SCS and Changed Spell Levels

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I was concerned about changing spell levels for certain spells because I wasn't sure SCS AI would handle their new spell levels.  If for example, invisibility purge becomes level 4 instead of 3, what happens?  What about changing shapechange from level 9 to 8?

Thankee!

[jmerry]

The routines for choosing spells assume they have their standard spell levels. At best, changing those levels would result in NPC spellcasters that had too many spells at some levels and too few at others.

Then again, for the spells you mentioned...

No SCS priest will ever memorize Invisibility Purge. It's just too weak as a level 3 spell; the long casting time kills it. I'm a fan of Detect Invisibility, but that spell is both a lower level and much faster to cast; you can use it effectively against backstabbing thieves because of that speed.

No SCS mage will ever memorize Shapechange. They're built to cast spells, not to transform and beat down. Shapechange would only be viable as part of a bespoke encounter that builds some particular mage in a very nonstandard way.

So, for those two spells, it wouldn't matter because the SCS AI doesn't use them.

[subtledoctor]

That said, the answer to the general question is that this can screw up SCS. Move Skull Trap to 4th level, and its level will no longer match up to its IDS number. This will mess up any scripts that operate by using SPELL() with IDS names. It will try to cast the spell, and nothing will happen. OTOH, if you give the spell a new IDS value at 4th level, then the IDS name will find and use the spell, but any scripts using SpellRES() with the filename will no longer work.

One answer is to leave the old spell where it is, with the original IDS name/value, and add a new spell at the new level just for players to learn. (Change scrolls to let you learn the new version, and add the old version to HIDESPL.2da.) SCS scripts will use the original spell in its original spell slots, which is a bit different from what the plauyer can do; but for that largely invisible inequality, you get a fully-functioning SCS AI.

(Of course, because you added a new spell, this will take up a precious SPWI or SPPR slot, so you don't want to do this very much.)