v35 comments / questions (report a bug in a new topic, not here)

[Guest Noober]

Big Thank  you for keeping the mod updated+ making it compatible with IWD!!!

If I may put my two cents in

 

I have an idea regarding Bassilus.  Hes wielding Ashideena but honestly,  he can't really do much with it, as a pure Cleric.  What about giving him some Fighter lvls so he's not stuck at 1APR.

 

Or another thing would be giving Ashideena to Taurgoz Khosann. Kinda in the spirit of the BG2 component, Move or modify some overpowered magic items. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[haze]

In the past it was recommended to use the IWD spells from IWDIfication instead of the SCS because they were more to update. Now with the new SCS release I assume the IWD spells are all up to date would be preferred over IWDification? Or are is at an either/or situation and the spells work about the same from either mod?

[CamDawg]

In general, whichever is newest between SCS, ToF, and IWDification will be best. For now that's SCS, but a new version of IWDification is in the works. I'm letting David shake out all of the bugs this time.

[DavidW]

Right now I think there’s zero difference between the two.

[polytope]

17 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Priests of Bhaal, in fact, as I mentioned in some post way up-thread. So I actually don't mind a Cyricist like Bassilus doing it, if I squint real hard and figure it somehow goes along with Cyric taking over Bhaal's domain. Maybe? (And there is therefore a decent case to be made for Charname to order them to attack as well! But, er, Aerie not so much.)

Sorry, I probably didn't read the whole thread, I'm just not convinced that aerial servant summons should be replaced with air elementals which are a class of being whom clerics (as opposed to druids) generally don't get to summon. Although, I suppose there is a kind of logic in that druids have more of an affinity for earth (and fire), while clerics are concerned with the skies. If you don't install IWD spells or another spellpack there aren't a lot of good choices for clerics in terms of 6th level spells anyway.

15 hours ago, Guest Noober said:

Big Thank  you for keeping the mod updated+ making it compatible with IWD!!!

If I may put my two cents in

I have an idea regarding Bassilus.  Hes wielding Ashideena but honestly,  he can't really do much with it, as a pure Cleric.  What about giving him some Fighter lvls so he's not stuck at 1APR.

Or another thing would be giving Ashideena to Taurgoz Khosann. Kinda in the spirit of the BG2 component, Move or modify some overpowered magic items.

 

Ashideena isn't particularly powerful compared to, say, Varscona - which is currently more easily available and has higher damage - it's most useful against chain/plate armored enemies since armor type matters a lot more at these levels for your attack rolls, and skeleton warriors, plus cleric usability.

If it's needed to boost Bassilus to provide a challenge again I'd add a wight to his group as (I see now) subtledoctor previously suggested, in some ways similar but in others a different threat to an aerial servant, since it needs magic weapons and level draining touch attacks are very worrying at this point in the game, but it's still not a 1-hit killer (probably) and makes it tactically harder to choose focusing your fire on him.

Wights are worth less experience than they legitimately should be (same as ghouls, which they seem to have been cloned from statwise, most have wrong AC/APR too) but DavidW has expressed concerns about rate of XP gain from extra enemies so...

Edited December 15, 2023 by polytope

[jmerry]

47 minutes ago, polytope said:

If it's needed to boost Bassilus to provide a challenge again I'd add a wight to his group ... level draining touch attacks are very worrying at this point in the game...

Very worrying. After all, restoration is not available from temples or as a scroll in the (unmodded) BG1 campaign. The only way to gain access to restoration as a PC is to get a cleric to a high enough level to cast it. Specifically a cleric, because restoration isn't available to druids. So, if you're running a party that has a druid for the healer role and no cleric (such as the "canon" party), you have no way to cure that level drain ever unless you reform the party. At which point you might as well just dump the drained character forever, and it might as well be a one-hit kill.

You cannot reasonably introduce wights to the BG1 campaign without also adding access to restoration, either as a temple service or in scroll form.

[polytope]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:16 PM, jmerry said:

restoration is not available from temples or as a scroll in the (unmodded) BG1 campaign. The only way to gain access to restoration as a PC is to get a cleric to a high enough level to cast it. Specifically a cleric, because restoration isn't available to druids.

Yes, I knew druids don't get it. I'd genuinely forgotten it's not in temples prior to SoA/SoD (I don't tend to use those for healing) that seems like an oversight on the current versions since in the original BG1 they'll provide the higher level Raise Dead but ofc there was no level-drain mechanic, even Kirinhale the succubus uses a faux draining effect on her attacks (which should also arguably be changed for the sake of standardization).

It's an annoying fact that the engine (on my version, maybe not true for all) won't let a character gain extra levels after suffering a level drain until "cured" so yeah, you'd be burdened by a lvl 2-3 or whatever they ended up as until your cleric gets to 7th level... which is slightly less bad than permanent death. Xp earned after a drain is still recorded though (in my games) so they'd level up to match the rest of the party right after receiving the spell.

EDIT: I should note, death and subsequent resurrection also removes the level drain in most cases because it's not a timing mode 9 effect, in my versions anyway, although it's immersion breaking to kill a character in order to heal them.

Edited December 17, 2023 by polytope

[Mera]

Question regarding interaction between ToF and SCS, more specifically the Characters Choose Minor New Abilities Every Three Levels component.
If installed, do enemies also get some of those feats? I assume regular "thrash" mobs don't but what about "iconic" enemy parties? (sewers, guarded compound, mages across the game, etc)
Curious about potential imbalances. I understand the bonuses are pretty minor but I'm thinking if your party gets 4 or 5 of those, times 6 party members, it could make for an easier game.
(not that it's that big of a deal but still something to consider )

Could not find any information in any of the readme, apologies if I missed it  

[DavidW]

Not at the moment. It would be quite a lot of work to build out for something that (I think) will have only a relatively minor effect and (because most effects are passive) mostly won’t be visible to players. If it turns out there are significant balance issues I can revisit.

[pochesun]

I have a question regarding "Revised handling of death effects" component. I like all the changes it introduces to the game except the first one (i believe perm death should be in the game). Is it possible to somehow disable only this part of the component in the ini. file? 

Edited December 22, 2023 by pochesun

[DavidW]

No.

[pochesun]

4 hours ago, DavidW said:

No.

is it possible to make it possible?

Also do Ressurection element of the component (diamonds, limitation to cast in battle etc), Imprisonment/Freedom, Flesh to Stone get along with SRR?

Edited December 22, 2023 by pochesun

[DavidW]

3 hours ago, pochesun said:

is it possible to make it possible?

Yes, but unlikely to be a priority any time soon.

3 hours ago, pochesun said:

Also do Ressurection element of the component (diamonds, limitation to cast in battle etc), Imprisonment/Freedom, Flesh to Stone get along with SRR?

I don’t know, sorry.

[DrAzTiK]

I am a bit worry about the resurrection spell change costing one diamond or additional money.  In most modern rpg ( starting wih dragon age origin in 2009), resurrection is something basycally free coz all your teammates just lay down if "killed" and wake up it you manage to win the fight ( you still need to heal themp)  and so there is not even need of resurrection and It would have be a dream to get this amazing mechanic in BG witch allow to save a lot of micro management.

The reason of this mechanic gameplay in modern rpg is because it is very standard and it happens ofen  to get a character killed in fight even at low level.  We can't force the player to use a high level spell or to use ressources to resurrect them.

 

So IMHO,  I think that in BG and especially in BG1, ressurection really need to be free and  easily obtainable. The road of resurection should be accessible in BG1 for a low cost at temple and with many charges... same in BG2, IWDEE etc..resurection with only 1 Hp is fine as a nerf

Oc I understand that all that not suit with traditionnal  D&D gameplay

I think this resurection effect should be part of a separate component.

Edited December 30, 2023 by DrAzTiK

[polytope]

4 hours ago, DrAzTiK said:

I am a bit worry about the resurrection spell change costing one diamond or additional money.  In most modern rpg ( starting wih dragon age origin in 2009), resurrection is something basycally free coz all your teammates just lay down if "killed" and wake up it you manage to win the fight ( you still need to heal themp)  and so there is not even need of resurrection and It would have be a dream to get this amazing mechanic in BG witch allow to save a lot of micro management.

The reason of this mechanic gameplay in modern rpg is because it is very standard and it happens ofen  to get a character killed in fight even at low level.  We can't force the player to use a high level spell or to use ressources to resurrect them.

The BG series aren't modern RPGs, though, and SCS is intended to make the game more difficult. With such a mechanic, the game is only lost by TPK (would you extend it to the protagonist?) which is pretty rare even with improved AI, as SCS doesn't greatly increase the firepower or number of enemies in most encounters.