Improved drow in House Jae'llat

[MachoGrande]

Is there some ability of the improved drow in the House Jae'llat building that reduces your strength to 3? Not reduction, just a straight sets a characters strength to 3. I looked at the combat log and couldn't see anything that the affected character suffered to cause it.

[Awachi]

Shooting from the hip here, but don't drow use poisoned xbow bolts? 

[MachoGrande]

The drow bolts only stun so I don't think that's it, also there doesn't appear to be any xbow users in this fight. It might be a poison of some kind though, I tried dispelling it with level 17 Keldorn and it didn't work. I didn't weaken inquisitor dispel in the options either.

I had Anomen get chunked because he charged into a big pack of them and couldn't escape due to being immobilized due to encumbrance. It also happened to Nalia, neither one had anything on the character sheet to show what was wrong with them other than red 3 for the strength score.

[jmerry]

Strength 3? Sounds like a Polymorph Other effect, only without the actual shift into a squirrel.

But no, there isn't anything special about the added drow. They're just fighters, clerics, and mages with typical drow gear.

[boof]

16 minutes ago, jmerry said:

Sounds like a Polymorph Other effect, only without the actual shift into a squirrel.

I might be mistaken, but I think it's because Adalon's drow illusion overrides all other changes in appearance. I remember being confused trying to shapeshift Cernd and he always stayed in drow form visually. So it probably was a polymorph.

Edited February 1, 2022 by boof

[jmerry]

Right, that makes sense. Polymorph Other creates the SQUIRP weapon on the character. Its when-equipped polymorph effect is lower-priority than the spell effect polymorph already in place from Adalon's illusion, so it gets suppressed. But all of the item's other equip effects - 100% casting failure with icon, strength 3, maximum HP 5 (or character level) - are still there until the weapon gets dispelled.

 

What does the illusion do to player shapeshifts? The standard versions of them are ruined; they tend to lack effects other than the polymorph. The greater werewolf transformation, for example, only has the regeneration newly added in 2.6 (1 HP/2 sec), the 1d8 damage/2 enchantment weapon, and the spellcasting button disabled. The SCS "improved" shapeshifts for druids work better, as they move effects like resistances, stat changes, and number of attacks onto the weapon itself and make the polymorph appearance-only. Your transformed druid will look funny - like a drow wielding a dagger - but will fight like they should.

At least, that's how it is in 2.6. In 2.5, the combination was extremely likely to crash the game. A two-handed weapon, anything in the off-hand slot, two polymorph effects - guaranteed crash in BG2EE 2.5. Picking up an item in inventory that can potentially equip a character in the party to create this situation triggers the crash, as does trying to load a save with the situation in place. The game freezes into an infinite loop, and the only way out is to force quit.

The crash bug was fixed in version 2.5.17.0 - the final release version of the patch for BGEE. The released version of the patch for BG2EE was 2.5.16.6.

 

Why do I know so much about this one? Because it has caused me great frustration, even sinking a run. I built a transformation-themed party in 2.5, and abandoned the run in early BG2 over all the crashes.

[subtledoctor]

Some of the reasons I always use CDTweaks to disable the drow appearance of Adalon's spell.

[Awachi]

I'm new so please excuse my naivete, but couldnt the necessary visuals still be achieved (and proper ones restored) through LOCALS instead of a persistent spell/polymorph?  Or does any kind of permanent avatar changed bork it all?

Edited February 2, 2022 by Awachi

[Jarno Mikkola]

1 hour ago, Awachi said:

through LOCALS instead of a persistent spell/polymorph? 

Probably, but it needs to be tested in multiple ways, and multiple cases, like 2^128 mods... and there's already a tweak that does this "well", it's the removal of the Adalon's spells shapshifting.

[polytope]

Some drow clerics have an undroppable weapon (DWWHIP01 or DWWHIP). On hit, it has a 60% chance of a special effect; either lowering strength to 3, slowing or an extra 20 cold damage with a save vs spell allowed vs each.

I'd prefer if these things were collectable by players but only usable by evil elf clerics (incl multiclass fighters but not mages) or with UAI, and probably dissolving in sunlight like other drow equipment. The enchantment level is wrong too.