Specialist Mage Opcodes

[MindTyrant]

I want to give partial benefits of the Invoker specialist kit as part of an item I am creating.  I specifically want to grant the ability that "give(s) enemies a -2 to save against spells of their school..." To be clear, I am NOT talking about the ability that gives "a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells of their school..."  So, it is not Opcode 346.  I need the one that makes it that when I cast a spell an invocation spell, my enemy gets a -2 penalty to their saving throw.  Any ideas?

[subtledoctor]

I think that is generally not possible. you would have to affect enemies with the weakness, but on for spells cast by this particular caster… there is not really any way to do it. 

[CamDawg]

It's possible, just not advisable.

You could clone all invocation spells into a kit-specific version with an added save penalty, then modify their spell scrolls so that your kit learns the modified series and everyone else keeps the mainline. Since the cloned spells are new resources, you'd then have to search through all creatures/items/spells/effs for references to the original spells and add the same references to the clones.

As a technical exercise, it's tedious but straightforward. The problem with that many moving parts is you end up with fragile code--there are many ways it can go wrong from the get-go and a lot of edge cases, and that will just get worse exponentially as it interacts with other mods.

[MindTyrant]

10 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

I think that is generally not possible. you would have to affect enemies with the weakness, but on for spells cast by this particular caster… there is not really any way to do it. 

May I ask, how does the game do so for specialist mages?  When an Invoker fires off a Wand of Fireballs, don't those caught in the blast suffer a -2 penalty for their saving throws for half damage?  I would assume that this is a granted power of some kind... unless it is hardcoded.  I do not know. 

9 hours ago, CamDawg said:

You could clone all invocation spells into a kit-specific version with an added save penalty, then modify their spell scrolls so that your kit learns the modified series and everyone else keeps the mainline. Since the cloned spells are new resources, you'd then have to search through all creatures/items/spells/effs for references to the original spells and add the same references to the clones.

As a technical exercise, it's tedious but straightforward. The problem with that many moving parts is you end up with fragile code--there are many ways it can go wrong from the get-go and a lot of edge cases, and that will just get worse exponentially as it interacts with other mods.

Yeah, I thought of something like that myself, but I thought it easier to graft my item's "improvement to casting invocation magic".  For being a specialist, you lean another spell at each level, you can cast another spell at each spell level before resting, get +2 bonus to saving throws when defending against spells of your school, and your enemies take a -2 penalty to their saving throws against your spells from your school.  It is this last I want to emulate.

[subtledoctor]

37 minutes ago, MindTyrant said:

would assume that this is a granted power of some kind... unless it is hardcoded

It is very thoroughly hardcoded. 

[jmerry]

Basically everything about specialist mages is hardcoded - hardcoding that dates back to original BG1, when they were the only kits. In this case, it's a bit of hardcoding that can't be cleanly copied by normal means; the opcodes for it simply don't exist.

And yes, an Invoker using a Wand of Fireballs gets that save penalty. Mechanically speaking, the wand ability has the INVOKER school (and OFFENSIVEDAMAGE secondary type) so it's just like casting a spell with the same school.

[MindTyrant]

On 11/16/2024 at 8:06 PM, subtledoctor said:

It is very thoroughly hardcoded. 

That's disappointing.  I was hoping I just overlooked an easily missed opcode.

On 11/16/2024 at 8:06 PM, jmerry said:

Basically everything about specialist mages is hardcoded - hardcoding that dates back to original BG1, when they were the only kits. In this case, it's a bit of hardcoding that can't be cleanly copied by normal means; the opcodes for it simply don't exist.

And yes, an Invoker using a Wand of Fireballs gets that save penalty. Mechanically speaking, the wand ability has the INVOKER school (and OFFENSIVEDAMAGE secondary type) so it's just like casting a spell with the same school.

The sword I am trying to make, Artblade, is supposed to improve spells cast from the Invocation/Evocation school.  I thought having the sword would have an effect which would make enemies take a -2 penalty to their saving throws against Invocation/Evocation spells.  Are there any items that improve spellcasting for any school in any fashion?  I know that some grant a bonus to saving throws when defending against spells certain schools, but this does not actually improve your spellcasting.  I just do not see another way to have the sword improve spellcasting.  I could really use some ideas because I am lost.  I am open to anything that would improve invocation/evocation spellcasting.

[subtledoctor]

7 minutes ago, MindTyrant said:

Are there any items that improve spellcasting for any school in any fashion?

No.

I mean, I suppose you copy all wizard spells, and replicate all their spell headers in new spell headers, with 100 added to the mininum level for each header, and for the spells in the Evocation school change them such that the target's saving throw is two points harder in those new spell headers. Then your item could add +100 to the arcane casting level.

But that is a LOT of changes to a lot of spells, for a single item. Honestly, I would consider just using the opcode for x% extra elemental damage, or something.