Kit item restrictions

[testlum]

Hi, I'd like some help adding some restrictions to a bard kit I'm making. I've checked out several older threads on item restrictions and am aware it's quite a finnicky thing to mod.

I'm not looking to expand a kit's restrictions but to further prevent some items from being used, so fingers crossed that it'll be easier.

What I want to do is make a bard kit that cannot equip any armor or shields. I've tried adding the restriction to my kit's clabXX.2da file as a passive, using opcode 181 and item type 2 but it has no effect. Not sure if it's relevant, but the game being modded is IWDEE.

Edited October 15, 2023 by testlum

[subtledoctor]

Op181 works fine in general, it it my preferred way to do this sort of thing. Make sure you have the parameters right. 

Another possibility is to patch op319 onto every item in your restricted category, targeting your new kit. 

Op180 can also do it, but is more limited. 

[jmerry]

Banning armor and shields, on a bard? You could just give that kit the kensai usability bit; that also bans helmets, but bards already can't use helmets.

That's the "Unusable" field in kitlist.2DA; you'd give your new kit the same value as the kensai.

Then you have to watch out for any bard-specific items that might be omitted from the kensai's general ban, since there's no fighter/bard multiclass. There is one such item in BG2, after all (the Melodic Chain). Those items, you'd have to patch with either the no-kensai flag or with opcode 319.

[testlum]

Unfortunately the kensai kit also restricts use of missile weapons, so that's a no-go.

That said, I managed to get opcode 181 working after all! As subtledoctor said, it was probably my mistake with the parameters.

[jmerry]

Oh, right, forgot about the missile weapons. There's another no-armor kit in Shapeshifters, but they can use shields so that's not a clean match either. Opcode 181 it is.

[suy]

NOTE: I'm posting this because I spent some time researching and drafting this post, but as I conclude in the end, it is not possible to do what I wanted. Posting anyway in case it's useful for someone else who searches in the future.

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Hey, what a coincidence... I've been doing a Bard kit for some time, and some hours ago I was thinking of changing item restrictions entirely in the design. I hope you don't mind that I followup on the thread, as it's fairly related.

I got inspired to do this kit when reading jmerry's wee cant spell post (and a hodge podge of other stuff), and wanted a bard which loses spell casting (instead of armor), but it's specially good in combat. I capped the native spell casting with a bunch of #42 effects, and balanced it around the fact that wands and scrolls be usable, as I did not want to do mass changes to items.

But you got me thinking...

I've gone so far with the default usability flags because this allowed all the Bard items like the Bard Hat, musical instruments, potions, etc. But I certainly miss Warrior-usable potions, like Heroism, Strength, etc.

AFAIK, it is not possible to use effects to open an item to a certain class/kit, so the approach tends to be the opposite, and do like the Shaman: shares the usability flag with Druid, but Druid-forbidden items have the 319 effect on them. This other post seems to confirm (also by jmerry, also a coincidence ), and I did some tests to understand what's going and, indeed, I can only restrict items further, even with 319 and Power=1.

So, for my Bard kit idea, I thought doing this:

1. Pick the usability field of Fighter/Thief instead of Bard.
2. Restrict helmets, heavy armor or whatever I find not suitable to the theme of this class that come from the Fighter side. Doable with the 180/181 effect on the CLAB.
3. Maybe restrict some items coming from the Thief side, but probably not even bother. The Ring of Danger Sense seems equippable by everyone... it just doesn't make sense to wear it if you can't detect traps. I could do the same with the Ring of Lock Picks, etc. This would be done on the item with a 319.
4. If I want to enable back Bard items (not even sure it's worth it for this concept), it would require unsetting the "unusable by F/T" on them, then adding a 319 on F/T to disable it back.

Now, I just assumed that (1) was possible because of the ideas given here about kits from other classes made me think one could specify this in the kitlist.2da, but it seems I totally misunderstood what is possible. After checking the kitlist.2da more in depth, it seems that no, it's just the 4 bytes of the usability for kit, but not the ones for the classes. I'll have to keep doing things as before.

[jmerry]

Sadly, (1) is only possible by not actually being a bard. The class/race/alignment group of usability flags checks against the character attributes directly, with no intermediate table you can manipulate.

[subtledoctor]

Does the bard class even have much in the way of usability restrictions? It’s been a while since I looked at the unmodded game. They can use all weapons IIRC… maybe they are restricted from plate armor? 

[jmerry]

No armor heavier than chain. No helmets or larger shields. And at least in the BG series, no composite longbows. I don't know why that one group of weapons is singled out, but it is.

[subtledoctor]

TBH then I might give those items to the bard class and restrict them from the kits instead. Leaves the trueclass but… whatever

Edited October 17, 2023 by subtledoctor