into fragile blades of grass that fall over in the slightest breeze. Whereas the vanilla version makes them into invincible powerhouses. This is a problem with the  game design, and the sad fact is that the  whole rest of the game (and importantly, the way SCS works) is designed around this spell.

Making these spells block all physical damage only means you need a way of delivering some kind of magical extra damage in order to have any effect. Which, in any normal campaign world that would be  a very effective set of  D&D spells. Combine that with working concentration checks to avoid casting failure, and even less than perfect physical damage resistance become a very valuable tool for casters. Sounds good right? Except:

• These games give elemental damage to every schmuck fighter like giving candy to kids on Halloween, if it was Halloween every day
• These games do not have functional concentration checks
• In the BG2EE 2.6 engine (which is the foundation for EET) a hit that is reduced to 0 damage by resistance will still interrupt spellcasting

Result: fragile blades of grass.

(Also neither here not there, but your wording has 7th-level Mantle being about identical to 5th-level MPfPD? And 9th-level Absolute Immunity being identical to 6th-level PfPD? Are they supposed to be different?)

Say what you will about the guy, but Temnix found an extremely clever way to tease apart weapons' "magical" property from their enchantment bonus, such that PfMW could work like it does in PnP D&D, only protecting from enchanted weapons, not things like punches and claws (while retaining the ability of punches and claws to simulate a "natural enchantment value" to overcome PfNW, again per PnP rules). In many ways, to me, this solved the problem of how to justify PfMW being at such low level. In any normal D&D campaign the spell would be very useful, but still allow tactics to overcome it and smart mages would also protect against those tactics. But again, in the BG2 world the game hands players everything they need to overcome defenses like this (summons) and the very rudimentary AI does not allow mages to employ better tactics to shore up their defenses.

So again: fragile blades of grass.

I've come to the opinion that it is a very fundamental problem in the design of the entire game, and changing the spell  can never fix such a wide-scale problem. Spell Revisions handles this stuff better than any other approaches I've seen (with the exception of Mantle), so I just use Spell Revisions. It actually works quite well.

Don't mean to dissuade you from working on stuff like this!  Just trying to size up the problem you are setting in front of yourself...