So Many Choices, So Few Proficiencies

[berelinde]

The reason why I like bards with melee and ranged both can be found in the following 2 examples, both in the last hour.

 

First try at CW Mines battle with Hareishan (nasty 2nd floor mage): forgot about her, and sent the whole unbuffed party in together, with Garrick in about the middle of the pack. As luck would have it, Gavin rounded the corner first, and bore the brunt of the attack, but since he is currently wearing full plate mail and has a +1 large shield, he's pretty hard to hit, and his high constitution makes him able to absorb a lot of damage. But Garrick was right behind him, and Garrick, armed with a +1 longsword and wearing +2 chain, cought a lot of the overflow, and dropped in about the 3rd round. I had a fair number of healing potions, but he couldn't guzzle them fast enough. Didn't feel like babysitting an unarmored Garrick through the rest of the encounter, so I resisted the urge to CTRL-R him back into existence.

 

Apparently, I forgot what happens when you let Coran talk to the cook, and the bastard had Spider Bane on him, so I wound up reloading from the auto-save and trying the encouter again.

 

Second try, I had Gavin and equally heavily armored paladin PC block the entrance to the room, taking all comers with melee weapons, while Coran, Imoen, Garrick, and Eldoth took out the mage with missile weapons. Then, with Gavin and the PC still blocking the door, the missile weapon users emptied the room. Gavin was down to single-digit HP, and the PC was kind of dented, but I don't think Garrick or Eldoth took a single HP of damage.

 

This time, we walk right past the cook. She can drown with the rest.

[I am no one]

I'm goning to talk about armor. Vikings mostly used chain mail put as in the story the word spangabrynja is used, usually translated as "plate-mail" as used in Grænlendinga þáttur, story says that Símon did not care for it, and he threw it to the ground as useless junk but the amor might of be scale armor, which was not in common use during the Viking age and which may have been brought into the Norse lands by foreign visitors. But metal armor was not all was used in Eyrbyggja saga, Freysteinn was protected from a sword cut to his neck by a piece of horn sewn into his felt hat, and Vatnsdæla saga, Ingólfur put flat stones on his chest and back, which protected him when he attacked a band of thieves and Brodd-Helgi similarly protected himself with flat stones under his clothing. When Svartr thrust at him with his halberd (höggspjót), it glanced off the stone so violently that Svartr pitched forward, allowing Brodd-Helgi to cut off his leg.

her are some tricks I read about, in Eyrbyggja saga, Þrándr leapt up and hooked the head of his axe over the wall of a fortification at the farm at Eyrr. He pulled himself up on his axe handle into the fortification and cut off Hrafn's arm with his axe. Reykdæla saga Helgi used his spear shaft to vault over the ice and up onto the bank where ÃÂskell and his men were fighting. Stories describe ways in which fights were stopped by third parties. The most common method was to throw clothing or blankets onto the combatants' weapons, rendering them ineffectual. This was done by men to capture an opponent without harming him or by women to stop a fight. In another case, it was done by an unarmed man while under attack.

 

But as for weapons I would go with a agile sword sword for the main hand mostly for defence, and an ax along the lines of a hatchet that could thorwn for the off hand, but with some form a of range weapon provably a short bow.

 

Well that it for me.

Love

 

"Poeple are snow" me

[Miloch]

Could this be simulated in the game? (i.e. opponent drops shield or is stunned 1 round or something like that?)

You could probably script it or implement it like a spell effect (though I don't have enough knowledge to give examples ).

[BigRob]

There is an opcode/scripting action somewhere in BG1 to allow the dropping of weapons and other objects. I often see it during a morale failure. I've had characters even drop their armour on occasion for some odd reason.

[EiriktheScald]

That would be awesome. On a successful hit, say 15% chance, the axe snags his opponent's weapon/shield or ankle (stuns him).

[BigRob]

Since it is a feature of the lighter axes favoured by the norse rather than the big nasty 2 handers, it might be good for him to have that ability on a custom item.. Northlander's War Axe, or something.

[EiriktheScald]

Found it!

 

Effect #264 - Drop Weapons in Panic

Example: gauntlets of fumbling. Target drops all weapons it is holding. If it has innate attacks (claws, bite, etc.) that can't be dropped, this doesn't work on it. If it's a weapon-wielding humanoid, it's largely disabled by this.

 

Question is: how do you set it so that the axe 85-90% of time does normal damage, while the other 10-15% of the time, causes target to drop its weapon instead?

[Miloch]

Question is: how do you set it so that the axe 85-90% of time does normal damage, while the other 10-15% of the time, causes target to drop its weapon instead?

The only way I can think of is to apply those two things independently, unless maybe you scripted it. You might have more luck asking in Modding Q&A. But do you really want weapons dropped or just shields? A 10-15% chance to disarm any weapon seems a bit much for an axe, unless it has some sort of spell on it. Particularly it wouldn't be that useful against swords, unless it's able to hook them near the hilt (in which case it might take someone's hand with it ).

 

I was thinking of implementing a similar effect for a swordbreaker type of weapon that has a chance to break or disarm an opponent's weapon.

[St_Vitruvius]

Found it!

 

Effect #264 - Drop Weapons in Panic

Example: gauntlets of fumbling. Target drops all weapons it is holding. If it has innate attacks (claws, bite, etc.) that can't be dropped, this doesn't work on it. If it's a weapon-wielding humanoid, it's largely disabled by this.

 

Question is: how do you set it so that the axe 85-90% of time does normal damage, while the other 10-15% of the time, causes target to drop its weapon instead?

 

Be carefull about the "Drop Weapons" effect.. I've tried it.. it unbalances the game completely, as monsters can't pick up items and usually don't have a second weapon.. And you might end up dropping their armor too.. I killed the Fallen Paladins in just two rounds using a disarm.. Anarg without weapons or armor is no sport..

[EiriktheScald]

Will this idea work?

 

Northlander's War Axe

[berelinde]

Not likely. You'd be running this in Eirik's script, so you'd need ActionOverride for each and every adversary that might have a shield, and I'm not sure you can use DropItem that way.

 

You could look into the breakable weapons/armor tweak from BG2 Tweaks, change the % (5% on a successful hit sounds about right), and have it only apply to shields. That uses a spell, IIRC.

[EiriktheScald]

I found a tutorial that might work for this. Basically you summon an invisible creature and assign the script to it. Look at the link above.

[berelinde]

If I try to think about this, my head will explode. Given the cold I have at the moment, that would be disgusting.

 

So I'll leave that to those who can think about this without hearing those few little brain cells crying in their loneliness.

[EiriktheScald]

Drink hot tea with lemon juice, honey, brandy and cover up.

[Miloch]

Here's the icons for the axe (inventory large, small 1+2, ground):

I inadvertently did 2 small icons, but they both turned out ok so take your pick. The 'jagged' edge on the larger icon is for blending against the dark background - it doesn't show up in game.

 

I also experimented with some different description BAM styles this time. Here's the first one with detailed axe head:

Second BAM with statistics and larger axe picture, and a third with a more 'penciled' effect:

So, take your pick on one of these too. I have my own opinion of course, but I thought I'd throw some choices out there.