jmerry

Very worrying. After all, restoration is not available from temples or as a scroll in the (unmodded) BG1 campaign. The only way to gain access to restoration as a PC is to get a cleric to a high enough level to cast it. Specifically a cleric, because restoration isn't available to druids. So, if you're running a party that has a druid for the healer role and no cleric (such as the "canon" party), you have no way to cure that level drain ever unless you reform the party. At which point you might as well just dump the drained character forever, and it might as well be a one-hit kill. You cannot reasonably introduce wights to the BG1 campaign without also adding access to restoration, either as a temple service or in scroll form.

All right, exact mechanics here ... The nonlethal kiss uses the damage opcode, type ACID, mode "set to value", value = 1. The lethal kiss uses the damage opcode, type ACID, mode "reduce by percentage", value = 100. And according to this report, that's a percentage of maximum health, which leads to the chunking possibility. I can already see the simplest way to prevent chunking: use a different damage type. These modes ignore resistances, so that's not a problem, and magic, missile, or poison damage won't chunk. I don't know whether "set to 0" or "set to 0%" would work for the lethal kiss, but changing the type of this not-really damage certainly does. As it's not directly a death effect, Death Ward won't work unless it's specifically called out. Though Story Mode should keep the victim alive with its min-HP effect.

Oh, hey, I found another thing about the Aerial Servant that's out of whack - its animation compared to its stats. The Aerial Servant uses the ELEMENTAL_AIR_SMALL animation. There are seven other creatures that use that animation in vanilla BG2EE. Six of those have 8 HD. The seventh has 12 HD; that's the creature you summon if you roll low on the mage Conjure Air Elemental spell. And then the Aerial Servant has 16 HD. I also checked the small fire and earth animations. Lots of 8 HD elementals there, a few 12 HD elementals, and nothing at all bigger. The Aerial Servant is the only creature with more than 12 HD that uses any of the small elemental animations.

From the spell descriptions in BGEE: OK. Sounds like a big chunky summon, and it even tells you how big. Definitely something I'd be willing to spend a sixth-level spell slot on. By contrast, this one doesn't tell you anything. Sure, it'll fight for you, but how big is it and how hard does it hit? Until I looked it up because of this discussion, I didn't know. I knew that it was an air elemental that started invisible from fighting against them, but I wouldn't have guessed it was 16 HD and 23 strength. You could radically change the creature's combat stats without changing the description at all. And then @subtledoctor looked at sources outside these games, and the pen and paper spell isn't a combat summon at all. Sure, that's not something you can really do in the computer game ruleset, but to just flat out turn it into a combat monster with inflated stats? A very weird decision. Thinking about that original version of the spell, here's another direction that could be taken for modifying Aerial Servant: deflate the stats, but give it an opcode 268 "clear fog of war" effect. That way it could scout for you invisibly, and then fight once it's revealed. Just not as well as the dedicated combat summon at the same level; maybe this one is always 12 HD and 14 strength. (There's some AI abuse potential when encountering foes outside the sight range of any actual PC. But familiars are pretty much always better placed to abuse that, since they can do more than just attack)

Hey, mistakes happen to all of us. It's not like my code ever runs the first time when I write something big or make big changes. Now debugging ... that is an art.

Well, let's start with the obvious surface-level problem: your BEGINs and ENDs don't match. You have two ENDs at the end, where you need three; one for the IF block, one for the MATCH block, and one for the function definition. Judging by your indentation, it's the MATCH block that's missing its END. But when WeiDU goes to parse this, it assigns that second END to the MATCH block, leaving the function definition open, and whatever's next in that document becomes part of the function when it isn't supposed to be, at least until the whole thing collapses in syntax errors that appear to point somewhere far from the actual problem. Or, worse, it runs and does things you weren't expecting at all.

Since that isn't the duration number I used, I suspect SCS also includes a tweak for the spell ... here it is. From the "rebalancings of slightly too-powerful spells" component. In addition to what's in the readme, the component also changes the timing of the effect to "not permanent" but sets an absurdly long duration instead.

(Looks it up...) In the case of Bala's Axe, the vanilla abilities are replaced entirely by IR. No on-hit miscast effect, no activated ability, but now there's an on-hit dispel effect. Save to negate, but no level check. Also, it's nonmagical instead of being a +0 magic weapon. Inquisitor dispel not being changed like other dispels to work with the new system ... that's a serious oversight that should be fixed. Also, that is a spell. It's an innate spell rather than an arcane or divine spell, but it's absolutely a spell by any reasonable standard.

Yeslick's Dispel Magic is just like the divine and arcane Dispel Magic spells, except innate. Which means the level check is based on his innate caster level - the average of his cleric and fighter levels. The activated ability of Bala's Axe (not the on-hit ability, which isn't a dispel anyway) casts priest Dispel Magic. Which means it's based on the wielder's divine caster level, and is almost always useless. Unless it's a Shaman, there's no way for an axe-wielder to have a decent divine caster level at anything other than epic levels in the standard rules. All of this is unless a mod changes it specifically, or in the latter case changes priest Dispel Magic. (I have a tweak in my collection which changes the spell Bala's Axe casts to use the wielder's innate caster level.)

Try checking the volume panel in the options? There are different sliders for different types of sound; it could be that you just have the balance set differently between the two games.

On that bit where Bassilus might summon an Aerial Servant ... you know, part of the problem is that the stats are out of whack. Aerial Servants are just plain beefy. Here's a comparison of the three elemental-summoning spells priests get at level 6 and 7 (Aerial Servant, Conjure Fire Elemental, Conjure Earth Elemental). Vanilla game stats. All three spells have a 1 turn per level duration. All of the elementals summoned have one attack per round and deal primarily crushing damage, with a +4 enchantment level. Aerial Servant (cleric only, spell level 6): 16 HD (128 HP), AC 3, requires magic weapons to hit, starts invisible. 23 STR, 4d8+11 damage, final THAC0 0. Conjure Fire Elemental (druid only, spell level 6): 60% chance of 12 HD, 35% chance of 16 HD, 5% chance of 24 HD. Stats below. 12 HD (96 HP), AC 2, requires +2 weapons to hit, immune to fire. 14 STR, 3d8 damage + 1d6 fire, final THAC0 9. 16 HD (128 HP), AC 2, requires +2 weapons to hit, immune to fire. 20 STR, 3d8+8 damage + 1d6 fire, final THAC0 2. 24 HD (192 HP), AC 0, requires +2 weapons to hit, immune to fire. 23 STR, 3d8+11 damage + 1d6 fire, final THAC0 -5. Conjure Earth Elemental (cleric or druid, spell level 7): 60% chance of 12 HD, 35% chance of 16 HD, 5% chance of 24 HD. Stats below. 12 HD (96 HP), AC 2, requires +2 weapons to hit. 19 STR, 4d8+7 damage, final THAC0 6. 16 HD (128 HP), AC 2, requires +2 weapons to hit. 19 STR, 4d8+7 damage, final THAC0 2. 24 HD (192 HP), AC 2, requires +2 weapons to hit. 20 STR, 4d8+8 damage, final THAC0 -3. The Aerial Servant isn't quite as tough as the other elementals in some ways. Slightly worse AC, and you can hit it with +1 weapons. But 60% of the time, you're only getting a 12-HD elemental out of those other two spells, and the Aerial Servant is always 16-HD so it can take more punishment. And then, on offense ... 23 strength. For some inexplicable reason, this particular air elemental is stronger than any of the earth elementals. Or, for that matter, the air elementals that the wizard Conjure Air Elemental spell summons for its much shorter duration (17, 19, or 22 strength, with the same 60/35/5 probability split). And those don't have the invisibility perk. I'm thinking ... if the Aerial Servant was nerfed to have a no-bonus strength stat, the spell would be about on par with Conjure Fire Elemental. Which, as anyone who's played a druid can tell you, is still a fantastic spell.

Simply having NI open shouldn't cause any issues. Might get confusing - I would recommend refreshing once the mod does its thing - but it shouldn't cause issues on its own.

Yes, this one's the fault of SCS. A one-line change in v35 which needs to be reverted, because the new version looks for a file in a place it isn't; this results in a number of characters getting blank scripts when they should initiate conversation as soon as they see a PC. The change is in line 3 of genai/deployment.tph. v34 version: LAF ssl_to_bcs STR_VAR script=dw#shdlg location=~genai/ssl~ END v35 version: LAF ssl_to_bcs STR_VAR script=dw#shdlg location=~ssl~ END This change needs to be reverted. Not the whole file, because there's another change elsewhere in it. For quick-fix convenience, here's a fixed version of the file. Edit: attachment removed, diagnosis incorrect. See @Angel's posts below.

Jan is correct; thief THAC0 progression stops at level 21 with a value of 10. Neera's off though; she should have a base THAC0 of 13 (Assuming standard tables).

Well, yes, that's exactly what is going on. The stuff in the ability table is only applied after character creation is complete. An Avenger or Shaman can't memorize their bonus spells at character creation, and your character doesn't get their free proficiency until after character creation is complete and they've assigned some proficiencies already. I am not aware of any way to work around this.

So the change is which version of the sfo libraries was being used. OK, that makes sense.

Is it fixed? Because that isn't something that changed in v35. It's undoubtedly a mistake to fix, but how could it be the one that breaks things when it was there before?

"<name> has nothing to say to you" means that none of the states in the NPC's dialogue have their conditions met. Look through the tree view for that character's dialogue. What are the conditions for the top-level states? You want to try to design these so that at least one is always met. Exactly one is easiest to work with, as then you don't have to worry about priority.

On that Protection from Good/Protection from Evil radius bit, here's a quote from the spell description (BGEE): The effect doesn't match the name, and the description knows it. It's stupid, but it's there in the game and has been for a while.

To test that, try casting Cure Disease on someone else like a party member. If you get the same ramble, it's the spell.

That's bizarre, and I can't see any rational reason for it to happen, unless some mod tried to put something in specifically for this interaction and screwed up. This is MINEC4. He normally has dialogue, which includes the option to put him out of his misery (he dies, no other effects). Then he has typical innocent scripting - if attacked, run away and cry for help - and the override script all the slaves get that removes them once you pay Rill. No special triggers for healing. My best guess is that some mod you have specifically tried to put something here, and screwed up the text referencing with #2449 instead of @2449 - "use existing game text string with this number" rather than "use string from the tra file with this number".

And on that error location ... when it says something happened on line 633, the place to look is before line 633. That's just where the error became impossible to work around, not where the error is.

Yes, the AddKit script action works for this. Any abilities for your current kit will be removed and the abilities of the kit you add will be applied. For the argument, you can either use the ID number or the internal kit name; e.g, an Archer would be 0x4007, 16391, or FERALAN. The kit name is usually the most convenient here; just watch out for the cases in which it doesn't match the common name for the kit. As of the current patch of the EE, the kit lists have been padded with dummy kits so that if you install the same kits in the same order on both BGEE and BG2EE, they'll have the same ID number and a character with a mod kit will import properly.

Regarding the kobolds, it's not the difficulty but the thematics. Kobolds don't do tanky. If those 25-HP creatures were some sort of beast instead (kobolds can have pets, right?) then they'd be fine. (Also, 3 XP for a 4-HD creature is ridiculously low. Those stats are almost a match for a worg - level 3, 26 HP, AC 6, 1 APR, base THAC0 17 and damage 1d8 with +1 to hit and +3 damage from 18/40 strength. And a worg is 120 XP.) They're not supposed to go hostile until you talk to them. But they are supposed to initiate conversation on their own, as soon as they see you. SCS might trade a "walk up to melee range and talk" script for "start talking at range", but it doesn't mess with override scripts like that otherwise. If they didn't talk on their own, maybe something else broke their scripts?

This one's a complicated mix of stuff, including obscure game mechanics. First, Sanik's CRE file has him at 1/1 HP. But he has a bunch of levels (16), and the game engine doesn't allow maximum HP to be below a creature's level. So as soon as he spawns in, that becomes 1/16 HP. A similar effect can be seen when a player is transformed by a Polymorph Other effect; they end up at 5/N HP, where N is their level, because the effect tries to set their maximum HP to 5. Second, Sanik's levels are in a normal character class - mage. And he has a generic mage combat script. Which means all the normal SCS routines kick in; he gets an updated combat script, he gets potions, and so on. That will usually include healing potions, and obviously you drink one of those when you're at 1 HP and there's nothing else pressing like combat. Finally, when the assassin shows up, it's a cutscene. Which means that combat script doesn't have a chance to interfere; he just shoots with his +1 bow and +1 arrows until Sanik dies. Since nobody was hostile before the cutscene, Sanik's prebuffs don't activate either. He just stands there and takes it. Even with Sanik's -100% missile vulnerability, if he drank a greater healing potion to reach full HP, that'll take several arrows to kill him. Awkward. (The vanilla version of the assassin is a thief with bow specialization. Not sure if SCS wipes that specialization out and reduces his damage, but it might.) A fix for this ... you'd have to either lower Sanik's level (there's no narrative reason for him to be high-level) or explicitly exclude him from the potion component. .............. On the general tone of "all these miscellaneous things should be tougher" ... why? It's OK for there to be easy stuff out there. And sometimes it makes narrative sense. For example, you mentioned Saerk's guards. When Anomen goes off to attack on his own, he just tears straight through them and you meet him already confronting Saerk himself. The guards are just a speed bump. And they should be; they're just hirelings of some rich merchant. Their job is to defend against ordinary criminals, not well-equipped adventurers with a bunch of levels. Very much out of scope. That's a druid-on-druid duel, and druids should be able to handle fighting without gear due to their spells and shapeshifting. If it's anything else, it's because you applied some other mod to change things.