Bard Song

[Nythrun]

~snip~

[cmorgan]

Hey, any person who can correctly identify Cage's most famous "work" and use it correctly in a sentence has my undying admiration! Welcome to the ranks of Recovering Musicians!

 

As for code, you are out of my league, but if you need a tester, i will be availbale in about two weeks with a clean install.

[cmorgan]

Donuts? Donuts?! We don't need no steenking Donuts!! (Besides, the voice majors always ate them along with every cigarette within 10 miles before we poor misguided brass and string people clambered out of our practice rooms in the wee dawn hours... the percussioniosts were the smart ones, waiting until 5pm or so to wake up and start the day!)

 

No problem. PM me with details when you are ready.

[Lemernis]

I think it would be neat to see Charisma modify Bard Song. It just makes sense to me. I know it's not in the rules, but still.

[Guest Guest]

I think it would be neat to see Charisma modify Bard Song. It just makes sense to me. I know it's not in the rules, but still.

 

 

Erm, from another recovering musician's perspective, your idea does not necessarily make sense. The most publicly famous performance 'stars' may or may not have fairly high charisma, but in RL musicians with CHR around 5 can pull off dazzling performances-I've seen it over and over again.

[CamDawg]

Fear effects batch: sweet. For the bard song fixes I'm tempted to make a new OBC component because it's, as you say, irretrievable developer intent as to what they were thinking. What GTU changes do you suggest for the core fixes?

[Nythrun]

Probably only changing this line

@1025217 = ~BLADE: The Blade is an expert fighter and adventurer whose bardic acting abilities make this bard appear more intimidating and fearsome.  The Blade's fighting style is flashy and entertaining, but is also quite deadly.

Advantages:
-  May use 'Offensive Spin' and 'Defensive Spin' abilities once per day per 4 levels
-  Offensive Spin: lasts 24 seconds, granting the Blade +2 to hit, +2 to damage, and an extra attack.  As well, all attacks do maximum damage for the duration.  Offensive spin cannot be used in conjunction with haste or improved haste.
-  Defensive Spin: lasts 24 seconds, roots him to the spot but gives -1 AC per level of experience.  This armor class bonus does not go over -10.
-  May place 3 slots into two weapon fighting style

Disadvantages:
-  Only has one-half normal Lore value
-  Only has one-half Pick Pockets percentage.~ []

to remove the "- Bard Song does not become better with levels." disadvantage; the only time you get any specifics about class abilities is when they're altered for a kit (bard song isn't even mentioned in the trueclass bard description @9562). It's lame, but it's consistently lame

 

Jesters ought to have an update @25219 to reflect that their song only has +2 bonus to the opponent's save and some other abilites too

@1025219 = ~JESTER: This bard is well versed in the arts of ridicule and hilarity, whose abilities distract and confuse enemies as the Jester cavorts madly during combat.  Do not mistake the Jester for a true fool, however, as this bard can also be quite deadly.

Advantages:
-  Unlike the typical bard's song, the Jester's does not help allies.  Instead, it affects every opponent within 30 feet and varies with level:
1st:   Enemies must Save vs. Spells with a +2 bonus or be confused   
15th:  Enemies must Save vs. Spells with a +2 bonus or be confused, and must Save vs. Spells or be slowed
20th:  Enemies must Save vs. Spells with a +2 bonus or be confused and knocked unconscious, and must Save vs. Spells or be slowed.

Disadvantages:
-  None~ []

Only problem with this is, I'm unsure if it's ToB that makes the changes to Jester song or if this is also in the last SoA patch

 

About the blab above, I really really need to double check and make sure that all of the fear animations are hardcoded and don't need specific preventions - the "Earth has a face and it yawns" .bam (SPFEAREF, I think?) does get blocked, but I might have missed some. There's also some reason why spcl920a.spl (enhanced bard song) isn't on the list, but I've totally forgotten what it was (and it might have been a silly one anyway) so maybe it should go back.

 

Might need to tread carefully around the morale stuff too, for fear of breaking stat checks (Amber, etc.) I think it's unchecked in the unmodded game in any way that this could ever break, but it's worth another look (I'll do this later today )

 

Luck bonus for Bard song in OBC would be way cool

[CamDawg]

About the blab above, I really really need to double check and make sure that all of the fear animations are hardcoded and don't need specific preventions - the "Earth has a face and it yawns" .bam (SPFEAREF, I think?) does get blocked, but I might have missed some. There's also some reason why spcl920a.spl (enhanced bard song) isn't on the list, but I've totally forgotten what it was (and it might have been a silly one anyway) so maybe it should go back.

Don't worry about area effects like this--just because someone is immune to a fireball doesn't mean we block the projectile and explosion animation. If it's a personal effect (portrait icon, animation, string, etc.) it shouldn't appear, but otherwise let 'em be.

 

edit: A better way to draw this distinction should be: immunity to an effect should also block anything that indicates you're under that effect--portrait icons, strings, or those spinny globes that play over your head when you're held/stunned. If it's a brief sparkle animation to show you were targeted, or another animation to show the spell was cast (yawny face--best description of this animation evar) it should be left in peace.

[CamDawg]

Added for beta 4.

[Nythrun]

OBC suggestions :

 

Optional but Cool: Bard Song Fixes

The manual describes bard's Battlesong as granting "morale and luck improvement for the party." And then goes on to describe a luck bonus for the party as though it were a luck penalty for opponents. And then in-game battlesong grants only a demipygian immunity to fear (without preventing the additional effects that can accompany fear) with no morale or luck effects at all. Our best educated guess at developer intent adds a +1 luck bonus to battlesong, which improves to +2 at 15th level and improves again to +3 at 20th level. Blade's version of battlesong in this component still does not improve with levels (as the class disadvantage states) and Skald and Jester songs (which already sorta match their descriptions and work) are untouched.

 

// apply song to trueclass bards and blades
COPY_EXISTING ~clabba01.2da~ ~override~
 PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0) BEGIN
SET_2DA_ENTRY 3 1 3 ~AP_fjbard  ~
 END
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

COPY_EXISTING ~clabba02.2da~ ~override~
 PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0) BEGIN
SET_2DA_ENTRY 3 1 3 ~AP_fjblade ~
 END
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

[CamDawg]

Cheers, this is added. If you've got further changes from the post above, please let me know.