Shadow Ranger

And another kit idea:

MINSTREL: A travelling poet, entertainer and a musician. Minstrels travel through the realms, earning coin, prestige, knowledge and sometimes even the adoration of the masses. But both the stage and the roads are fraught with danger – a dagger from a ridiculed patron can end a Minstrel’s life just as quickly as a brigand’s sword on an unprocteted forest path. Therefore Minstrels usually are just as proficient in swordplay as they are in their chosen musical instrument.

Advantages:

·         May achieve Specialization (++) with longswords, short swords, bastard swords and daggers.

·         May place 3 slots into Single-Weapon Style.

·         +10 bonus to Lore each level.

·         May use a Song of Blazing Hearts, which grants all allies +1 damage to all their spells, which increased by +1 every 5 levels. (I don't know whether that's possible though).

·         May learn other Bard Songs.

·         May use the Warrior-Poet fighting style at will starting from 6th level.

WARRIOR-POET: This is a fighting style allows the Minstrel to merge the acts of singing and attacking; the Minstrel can combine effects of two songs, while 1 fewer attack can be made per two combat rounds.

·         May use Wandering Poet ability once per day per five levels.

WANDERING POET: When in an inn or a tavern, the Minstrel can attempt to earn money through his musical performance. The chance of earning money increases by 10% every 5 levels he gains (starts at 25% at level 1) and also takes into account the prestige of the place and his/her Charisma score. Performance takes between 2 to 6 hours (randomly decided). The Minstrel is fatigued after each performance.

Disadvantages:

·         May cast spells one level later than a wizard.

·         May not learn spells from the Evocation or Necromancy schools of magic.

·         May not learn 9th-level spells.

·         May not use the Hide in Shadows or Move Silently thieving abilities.

·         No backstab damage multiplier.

Addtional comments:

The way Wandering Poet could work would like Tracking - it'd only work in certain areas, divided between upper-scale, unremarkable and a "dump" (decided upon the availability of resting options and maybe even the actual location).

On top of that the songs that they'd use would have actual titles and would focus less on melee support, more on augumenting the casters.

2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Was actually just thinking yesterday about adding a Barbarian/thief. But it’s a but tough to balance, given almost all of the Barbarian kit’s disadvantages are meaningless in a fighter/thief. I suppose could say, no Open Locks and no Pick Pockets? And no Set Traps? (Restricting Set Traps is quite annoying, but can be done.)

Sounds like the original Conan How about calling it Brigand (or Pillager, Raider, Reaver etc.) and making it focus on survivalism - damage resistance, saving throws. Traps would make sense actually. Rage could changed into "Survival Instinct" instead, which boosts their durability. I'd also consider making them both bow and melee users to further boost their versatility (and it goes well with with the whole survivalism schtick). But no Open Locks and Pickpocketing.

Maybe also add some herbalism knowledge (free healing herbs and/or ones that have other beneficial effects), they could gather these in designated forest/outside areas.

More bastard sword would be nice, I quite agree

Some ideas:

Duellist's Blade +2

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:

• 10% chance to negate any incoming melee damage

Combat abilities:

• Each successful hit grants the user Armor Class: +1 (up to +3)
• Each miss removes Armor Class from the user (up to -2)

THAC0: +2

Damage: 2d4+2

Damage type: Slashing

Speed Factor: 5

Proficiency Type: Bastard Sword

Type: One-handed

Requires:

11 Strength

Weight: 7

Ironhand +3

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:

• Critical Hit Chance: +10%

Combat abilities:

• 10% chance target's AC is decreased by 1 (up to -3)

THAC0: +3

Damage: 2d4+3

Damage type: Piercing

Speed Factor: 8

Proficiency Type: Bastard Sword

Type: One-handed

Requires:

15 Strength

Weight: 12

Do you have any plans for more kits in the future?

15 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

I like a lot of those ideas! It sounds a lot like the Herald kit, which the Complete Bards Handbook set up as a kind of medieval James Bond type, but my Herald kid is a fighter/thief. (Closer to the actual James Bond character.)

I could see a mage/thief version as a palace Vizier/Jafar-style sorcerer-spy in a similar mold. 

And I like the names and concepts for the poisons - "swiftsleep," "dwarfbane." Though I'm not sure I would go to the effort of modding different poisons just for one kit... I would dearly love to do a proper poison overhaul, adding a variety of poisons (sleep, paralysis, hallucination, normal damage, etc.) and apply them to different monsters and kits. But to do it right would be so much work.

Easiest thing might be to make two versions of the Herald kit, a F/T or  M/T. Kind of how the Ninja can be either a T or F/T, or the Loresinger can be a C or a C/T.

A bard song with infinite Charm would be a bit crazy. Maybe something like Enthralling, like Emotion: Hopelessness where those affected just stand around and don't take any action.

I'm not sure what the concept for dueling is... sounds like something maybe appropriate for the fighting Stances in my CSP mod. Not sure the engine can really implement it, though.

I've taken the poisons from here: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Poison - it's a nice starting point, but of course doesn't have to be followed closely (or at all).

Adding poisons to different monsters would definitely be a lot of work, but it sounds great. If you're thinking about adding them to the kits, there are some natural candidates like assassins, of course the heralds (but perhaps they wouldn't be able to pick specific ones?), ninjas...Perhaps even some druid/ranger kits? Another possibilty would be to add a Poisoner to your feats from Scales of Balance mod, with a limited selection (could be also further expanded with some kind of Mithridatism feat).

Making the herald a F/T and a M/T kit sounds great too, that way players could simply pick whichever focus they prefer. You mentioned a Vzier/Jafar style sorcerer, so perhaps even a sorcerer multikit (S/T or S/F) would work?

Enthralling Emanation sounds like a great idea (charm would be indeed overpowered), but that should probably disable spellcasting as well?

As for dueling - I was wondering what could be actually implemented. I orginally envisioned it like a style that adds bonuses provided you fight only a single enemy, but that's probably not possible to do in the BG engine.

Another idea would to have something like BG3's Compelled Duel:

But that's likely not possible either (unless maybe as some weird form of Berserk that would force the target to attack CHARNAME specifically?).

It's just that dueling struck me as something a herald/courtier type would definitely use in his repertoire, as a possible means of assassinating someone without raising suspicions. And if we're talking about a James Bond type of a figure, then it's something that definitely fits

Or they could simply use a style called Fencing, which could be similar to Swashbuckling, but more...disciplined?

Been toying with an idea of a quintessential jack of all trades bardic kit, what do you think? The concept was to give them a lot of options, but to limit their choices:

• bardic inspirations are predetermined;
• thieving skills are very limited;
• weapon proficiencies and fighting styles are limited to what one could reasonably wear and use in a court;
• perhaps spellcasting should be limited even further?

COURTIER: These well-read and refined figures surround the highborn found at the courts all over  Faerûn, providing them with their expertise and support in the hopes of getting ahead. They wield blades and poison with equal success and often dabble in the arcane as well – all in the name of their search for the keys to wealth and prestige.

Advantages:

·         May achieve Specialization (++) with long swords, bastard swords, short swords and daggers, as well as the single-weapon style.

·         May use Inspiration: Luck.

·         From 6th level, may use Inspiration: Mind Shield.

·         From 11^th level, may use Emanation: Charm - this causes all enemies in an area of effect to save each round or be Charmed.

·         +3 bonus to Lore each level.

·         May coat their weapon in the following poisons:

1)      Level 5 – Swiftsleep Poison.

2)      Level 10 – Imvris Poison (Paralysis).

3)      Level 15 – Dwarfbane Poison (Death).

·         May use the Dueling fighting style at will.

DUELING: This is a fighting style which focuses on combating a single opponent, at the cost of every other consideration. This style may be turned on and off at will.

Disadvantages:

·         May cast spells one level later than a wizard.

·         May not learn to manifest other Bard Song effects.

·         May not learn spells from the Evocation or Necromancy schools of magic.

·         May not learn 9th-level spells.

·         May cast one fewer spell per day at each spell level, compared to other bards.

·         May not use Find Traps, Set Traps or Pickpocket skills.

·         May only distribute 10 skill points each level.

·         Backstab damage limited to a 2x multiplier.

Cantrips, being what they are, might be a bit too good. Perhaps they should be more of a support/novelty tool? Like, for example, mirroring Tracking, revealing one small portion of the map, granting Quickstride or conjuring some basic arrows?

23 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

I have a terrible desire to rip apart all my mods and reorganize them to make them more obvious/accessible. Some stuff is just buried right now. Like, the Combat Skills component could be its own mod, but it is lost inside SoB right now. TnB and MnG are a mish-mash of kits and tweaks. 5E-style casters are spread across three different mods.  Etc. I'd love to clean it all up.

Someone talk me down from the ledge!

To be honest I just think that heavily updating the readmes would do the trick, as most of them are pretty outdated by now, which makes the installation process more difficult - it's hard to gauge whether something is working as intended right now.

2 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Well, it is not designed to match the unmodded game, it’s just meant to give every arcane caster a floor of two known spells for every level they can cast. 

What I meant is that by using NPC:EE you get less spells learned than you would have if you just leveled that character normally - at trueclass wizard would, for example, get 4, not just 2 spells at level 1.

I assume it's just a limitation that cannot be overcome though.

16 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

No, it’s most likely a problem on my end. Maybe it’s not handling multiclass kits correctly. If you have a save you coukd turn her into, say, a vanilla Jester or Skald or Illusionist, and see if she gets the item. 

EDIT - yup, tested, that is exactly the problem. 

I can confirm that too, when I set Imoen to just a trueclass Mage I did receive the item. It does, however, like you said, grant only 2 spells (when I recreate a player character with Imoen's 17 intelligence I get 4 picks instead).

Very nice idea! Would it be, however, possible to drag the slots wherever the player chooses to?

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

Something isn’t firing. Do this in the console:

C:CreateItem(“d5clsp”)

You will get an item that lets you learn two spells in each level you can cast. (Go ahead and keep it, whenever you hit a new spellcasting level you can learn up to two new spells… though if you have already learned spells from scrolls it won’t work. This gives everyone a minimum of two spells in each level they can cast.)

Thanks - could it be an UI issue again? I decided to continue playing using LeUI despite the problem with pips not showing when selected I've described before, as that was a purely visual issue. I might actually try Dragonspear UI++ instead (really dislike the default one).

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

Not sure about the other thing, I’ll take a look. I just started a new game with those mods in it, so I’ll look at Imoen. I assume you mean in the proficiency dialogue when she is above 1st level?

Yes - during the "rebuilding" process, in the dialogue window. And also when I later use innate "Advance Proficiency" ability.

I've run into two problems when using the mod to change Imoen's class:

• When I set her to be a Mage/Thief (Jester, Bard or Loremaster for example) I can't seem to be able to pick up Ranged Accuracy, Miscellaneous Skills or Physical Fitness despite being able to when creating a player character using the same classes/kits;
• She doesn't get a spell selection screen and as such has none (aside from these that are granted by the kit itself).

11 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Yes, stuff like the Ring of Wizardry increase vanilla-style spell slots, which will work normally for regular mages and will increase memorization slots for bards. 

Thanks, appreciate the help and the mods.

Thanks. I do indeed only have MnG Bards as my only 5E casters. So in short, you recommend installing:

• SBO: Ability Score-Based Bonus ;
• SBO: Ability Score Bonus Spells for 5E-Style Casting: Component 2013: ability score bonuses increase casting slots but do not increase memorization slots.

As for bonus spell slots item, you mention at the beginning of your post that "items already increase memorization slots" for the MnG Bards as is with just these two SBO components and MnG installed, is that correct? If so I'll probably skip TnB and 5E components that change that.

By the way, what's the setting for Ability Score Bonus Spells for 5E-Style Casting that you'd recommend for the Revised Bards (Might & Guile)?

Is it using solely SBO: Ability Score-Based Bonus Spells? Or using both that and Component 2012: ability score bonuses increase both memorization slots and casting slots?

I've tried SBO: Ability Score-Based Bonus with Spells Component 2013: ability score bonuses increase casting slots but do not increase memorization slots, but that made my lvl 1 Blade character have only one memorization slot (but 3 casting slots), which was rather unflexible (if that isn't a bug, that is).

And lastly - do you need any additional components if you want items grant bonus memorization/casting slots to Revised Bards? Perhaps the COMPONENT 93: Bonus Spell Slot Items Work With Arcanists and Multiclass Sorcerers from Tome&Blood?

Thanks - it's not a big problem, as the points are actually assigned (I do get access to the skill selection when it comes to Fighting Postures etc.) and displayed correctly in the character sheet in the end.

Run into another issue. While installing LeUI early (before quest mods, per your suggestion) did fix the familiar selection screen issue (which I've described in the Tome&Blood thread), now I've got a problem with proficiencies - whenever I add pips into the new ones introduced in Scales of Balance, they are not visible when assigned.

Here's an example, I start with 8 points, assign them to following styles:

While I do lose the points themselves, no pips are actually visible:

Now, curiously enough, whenever I do that with a thief class (multi or otherwise) and I assign thieving skills after selecting relevants proficiency pips, they seem to reset and are displayed properly again.

Luckily this only seems to be a UI problem, as the skills still get assigned to the character.

I didn't have this problem when I installed LeUI after Scales of Balance, but unfortunately that meant having the familiar selection screen issue (Tome&Blood component).

On 7/26/2023 at 11:29 PM, GawainBS said:

If you install "Move Archer kit to Fighter" and then "Add Elven Archer", there's no Elven Archer under the Ranger kits.

I've encountered the same problem.

58 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

I glanced at your weidu.log from the other thread, and I am fairly certain this is because you installed a UI overhaul at the end of your order. That likely overwrote several smaller UI-based tweaks, including this one. I have no idea how to go about fixing it, short of uninstalling LeUI. 

Thanks - so I guess it's best to install UI mods at the very beginning, even before Quest mods?

3 hours ago, subtledoctor said:

Huh. Maybe you are not supposed to be able to get any magical skills. Like, there could be a mismatch between the proficiency allowance and the script. What class/kit are you?

Can you attach a copy of D5CS110.BCS and D5CS110.DLG?

I'm playing as Mage/Thief Blade from the Might & Guile. So perhaps this kit (Gallant also can put pips into it) should be barred from accessing it. Just double-checked and it works fine when playing as a pure Thief.

I'm attaching the files, as requested.

d5cs110.bcs D5CS110.dlg