specialist mages

[Lemernis]

For years the Planet Baldur's Gate site has featured the following claim regarding specialist mages, which is presumably from the manual (though I have never located this material myself). From what I understand it was never implemented:

 

Specialist Mage

 

Specialist mages have become narrowly trained in a specific field of magic. Specialists receive one additional spell per spell level (does not have to be from their school) than unspecialized mages do in the progression table. Because of their specialization, these mages receive a +15% chance to learn spells from their school but suffer a -15% penalty when learning spells outside their specialty. When saving against spells within his chosen school, the specialist receives a +1 to saving throws. Similarily, the specialist's enemies suffer a -1 penalty when saving against spells cast by the specialist within his field. Specialists are unable to cast spells from the opposing school. Mages must be single-classed or dual-classed to specialize with the exception of gnomes. Gnomes can only be illusionists so are permitted to multiclass. A specialist must have a 9 intelligence in addition to the School-specific minimum ability from the table below. The prime requesites for specialty mages are intelligence and their School's ability.

 

I guess adding something like this to the game isn't really a 'fix' because it's not a bug to begin with. It could be considered an element of the Unfinished Business mod. But if it were ever taken on, why not do it better?

 

Personally, I would like to see it tweaked more to make magic school specialization a much more meaningful choice. Hence it would seem to be a Tweak Pack option:

 

Specialist Mage Enhancement

 

* for each level of the spellbook, that level of the spellbook is inoperable unless at least one spell from the specialization school spell is memorized; or better yet, half of the spell slots for each level (rounded down) must be filled with specialization school spells

* 85% chance to learn spells from specialization school

* the specialist mage is granted a +2 saving throw bonus against spells cast upon him when they are from the wizard's specialization school

* -2 is applied to enemy's saving throw when the specialist uses his specialization school spells

* disable casting from scrolls and wands of the opposition school

 

In other words, stongly incentivize use of the specialization school's magic. Instead of a specialist simply gaining an extra spell slot, push the specialist more towards behaving like ('roleplaying') a specialist of a chosen school.

[SixOfSpades]

That's very similar to an idea I had, about the way I would run the Specialist Mages if I were the DM of some game. What I'd like to do someday is overwrite the Specialist Mages in BG with what I call "Focus Mages," with the goal--as you said--of making each kit better or worse by virtue of their Chosen school, rather than their Opposition school. They have the same names as before: Now they're just called "Focus Enchanter," "Focus Illusionist," and the like.

 

ADVANTAGES:

Maximum of 6 spellslots per level, just like a Specialist Mage

Can learn spells from their Opposition School

 

DISADVANTAGES:

The first 2 spellslots of each level must contain a spell from their chosen School (if one exists)

-75% chance to scribe scrolls from their Opposition School

 

As BG stands now, the Conjurer is clearly at the top of the heap, with the Necromancer and Illusionist tied for 2nd place, and all the other kits are hardly worth considering. But under this new system, the only Mage kit that would still suck would be the Diviner.

[Lemernis]

Mainly, I'd like to see the specialist mages be significantly more powerful when casting their chosen school's spells. Not tremendously so, but enough that there'd be a meaningful difference that'd definitely be felt. If they specialize in the school, then wouldn't they be inclined to use their own school's spells first and foremost?

 

As for Diviners, it'd be fun to see a some useful Divination spells added to the game (both BG1 and BG2), even if they're custom. In BG1 Identification is the only useful spell. (Although when facing Sword Coast Stratagems' excellent AI improvements, Detect Invisibility becomes essential.)

[CamDawg]

Unfortunately, the only things even implementable from this thread are:

 

* disable casting from scrolls and wands of the opposition school

 

(scrolls already excluded from opposition schools) and

 

Maximum of 6 spellslots per level, just like a Specialist Mage

Can learn spells from their Opposition School

[NiGHTMARE]

What Cam said, though Galactygon has mentioned that he has somehow implemented the bonus and penalty to saving throws for his Lost Crossroads mod, over at the Black Wyrm forums (which seem to be down ATM).

 

Another possibility is applying the pnp spell restrictions, where most specialists are barred from not one but two opposition schools; in the case of the illusionist, he's barred from three (necromancy, invocation/evocation, and abjuration), and the diviner is only barred from conjuration/summoning (which would certainly help make up for the class' shortcomings ). The conjurer would definitely no longer be all powerful, since he'd lose access to invocation...

[CamDawg]

Something this extensive should probably be its own mod, like something dedicated to changing (also known as Remixing) the mage spellcasters (i.e. Arcane folks).

[SixOfSpades]

Is it possible to make the Specialist Mages cast spells from their own school at a higher spell level? If everybody cast their favored spells at double their actual casting levels (especially if combined with Weimer's Spell-50 mod), that alone would be a strong motivator to roleplay your Mage kit.

 

And yet again, Diviners would get the short end of the stick.

[NiGHTMARE]

Possibly; I suspect it would involve creating alternate versions of every mage spell, and somehow making them only available only to the relevant specialist (via specialist-only scrolls, scripting, etc).

[Andyr]

I'd rather see other bonuses--school-only spells, and other things (IIRC Abjurers are meant to get AC/save bonuses or somesuch).

[Salk]

Unfortunately, the only things even implementable from this thread are:

 

* disable casting from scrolls and wands of the opposition school

 

(scrolls already excluded from opposition schools) and

 

Maximum of 6 spellslots per level, just like a Specialist Mage

Can learn spells from their Opposition School

 

The "disable casting from wands of the opposition school would be very welcome! Since it's doable, I hope NiGHTMARE will remember that in his Arcane Remix!

[NiGHTMARE]

I'm actually considering three wand-related components:

 

- Wands: P&P Restrictions

- Wands: Spellcasters Only

- Wands: Exclude Opposition Schools

 

Wands: P&P Restrictions will make the wands of Fear, Paralyzation, Fire, Frost, Lightning, and Polymorphing usable by everyone. The wand of Monster Summoning will no longer be usable by bards, and the wand of Sleep will be restricted to wizards. All other wands will have the same restriction as they do in the unmodded game.

 

Wands: Spellcasters Exclusions will restrict arcane wands to bards and wizards, and divine wands to clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers. Wands: Spellcasters Only and Wands: P&P Restrictions will be mutually exclusive.

 

Wands: Exclude Opposition Schools will prevent specialist wizards from using wands that create spells belonging to their opposition school(s). Divine wands, such as the Wand of Fear and the Wand of the Heavens, will not be affected by this component. This component will also detect whether the Arcane Spells: Stricter School Exclusions component is installed, and if so will use those stricter exclusions for wands. Wands: Exclude Opposition Schools will be available regardless of whether Wands: P&P Restrictions, Wands: Spellcasters Only, or neither are installed.

 

Additionally, in Arcane Remix v2+ the core component will adjust wands so they behave more like their pnp counterparts; the Wand of Fire's abilities will be Burning Hands and Fireball instead of Aganazzar's Scorcher and Fireball; the Wand of Frost will be able to create Ice Storm as well as Cone of Cold, and the Wand of Lightning will be able to create Shocking Grasp as well as Lightning Bolt.