RoyalProtector

I reported this one and it happened in a non-clean BGEE game where I was tinkering with a mod I was making, although as far I know it only touched a few 2da files... After doing a 100% clean install, it didn't show up again

Yeah, and none of these feats assume or imply any sort of background that could conflict with it. Both the background and the advantage associated are supposed to be fairly mild. The game sort of gives you "historic" background depending on your class, as well, and you might as well customize that however you please. You're still the Bhaalspawn destined for greatness that Gorion is trying to protect, etcetera. But in any event I wasn't even using "background" in that strict sense. I was rather thinking about it as a natural talent or trait that you happen to have from the start, and hence it's part of your "background" as a person (which is the only meaning those feats I mentioned have in NWN/NWN2). You can justify it to your heart's content through roleplaying.

I don't have that much of a problem with that myself, since in BG saga, the Bhaalspawn PC is a special character destined in one way or another for greatness and power. Regardless, it could be implemented in some ways as long as we have a way of leveling up recruitable character from 0 to customize them (again, technical reasons). And none of them are going to break the game, they are mild so that doesn't happen. Generally speaking I don't like the concept of "meta" builds; even if I'm not "cornered" to use it, balance is always a wise approach in videogames. Recruitable characters also have, occasionally things that are impossible for PC and gives them a huge advantage. For example, Har'Dalis immediately gets 2 pips in Long Swords and Short Swords when you add a proficiency point, and blades cannot do that in the game. The reason in his case is that he is, by his own words (paraphrasing) "the best swordsman second only to Drizzt". That's his background, and he will always be better than a PC Blade in that sense. Or the case of Sarevok. Because of his dark past, excellent ability, heritage and training as a Deathdealer of Bhaal, he can chunk almost any enemy in one hit, doing absurd (200 + weapon damage) amounts of damage. And you can't get that as a PC Bhaalspawn. Again, background reasons... I also do things similar to what you're talking about: I create custom biographies to all my Bhaalspawn in my playthroughs. That for me would be reason enough to pick a "Background feat" that seems appropriate (or none, if that is the case instead). I can justify it in various ways, that's the nice thing about roleplaying. Not entirely, actually. Other than giving you small skill boosts (which is the aim for the most part as far as I'm concerned...), the Flirt background also gave you different prompts with a few characters in the prologue. But yeah, they could have extended that much more.

Ah well, I figured background feats would be rather messy to implement. Understandable. Anyhow, maybe those feats can be implemented anyway like regular feats. Or perhaps only available at level 2, which is the next best thing, I suppose.

Yes, absolutely, that takes precedence. I am excited though for this mods tweaks, so I'll be adding more suggestions or thoughts to this thread (on the matter of feats, at least), if something else occurs to me. A couple more thoughts Have you considered loosening up potion class restrictions in SCS or this mod? I wondered since I spotted that Alchemy: Rogues' Potions allows to create a Frost Giant Strength potions for rogues. It always seemed like an odd restriction to me anyway, but I'd like to know if you have a different take on it. Could be an interesting tweak. (And speaking of disadvantages of rogues... how about no access to the best Strength potions...) Have you given any thought to give access to Background feats, such as the ones in NWN/NWN2 (see info at https://nwn2db.com/library/feats ) ? That is, you have the choice of selecting only one feat for your "background", that gives you a select mild boost and is given to a character only once at level 1 (or whatever level it is for their game). I can imagine though that from a development perspective, implementing this as a background trait would be annoyingly non-immersive. Here's a few feat implementations that occur to me: Luck of Heroes: Universal +1 Saving Throw bonus (or maybe Luck +1) Blooded: Extra 1 speed factor bonus for all weapons (originally a initiative and spot bonus check, obviously not applicable here) Artist/Silver Palm: +1 of Charisma (originally they boost various dialog-based skills) Corteous Magocracy: +20 Lore bonus (originally bonus to lore and spellcraft) Bullheaded: +1 save vs spells and +2 saves against Enchantment magic (originally resistance to taunts and boost to will saves) Mind over body: extra HP points based on your intelligence at creation (something mild, that is)... Snakeblood, previously mentioned, could be here. Spellcasting Prodigy: All your spells are considered 1 level higher. Strong Soul: 1 save bonus to Spell, Wand and Death, plus 2 save bonus against Necromancy magic. Cheers.

Comments are based on the info here: https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/subdocuments_dw/feat_doc.html I love the idea of having feats. Anything that allows your character to be more unique and/or to make them more powerful in distinct ways without relying on items is a welcome addition. For your consideration, I'd like to comment on a few of those: Blessed touch. I think for roleplaying purposes it's a cool idea, but ordinarily, I can imagine almost no one would pick it, since it is relatively easy to find a cure for this (even if we grant that the player will not save scum). So basically I'm not entirely convinced it's a solid choice, perhaps the concept of removing a curse could be expanded such that it can be applied to a few more ordinary situations. (I do enjoy though the concept of expanding the "holy powers" of paladins though). To be fair you could say something similar about Loremaster, but it can be handy, esp. in BGEE. Deadly Aim/Mighty Blows. Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds a bit odd that it's only offered to fighters and not rangers, paladins, blackguards. I could even see this for rogues, especially thieves. Rogue are pretty lackluster in direct combat as it is (barring backstabs, which are not always a good option or an option at all, this problem being the worst for Shadowdancer who lack both poison and traps). Perhaps only allowing to select this feat twice for fighters would be a reasonable compromise (1 for others). Slippery Mind: should probably be part of the Shadowdancer kit automatically, as in NWN, instead of the plain universal +1 save bonus. Empowered casting (all): my only comment is that it's a bit unsatisfying knowing that every class can reach the maximum "power" level of all spells, which is 20, unless dual classing (and maybe triple multiclasses?). So I would probably not take this and find a different way to deal with whatever problems this feat could help with (to be honest, I don't entirely like the fact that spells cap at level 20, at least in some senses, such as duration). I wouldn't know what to do to improve this anyway... Extra [kit ability]: I think this should probably be expanded to the majority of the kits, barring balance reasons. Like extra poison weapon, extra shadowstep, extra aura of despair, etc... now that would be nice. ... And also suggest perhaps some additions which I believe are fair enough. More customization is good, as long as balance is preserved (Jaheira would be proud). I believe you based some of these ideas on NWN/NWN2, so perhaps there could be a few from that list that could be added in the future after the beta phase is over. How about these, taken from those games? Snakeblood: maybe 50% resistance to poison damage, +1 Saves vs Death (either or both) Deflect Arrows: maybe AC bonus to missile weapons Quick Shot: gain 1 attack per round with ranged weapons (is that even possible?) with a damage and/or THAC0 penalty (maybe reserved for Archers) Arcane defense: gain +2 saves vs one school of magic Uncanny dodge: allows high level rogues, barbarians and dwarven defenders to be immune to backstabs Daylight Adaptation: removes daylight sensitivity where it applies Would be curious to know if anyone else has any thoughts on this topic too... Cheers

OK, I reinstalled with that file using the same components as before. Btw, the installation gave me a series of warning for namespace conflict, I'll attach the file. Since I was looking there, there was a file called "sphere_spells_missing", which contained the following: CLERIC_GOODBERRY CLERIC_RESIST_FIRE_AND_COLD CLERIC_SYMBOL_OF_PAIN CLERIC_SYMBOL_OF_HOPELESSNESS Is that a problem? Biographies seem to be broken still when starting the game. But then again, I'm operating with a different version than you do. The proficiencies issue with fighters seems to be fixed. The Favored Soul issue (strings and button) is fixed too. EDIT: Small issue with Favored of Talona Cause Disease: it's necromancy but uses abjuration lights. A shame. I never noticed that bug, but perhaps it's because there's not much in the game that specifically increases only melee damage. But as long as it works and it's documented, it's fine I guess. sfo_warnings.txt

Oh, okay. Glad you were able to identify the general issue. So speaking about bugs, I guess I can report more bugs in BGEE: - Mighty blows (the feat) doesn't seem to be doing anything (?). I created an Air Genasi in BGEE and added 90K experience. I selected mighty blows twice. No difference in damage, only STR modifier is applied. (Deadly Aim does work though) - You can't go beyond 2 pips in any proficiency when starting SoD (I think perhaps this may happen in BG2EE). Considering that if you manually level up in BGEE, you can... there's an issue there, right?

I created an Air Genasi in BGEE now and it says in the biography her mother is a human now. I'm confused.

Funnily enough, I can't reproduce anymore the bug of pressing the biography button... (After the fresh install)

The MR bug is also present in deep gnomes... Not sure if you have handled this universally so I'll mention it just in case.

The biography seems to become wrong when the game starts. In the character editor, it is fine. It does.

OK, the biography is correct in the character editor at the end. It just shifts to the wrong one when the game actually starts.

I do agree it would be better that way. The less a mod's existence can be noticed the better. It's only a matter of deciding if it's possible and worth the trouble to find a way around it...

I remember subtledoctor had a mod that handled this with dialogs, if I remember correctly. Such that when you start the game it prompts you automatically to choose abilities and whatnot. I believe it was a mod that added new weapon proficiencies based on leveling and your stats. I personally don't mind at all if it's a method that seems too "gamey" or inorganic. Such as a spell, or item...

Did you check in SoD? That's where I found all those discrepancies, apologies for not specifying.

Yes. I suppose you got that fixed already somehow!

BGEE/SoD. All of my reports here are for that game.

Sure thing. It happened with the previous weidu, I'll upload my current one. And just to be clear this was installed on a fresh installation of the game. First problem: Create a half elf of any gender. Go to class selection. You'll see Multiclass available. Go into Multiclass. You'll see Druid/Thief among others. Accept Druid/Thief. You'll see in the summary next to the list of menus that your class is Cleric / Thief Second problem: Create a rock gnome of any gender. Go to class selection. You'll see you can select illusionist (not mage) Go into illusionist. You'll see Elementalist, Specialist Wizard and Force Mage. Select Specialist Wizard. You'll see Illusionist once more. Accept. WeiDU.log

Ah, I missed that part! Very nice addition, you were even more generous than in my scenario.

One thing I would comment with regards to balance is that a few things don't improve enough with levels. It's a pretty well established problem with many kit abilities that they don't scale well, especially as far as saving throws are concerned, especially when you get into ToB. For example, Poison Weapon. The saving throw penalty improves to -2, and I would argue that it is on the weak side of things. I would improve it again a couple of times so by the end the penalty is -4. If you have to cast greater malison and/or doom very regularly to have a reasonably good chance at high levels, I would argue that improvement is needed for the class.

Edited some stuff that changed after a fresh install. I used strikethrough and bold to emphasize the changes. Apologies.

In the description of Drow, there's a small text issue: "-- 2" reputation loss. The minus symbol should be next to the 2. A drow created in SoD starts off with 25 + 1 magic resistance, instead of the expected 25 + actual level (and in fact for some reason, the cloak of Balduran did not give her +25% MR, it stayed at 26). Leveling up adds 1 correctly, but of course it becomes 27, not the correct amount. There's also no reputation loss. In BGEE this applies correctly, and updates as expected, as well. EDIT: the reputation loss didn't happen in BGEE after a fresh install, maybe there's an issue there? She was neutral evil already, so I had a reputation of 9, and it was not decreased to 7. A drow created in BGEE has a biography that appropriately states that your mother was a dark elf Eilistraee follower. In SoD it only states that she was an elf from the high forest. this same drow created in SoD did not receive any prompt to introduce any of the feats per 3 levels. Leveling up can allow you to add 1, but obviously missing the previous ones A favored soul in SoD is considered a Shaman in the Strings. It also has the Shamanic Dance button available. Seems to be non-functional, but it should probably be disabled. I made a favored soul of Talona if that is relevant. None of these issues are present in BGEE. As a tangential comment, wouldn't be more appropriate for drow elves to actually have a THAC0 bonus to crossbows, instead of bows? At least that seems to be the rule in the 3rd edition, I think. (Well technically hand crossbows, but I guess "crossbows" could be good enough). Cheers. WeiDU.log

Hi, an update, it worked for me now. I did a clean install of BGEE and it worked. The two differences in my previous attempt were that: - I used modmerge instead of DLC Merge (just found out about its existence) - I had installed previously a mod I was making that modifies shadowdancer 2da files slightly (spell gains per levels, and THAC0 penalties when holding weapons not proficient in) Not sure what the cause is, but perhaps the second one since this component adds skills per x levels, maybe...? I thought I had uninstalled it but maybe I missed a component. Apologies.

This post should be deleted, I'm pretty sure it was an issue on my end, and not the mod per se. Any admin reading this, please delete the post, it's a false positive. EDIT: Confirmed. Installs fine on a clean installation of the game. Sorry about this.