Item effect power levels

[CamDawg]

Reported by Alesia_BH over at the Bio forums... bothe the +4 and +5 Short Swords of Mask have an entangle effect on their melee abilities. Due to incorrect power levels, most of the entangle effects can be bounced back to the wielder by spells like Spell Turning.

[CamDawg]

Let's generalize and fix the issue. I ran a check of effects attached to abilities on items and generated a list of items with possible issues. Power levels, like MR, are ignored for abilities that target caster and effects which target self. My commentary to follow is my suggestions and I'm hoping for some discussion.

 

A quick primer on power level: whenever a spell or item claims to 'reflect spells of up to level X' or 'immune to spells of level X or lower', what it means in practice is that it checks the power level of all incoming effects. A minor globe of invulnerability protects against spells of level 1-3, so any effect with a power of 1-3 does not affect a creature with an MGI. An effect of power level 0 will bypass any spell immunities or protections, and (as mentioned above) any effect or ability with a self-target will also ignore spell protections.

 

I recommend a lot of power 0 changes below, mainly because I think most items shouldn't be affected by spell protections.

 

amsoul01 - Malla's Soul Stone - casts neutralize poison 1/day at power 4
clck07 - Nymph's Cloak - casts charm person 1/day at power 8
halb06 - Blackmist halberd - casts blindness 1/day at power 1, though some effects are power 0
helm16 - Helm of Brilliance - casts fireball 1/day at power 3, casts prismatic spray 1/day at power 7
helm17 - Skull of Death - casts death spell 1/day at power 3
regisamu - Regis' Ruby Pendant of Beguiling - casts dire charm 1/day at power 3
ring27 - Ring of Fire Control - casts burning hands 1/day at power 1, flamestrike 1/day at power 5
ring30 - Ring of Human Influence - casts charm person 1/day at power 1
staf09 - Staff of Command +2 - casts domination 1/day at power 5
staf13 - Staff of Thunder and Lightning - casts lightning and call lightning at power 3
sw1h36 - Namarra - casts silence 15' 3/day at power 2
sw1h63 - Foebane - casts LMD on hit at power 1

For items that cast spells, Bio was pretty good for power levels. clck07 is unused. Blackmist needs fixing (all to power 1) and the Skull of Death should be casting Death Spell at power 6.

 

amul01 - Necklace of Missiles - fireball-esque ability has power 9
amul22 - Periapt of Proof Against Poison - cure poison ability has power 2
brac20 - Gloves of Curing - healing abilities have power 1 except remove intoxication (power 0)
potn13 - Oil of Fiery Burning - explosion has power 4
potn26 - Potion of Explosions - explosion has power 4
potn27 - Potion of Firebreath - fire damage has power 4
ring03 - Ring of Animal Friendship - casts charm animal at power 4
ring20 - Ring of Energy - fire damage is at power 4
rods03 - Rod of Resurrection - resurrects at power 0 except for one sound at power 5
staf10 - Staff of Curing - actual hp bonus at power 0, all other effects at power 2 and 3
staf11 - Staff of the Magi - fireball-lightning actually casts both lightning bolt and fireball spells at power 9
staf12 - Staff of Power - paralytic lightning actually casts lightning bolt at power 3, stun effect at power 0
staf14 - Staff of the Woodlands - casts enhanced charm animal at power 0, one visual effect at power 1
sw1h51 - Celestial Fury - casts lightning ability at power 1, casts blindness at power 0

For casting psuedospells, it gets a bit more iffy. The Necklace of Missiles, Periapt of Proof v Poison, and the Staff of the Magi should be left alone, either because they're correct or because I have no idea what other value would be appropriate. I'd suggest changing the Oil of Fiery Burning, Potion of Explosions, Potion of Firebreath, Ring of Energy, Rod of Resurrection, and Staff of the Woodlands to power 0; Gloves of Curing and Celestial Fury to power 1, Staff of Curing to power 2, and Staff of Power to power 3. All of these non-zero suggestions are for consistency with their existing effects.

 

arow06 - Arrows of Detonation - explosion has power 3
arow08 - Arrows of Fire - fire damage has power 6
arow09 - Arrows of Ice - cold damage has power 6
bolt03 - Bolt of Lightning - electrical damage has power 6
hamm03 - Ashideena - electrical damage has power 8
hamm05 - Borok's Fist - electrical damage has power 8
misc5c - Rift Device - fire damage has power 100, all other effects are at 0
secret02 - Pulse ammo - magical damage for easter egg item at power 8
sw1h06 - Varscona - cold damage at power 8
wolfwi1, wolfwi2 - attack of winter wolves - cold damage at power 1
xbow15, xbow16 - Firetooth - fire damage at power 6

This batch adds elemental damage to their physical damage. I think these should all be changed to power 0.

 

scrl03 - Protection From Acid
scrl04 - Protection From Cold
scrl05 - Protection From Electricity
scrl06 - Protection From Fire
scrl08 - Protection From Poison
scrl09 - Protection From Undead
scrl15 - Protection From Petrification

All protection scrolls use power 4 in their effects, save Protection from Magic, which uses 0. I'd suggest power 0 across the board here.

 

deva, devaevil - weapon of (fallen) devas
elemchan, elemcryo, elemhydr, elemimix, elemogre, elemsunn, elemyanc, elemzaam - attack items of various elementals & princes
planetar - weapon of planetars

All of these items dispel magic on a hit at power 15. No suggested changes here as this is very consistent internally and appears intended--not that anything is going to stop a power 15 effect anyway.

 

ttwand - Wand of the Heavens (tutorial) - flamestrike at power 4
wand02 - Wand of Fear - fear at power 4
wand03 - Wand of Magic Missiles - magic missile at power 1
wand04 - Wand of Paralyzation - stuns at power 4
wand05 - Wand of Fire - fireball at power 3, Aganazzar's scorcher at power 2
wand06 - Wand of Frost - cold damage at power 5
wand07 - Wand of Lightning - lightning bolt at power 3
wand08 - Wand of Sleep - sleep at power 1
wand09 - Wand of Polymorphing - polymorph at power 4
wand11 - Wand of the Heavens - flamestrike at power 4
wand12 - Wand of Wonder - all effects at power 0 except visuals at 8
wand13 - Wand of Cloudkill - cloudkill at power 5
wand14 - Web Sack - web at power 2, fire damage at 8
wand18 - Wand of Spellstriking - breach at power 5, pierce magic at power 6

Like the spell items, Bio did pretty good with the wands. I'd suggest changing the Wands of the Heavens to power 5 and making the Wand of Wonder consistent at power 0. Web Sack isn't used.

 

globblu1 - Blue Globe - cold damage at power 5
globblu2 - Blue Globe - restoration at power 7
globblu4 - Blue Globe - protection from normal missiles at power 3
globred1 - Red Globe - fire damage at power 4
globred2 - Red Globe - heals 64 HP at power 5, removes intoxication at 0, displays 'healed' at 6

These are the globes from the great seal level of Watcher's Keep. I'd suggest making globred2 consistent at 5 and changing globblu1 and globred1 to power 0.

 

ax1h07 - Bala's Axe - miscast magic effects have power 3
blun20 - Ardulia's Flail - slow effects have power 3
bolt05 - Bolt of Polymorphing - polymorph effects are power 6
dart03 - Dart of Stunning - stun effects have power 8
dart04 - Dart of Wounding - poison damage has power 0, poison portrait icon has power 8
dart05 - Asp's Nest - poison damage has power 0, poison portrait icon has power 8
kuobolt3 - high level Kuo-Toa bolts - web/entangle effects at power 2
nebdag - Neb's Dagger - slow effect at power 2, poison at 0
sw1h58, sw1h59 - Short Sword of Mask - some entangle effects at power 1, 2

Miscellaneous effects for items obtainable by the party. ax1h07 and bolt05 are unavailable AFAIK. I'd suggest power 0 for everything here.

 

aurstaf - Aurumach Rilmani's undroppable staff - slow effects have power 6
bonedag - Bone Dagger attack item - slow effects have power 2, all other effects 0
chalcy2 - undroppable weapon of Cyric's Chosen - blindness effect has power 1 
 note: should add blindness portrait icon, display string
dartmel - Melissan's Bone Daggers - slow and disease effects have power 8
gorcamb - Aesgearth's undroppable weapon - stun at power 6, str/con drain at power 8
hgber01 - Berren's undroppable weapon - slow and dex penalties at power 4
hgnya01 - Nyalee's undroppable weapon - slow, entangle effects at power 4
icetrl - blizzard trolls' undroppable weapon - stun, dex penalty at power 6
killsw01 - Arkanis Gath's insta-kill sword for crossing shadow thieves - all elemental damages at power 8
mistcd - attack of crimson deaths - visual effect has power 1
mistho - attack of mist horrors, swamp horrors - horror effects are at power 4
mistice - attack of ice mists - horror effects are at power 4
mistva - attack of vampiric mists - level drain at power 1
mistva2 - attack of vampiric wraiths - level drain at power 1
mistwa - attack of wandering horrors - stun at power 4
mound - attack of shambling mounds - slow, AC penalty, extra damage, entangle at power 1, play sound at power 2
quasclaw - attack of quasit familiars - dex drain has power 4
ravag01 - attack of ravager - one effect (visual) has power 3, all others 0
ravag02 - attack of ravager - stun has power 6, all others 0
revent1 - attack of revenants - paralyzation effects at power 1
sendai - Sendai's flail - slow has power 6, other effects such as str drain and poison use 0
shille - Shillelagh - visual effect has power 1
spermel - Mellisan's spear - slow and stun at power 8, save penalties at power 6
telslav - attack of slave wraiths - slay and finger of death animation at power 7
trolltor - attack of Tor'Gal - slow and str drain at power 3

Similar to the batch above, except these are either items that creatures use to get some extra oomph (Sendai's flail sendai.itm) or inherent attack abilities of monsters (vampiric mists' mistva.itm). Like the items above, I think we should go with power 0 across the board.

 

eneblade - Energy Blades - electrical damage has power 6
fblade - Flame Blade - fire damage has power 2
fireseed - Fire Seeds - fire damage has power 6
melfmet - Melf's Minute Meteors - fire damage, visuals at power 3

Items created via spell. I'd suggest sticking with the level of the underlying spell for these, though it's a problem for energy blades--it's a 7th level divine spell but 9th level arcane spell (I'd suggest 9). Note that regular physical damage of these items will still apply; this is only for their bonus damage, i.e. MMM will still do its 1d4+3 piercing damage regardless of whether its fire damage goes through or not.

[devSin]

For your first list, I think they should just all match. I can't remember if I changed them to 0 or just made them consistent. Remember that Blackmist casts Power Word, Blind (although the projectile may be screwed; can't remember), which is *not* Level 1.

 

For the second, I again can't remember what I did. Things like Celestial Fury working at Level 1 doesn't sound like something I'd agree with, though. Remember that the power level for cast spell effects is largely spurious; it just wouldn't ever matter.

 

I probably agree with the third list, but BioWare was pretty consistent setting the power for elemental ammo. I'd leave power levels > 9 alone; doesn't matter.

 

I disagree with the fourth list. Magic protection is the exception; BioWare was perfectly consistent in setting potion and protection scroll powers to 4. Magic protection is special because all the effects after granting immunity to Level 4 effects would fail if the powers were 4.

 

I don't care about the fifth and sixth lists; as long as they're consistent, I'm sure they're fine.

 

For the seventh, I think ensuring consistency would be better than a mass patch of everything to Power 0, but it doesn't really matter.

 

I agree with the eighth and ninth, but it's probably inconsistent with all the other magically-created weapons (I think I make all the powers match the spell level for all of them locally). Energy blades doesn't match, so I'd probably just set it at 0 (it's a high-level ability after all).

[Nythrun]

Items that cast spells I set to power zero, otherwise you can interact with spell level protection twice (just like having a save in a "use eff" opcode and then having a save in the eff).

 

Second batch I changed to cast the spell in question (except for the Staff of the Magi, didn't know what to do with that nonsense).

 

Additional elemental damage - zeroed!

 

Protection scrolls - zeroed! Bioware was consistent - but I didn't think protection scrolls failing due to protection magic would ever have been intentional - c.f. changes in Magic Resistance from BG1 to BG2

 

Wands cast spells.

 

Never noticed the globes nor thought about them. Hee.

 

Items - zeroed everything again. It might be nice if Minor Globe protected against all of Minute Meteors, but it doesn't, so the internally consistent solution was to make it protect from none of Minute Meteors. It's a level three spell, yes, but spell protections don't stop summons either.

[CamDawg]

For your first list, I think they should just all match. I can't remember if I changed them to 0 or just made them consistent. Remember that Blackmist casts Power Word, Blind (although the projectile may be screwed; can't remember), which is *not* Level 1.

Ooh, nice catch, Blackmist's projectile is indeed incorrect.

 

For the second, I again can't remember what I did. Things like Celestial Fury working at Level 1 doesn't sound like something I'd agree with, though. Remember that the power level for cast spell effects is largely spurious; it just wouldn't ever matter.

The only error with CF was casting its blindness effects at power 0, which should be 1 (it's just blind, now PW: blind).

 

I agree with the eighth and ninth, but it's probably inconsistent with all the other magically-created weapons (I think I make all the powers match the spell level for all of them locally). Energy blades doesn't match, so I'd probably just set it at 0 (it's a high-level ability after all).

After looking into this a bit further, devSin is right. Most of the items created by spells use the spell level as their power, with only a handful of exceptions for some cosmetic effects (spiritual hammer, seeking sword, and shillelagh). Paws for polymorph/shape change use 0, but this is correct for these spells. With that in mind, I'd suggest this instead as the patch list:

 

blakblad.itm (Black Blade of Disaster): disintegrate at power 9, level drain at 6--suggest moving level drain to 9 as well
eneblad.itm (Energy Blades): electrical damage uses power 6, should use 9
slavlive.itm (Slay Living touch item): lighting effects at power 6 (suggest 0), all others at 5

 

Items that cast spells I set to power zero, otherwise you can interact with spell level protection twice (just like having a save in a "use eff" opcode and then having a save in the eff).

Good point, and also consistent with Bio's use of the opcode.

 

I disagree with the fourth list. Magic protection is the exception; BioWare was perfectly consistent in setting potion and protection scroll powers to 4. Magic protection is special because all the effects after granting immunity to Level 4 effects would fail if the powers were 4.

Protection scrolls - zeroed! Bioware was consistent - but I didn't think protection scrolls failing due to protection magic would ever have been intentional - c.f. changes in Magic Resistance from BG1 to BG2

I'm inclined to agree with Nythrun on this one.

[CamDawg]

Coded.