IWDEE - minor issues (sneak attack, polymorphs)

[Dan_P]

I thought I'd post a few minor IWD things that were in v2.5 and still in v2.6 (so probably not a priority for official fixes). Some of this is polymorph-related. I know there's already a shapeshift thread, but that's more BG-focused and the discussion there moved in a different direction, so I thought it better to stick this with other IWD stuff.

Note: For myself, I made fixes for most of the stuff here in my IWDEE polymorph fixes/tweak mod. The main component includes a couple tweaks/non-fixes. It makes Psionic Blast (Mind Flayer ability) usable at will. For pre-v2.6 games, it also changes the spell to use the IWDEE v2.6 projectile (same as Shout spells).

Sneak Attack/Crippling Strike
- Crippling Strike is capped at -7 to attack/damage rolls. The in-game numbers can show bigger penalties in the stats screen and dialogue box, but the actual effect won't go past -7. Assassin's are supposed to scale to -10 to rolls. This can be tested by sneak attacking a party member with a level 30 Assassin.
- Values are set in backstab.spl. For my mod, I just copy the file to the override, since it shouldn't be used for anything else, and also scaled it to -16 for a hypothetical level 50 Assassin.

 

Polymorph Self spell
- Winter Wolf, Polar Bear, and Boring Beetle forms have a Haste effect on their weapons. This is an obvious error, as the forms are supposed to be identical to the Druid forms and none of the other polymorphs are hasted. The descriptions are already identical to Druid, just without the mention of the 12 HP healing that Druids get.

Items affected: 
cdpolyww.itm
cdpolypb.itm
cdpolybb.itm

Note: I do think a movement speed increase could be considered for the Winter Wolf or Polar Bear forms (both Druid and Polymorph Self). Both forms are currently slower than the Boring Beetle and slower than in human form. In classic IWD, the bear is still super slow, but the wolf moves faster than in human form. In my mod, I used 180% movement for wolf forms and 250% for bear forms. At these speeds, they move slightly faster than in human form. At least for the wolf form, I think this could be considered a fix. Note that the BG2 animals, regular wolf and brown/black bear, also move much slower than in the BGEE games.

 

Shapechange spell
- Water Elemental: Weapon only does 1d8 damage (CDSHWELE.ITM). It should be 4d8, matching description as well as Druid form.
- Giant Troll: Description says 18/00 Strength. The form actually has only 18 Strength. I changed the form to 18/00, but either way works.

Descriptions:
- The descriptions don't all follow the same format. They should be changed to match the way the Druid descriptions are written. I do this already in my mod. Probably doesn't matter to most people, but seems better to me to have descriptions from the same spell follow the same format.
- Fire Elemental: 15% acid and electricity resist isn't mentioned. Druid version has correct info.
- Earth Elemental: Fire and cold resist should be 25%, not 20%. Druid version has correct info.
- Water Elemental: This currently uses the same strings as the Druid spell. Name should be changed to Shapechange: Water Elemental (instead of "Shapeshift"). Description should remove the mention of the 12 HP healing that Druids get.

Mind Flayer:
- Description for Psionic Blast says the stun duration is 5 rounds, but it's actually 10 rounds. I patched the spell to 5 rounds, but either way, the description should match the actual duration. BG2EE does this same thing.
- Mind Flayer description doesn't mention the Psionic Blast ability. Not technically a bug, but incomplete without it.

 

Sword of Days (DAYS.ITM)
- Not sure if you'd consider this a bug, but this item only blocks the regular Haste spell, not Improved Haste. This is unchanged from classic IWD, but that game doesn't have a separate Improved Haste and regular Haste already doubles APR. It feels to me like the intention is for the weapon to prevent any magical Haste or Slow effects. Magical diseases like Contagion or Dolorous Decay make sense as an exception, not that any enemies in the unmodded game use those.

[CamDawg]

Cheers. I had already fixed the crippling strike issue and a few other issues I saw in the BD IWDEE forum (like Spider Spawn and summoned nymphs); I'll look into the rest.

[CamDawg]

I've deferred the shapechange/polymorph issues to the thread jmerry started; Sword of Days is fixed.