Demivrgvs

Yep, I double checked that right now. Bats with two handed swords or any weapon work without issues. It's not the animation. Problem is somewhere else.

Ok then I'll try something and re-upload.

For Spell Shield I fear there's no hope even this time around. Crevs is not around and I cannot leave an unfinished build on the link for too long.

Errrm.... Demi, those rats and bats (I tested!) summons just fine if equipped with weapons from ASII or Chaos +2 for example or stripped (removed special attack) version of RATSU. Summoned bats even defend me from Irenicus Chateau sentry golems.

 

EDIT. If there is a way to keep rats/bats for BG2EE even if it means some work for me then I would gladly help.

Wait...do you mean it's not the attack animation the problem but something else on ratsu.itm (maybe a flag or something)? Not sure why something like that could work on vanilla and not on EE though.

@DreamSlaveOne, it's a known EE-only issue. It doesn't like rats, bats, and other small creatures which were not supposed to have attacks. I'll fix it asap. Ignore ASI for now sorry.

@kreso, I'm sympathetic but:

- one of the main reasons we changed the spells was to remove the wonky haste opcode, I don't like the idea of re-introducing 2x repeating Blade Barriers and aura-like effects. Wrong +apr values is less of an issue for IH and high levels, but it still is a noticeable flaw imo. And I don't know if I like to create an inconsisctency, either both spells use the real haste opcode, or none of them. Am I the only one feeling like this?

- if SCS use Haste on a Fighter it still works fine assuming it targets the creature it cares the most and not a random one.

- a 3rd lvl buff granting +1 apr to an army of summons is stupidly OP imo

Btw, doesn't off-hand attack extend the cap to 6 apr?

I've sent a PM to Crevs. He was convinced the code was working. Let's hope he can check it tonight. I'll be around tomorrow morning to hopefully re-upload everything once fixed.

Btw, when it comes to my stuff instead...you found only a single bam mistake within that huge amount of changes? Really? Then I'll have to add more stuff!

@beta testers, do not re-download SR beta until I post again unless you know what may need to be done. I've uploaded a new build but it's not for everyone. As soon as we check a few things I'll post the change-log and let you know the build is safe.

@Kreso, go ahead, smash your head on my usual packaging mistakes

@Kreso, what exactly is the bug? I know I read someone saying that spell shield still needs to be fixed.

Vanilla's Spell Shield has an inconsistent behaviour, such as resisting an infinite number of beholder's anti-magic rays and similar issues.

Anyway, Crevs just sent me a hopefully fully fixed Spell Shield patching code 2 days ago. I've been away for Easter Holidays but I'm back, and I'll do my best to upload a new build tonight which obviously contains that code. Cya later.

True Seeing caster can target with spells

 

Anyone can hit with AoE effcts (but Spell Deflection will block them)

 

Anyone can target with physical attacks.

Exactly. TS caster also doesn't suffer -4 thac0 penalty when attacking the II target with physical attacks.

It would be nice if there was a powerful "dispel all illusions so anyone can target" spell. Does Oracle do this?

Cleric's Invisibility Purge should fully dispels invisibility, both mage's Detect Illusion and Oracle should as well. This hopefully gives a role to that poor Detect Illusion.

As soon as I add Phantasmal Force and Shades I'm tempted to make DI the only spell with a chance to fully destroy illusionary creatures instead of simply highlight them like TS does now. Maybe we could also rename it as per PnP, Dispel Illusions, though the name would strangely make it sound ike an abjuration.

Save or "die" effects

On the contrary, the current dis...grate (someone spell this pls ))) works on everything because it is not an insta pop but a damage dealing spell. One of the best spell fixes for my taste. FoD, WoB and FtS along with the items like BBoD and the Silver Sword could also work 'harm - like'. Which would allow these items to do their thing on the big bosses. Which is their best purpose after all . Demi what do you think?

I'm sympathetic to this request and I'm doing my best within certain limits. Btwm Black Blade of Disaster may still need some refinements, but it already works similarly to SR's Disintegrate thus you can happily disintegrate stuff left and right with it.

SR's Flesh to Stone is already tweaked to not use the real petrification opcode. It's a "permanent stun" on a failed save, with a powerful slow secondary effect which allows no save. I think it's already useful even on bosses considering slow halves apr and doubles casting time.

For Finger of Death I was trying to figure out a way to make its secondary effect more interesting, but I could imagine any for now. Increasing the dmg dealt would just make it a copy of Disintegrate imo. I also considered to add AD&D feature of turning the slayed target into a zombie, but I'm not convinced. On paper that would make the spell ideal not for bosses, but to reliably "replace" a weaker opponent with an undead ally.

For Vorpal effects I considered to make them a bit easier to resist while adding a bit of dmg (e.g. no save penalty to avoid death but you still take xd6 dmg on a successful save). The Silver Sword could inflict 6d6 slashing dmg, AotU could do 4d6 slashing dmg, Heartseeker could deal 3d6 piercing dmg, etc. It's only a random idea on my mind though, I'm not yet convinced.

Holy/Unholy word

Also, the holy/unholy word is kinda imba in the same fashion. It always makes your mages deaf and that means 50% spell failure. let it be ~20% spell failure since you cant avoid it other then using spell deflection with AOE option. The fiends and the planetars just rain these words on you. They should be a bit more gentle with the casters.

Slighty nerfing (Un)Holy Word is on my to-do list, but I didn't thought the deafness effect could be considered OP. For players it's not even that hard to counter imo. What I do think is problematic is the balance when fighting higher lvl opponents (e.g. greater demons/devils love to spam this spell).

Vocalize

Can you remind me how does vocalize work currently?

It cures silence and makes you immune to it for 1 turn.

Sorry but I'm still having troubles. Even when I spellstrike, I can't breach because the mages are still invisible. Then, when I cast true sight, it still doesn't reveal them. Any help?

If True Seeing doesn't reveal the invisible target (it can happen if the target is under Non-detection) just wait for it to reveal himself (note that SR's True Seeing no longer fully dispel Improved Invisibility). As soon as the target is partially visible True Seeing allows you to directly cast Breach at the target even if he is under Improved Invisibility.

Don't let the competition steer you away from your true destiny (releasing IR v4 and SR v4), Demivrgvs!

Don't worry, that is still my priority. I play PoE only when I don't have enough time to seriously mod. I had to delay the new SR build because of RL but as soon as I find a free day without my girlfriend around bothering me I'll finish it.

I'm not saying I can't be convinced; I'm just saying I don't get it. So feel free to explain it. From here, it just seems like a freebie. It's trivially simply to give them extra APR with fists, and that would give players an interesting choice to make as far as using wespons or using fists. And it reflects how they can use both fists fairly well, akin to dual-wielding. Whereas extra APR with a single weapon represents... what?

I seem to recall some issues with +1 apr applied directly to fists but let's assume for now we can make it work one way or another.

The fixed +1 apr at level 1 is KR's take on PnP Flurry of Blows, and even there the ability can be used with the few weapons available to the monk. In theory the monk should alternate weapon attacks with martial arts (e.g. the additional apr could be a kick or something similar) but that is not doable with BG engine.

As a player (Kalindor I think) pointed out early after the first draft of KR's monk, this +1 apr is actually the only reason you may consider using a weapon sometime, without it we may as well give the monk no weapon proficiency because of how badly he would perform with them. Note that even at level 1 your fist deals as much damage as a short sword, but strike faster (fist speed factor is 0 or 1, I have to check) and deal crushing dmg (superior to pierce in almost all cases). With level ups, unarmed attacks get even more damaging while remaining lighting fast.

When it comes to fighter vs. monk: yeah, KR's monk gets the +1 apr, but the fighter is more accurate and deal more damage with that weapon, not to mention he has more hit points, and he can equip armor, shield, helmet, etc. which means the fighter AC is waay better (with IR the armor even grants damage reduction). The staying power of a True Fighter is unmatched imo, and you cannot just pick one aspect of a class if you want to compare them.

I already said I your suggested HLAs seem a good idea. I'll think about implementing a similar thing as soon as we'll reach HLAs, but my priority is to finally work on all other classes first.

When it comes to monks and the enchantment lvl of their fists I would also like to get some feedback from players who truly tried them in-game. I saw a no-reload run of Kreso on Bioware forums and I've seen him encounter immune opponents a few times within BG2, but it didn't seem a problem. Am I wrong?

I might be persuaded to change the +x progression (e.g. making it faster, or cap at +4), but I don't necessarily thing that having to rely on weapons (e.g katana and darts are really fitting imo) in few occasions is such a bad thing as long as it doesn't happen too often. Also keep in mind KR's Monk is much more proficient than vanilla monk when using weapons because the base +1 apr is applied to them.

As always, to refine all of this stuff I need feedback from actual in-game testing, there's a limit to what I can design on paper. That's why I always stress out players asking for feedback.

Non-detection

If I wanted to breach an invisible mage with spell protections like spell shield etc + non-detection + combat protections up, how would I go about doing this?

 

I am able to kill them in my game, but have yet to figure out exactly how or why I am doing so apart from the ol reliable combo of spellstrike+pierce shield but I'd like to find alternate ways to do that.

 

For example, is non-detection a spell protection able to be dispelled by Spell pierce or is it something I need other spells for?

Just consider Non-detection like the old SI:Div and counter it like you did with that spell, with a spell removal (e.g. Spell Thrust, Secret Word, etc.).

The tricky thing is that ND makes you "immune" to True Seeing and similar stuff (e.g. if you are invisible there's simply no way they can detect you), but as soon as you reveal yourself a creature under TS (or Detect Invisibility) can directly target you with everything he/she wishes.

One thing we can discuss is how Faerie Fire and Glitterdust should work against ND. Right now they should reveal the target position without fully breaking a Improved Invisibility state (if they are not working like that just report it).

Cure Wound spells & Resist Fear

Been playing Pillars of Eternity lately and i must say this feels much better when your healing spells are uninterruptable. Why dont we do the same for the mod? Also, spells like remove fear/resist fear could become time 1 casting speed: its sometimes difficult to aim those when your frightened character runs around like an idi.. hasted.

Both cleric's 1st lvl Resist Fear and wizard's 2nd lvl one already have casting time 1.

When it comes to make healing spells hard or impossible to interrupt, that's where ToBEx Concentration Check shines (even more when combined with IR's armors and their damage reduction). Too bad EE didn't opted for it.

As discussed recently on another post, SR already improved Cure Wound spells casting time. It was 5 for all CW spells in vanilla (insane for a CLW) and it now is 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Heal went from a full round to half.

OFF-TOPIC: I'm playing a bit of PoE too (not much though). They did quite a few things really well (e.g. giving a purpose to all stats), but the more I play the more I feel they focused too much on raw combat when designing the classes. Every spell and ability is just a a bunch of dmg or defense numbers. Anyway, I'll post a more detailed "review" sooner or later.

Rant: WTF with my new PC quotes doesn't work? Is it a "feature" of this damn Windows 8.1?

Anyway, I'll fix the mentioned issues thanks. A new KR build will shortly follow SR one.

Spike Growth the 3rd level druid spell? If so it's in IWDEE... does IWDification bring it over?

yup

Yeah, but that mod implements the animation using invisible creatures that randomly teleport around (via teleport field). I was hoping to use a more standard solution, and I'm not even convinced by IWD animation because it seems too "flashy/colorful".

Did anyone ever check this on vanilla BG? I don't have a clean install, but will definitely check with SR. It seems to have a weird mechanic (see this post), but I never noticed it.

Interesting... I never noticed it, could it be EE only? I wouldn't like that feature much anyway, for some specialization it's completely useless to get that +2 save bonus (e.g. diviner, illusionist, abjurer).

On a side note, I just finished packaging Magic Fang. I hope you guys will like this spell because implementing it required more than an hour and 35 files! Now, if only I could remember how I tweaked Entangle animation back then for Angurvadal Flame Whip (I changed its color to flame-like but now I cannot find any color reference anywhere!) I'd love to implement Spike Growth too.

Did you get all the icons you needed, Demi?

I'll need a few more in the future, but thanks to DreamSlaveOne I got pretty much all bams I needed. They also blend really well with vanilla's ones imo.

Salk is pretty much spot on. He does seems to know me and "my story". As he says, disappearing for almost one year made me really really rusty, I have like 25% of the free time I once had, and in particular not having Arda around has been terrible for me (I miss u my friend).

Anyway, even without Arda and Mike, IRV4 is just 1-2 beta builds away from a final release (I cannot imagine this taking more than 3-4 weeks) and while SR is a bit more behind I think the next build will be the biggest step ever in terms of finally including the discussed new spells.

The problem is that we are encountering way more EE-related "issues" than I could imagine and combining that with the new additions is making the last few builds less stable than previous ones. I fear I really cannot give an eta for a final SRV4 release.

The only good thing out of this is that both IR and SR V4 will be extremely polished builds unlike the first V3 (just look at V3 hotfixes!).

Guys, is the spell shield fixed in the latest install or i should still modify the files in SCS?

Not fully. Arda fixed part of the problems with the code but it's still not fully fixed, and I fear both Arda and Crevs are too busy right now.

As soon as they give me the correct code I'll release a new build. Btw that build will be EPIC imo. Let's just say Monster Summoning spells are not the only spells I'm working on.

You guys have my BIG THANKS for your work on this mod. Keep up the good work! By the way, could I get a link to the beta ?

Sure, if you promise to give me some feedback.

Let it be it is really good weapon. If you dont like the weapon you just dont use it thats what i usually do with the things i dont like (ie shield of Balduran).

I'm speaking as IR modder, not as a player, but don't worry, I'm not going to remove it.

Btw remove chaos spell its imbalanced

Within the next build the plan was to replace its spell slot with Waves of Fatigue, but instead of fully removing Chaos I'm "moving it to a higher lvl", probably merging it with Sphere of Chaos.

Can you guys tell me if there is an evil version of Carsomyr for Blackguard? I see the Unholy Reaver. It is suited for anti-paladins. Is that Blackguard?

Yes, I don't know why EE didn't used the Anti-paladin class to create the Blackguard but Unholy Reaver should be usable by both. That being said, I don't like this sword much. Between Soul Reaver, Gram the Sword of Grief and the Silver Sword there was no need for a copy/past of Carsomyr imo.

I think it would be lovely if Regeneration-type spells are to be made undispellable.

Mmm...explanation? Unless we find a reason for it (e.g. alteration spells cannot be dispelled?) I'm not convinced of it.

Rant: I like what they did with Dispel Magic within D&D 5E (single target, cannot counter spells of higher lvl than the spell slot used to cast Dispel itself). I often feel a lot of our balancing issues would not be there if this spell was not as OP as it is right now.

Demi you ve been saying that "Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility" SCS component is not needed. This means that You need true sight or detect invisibility up and running to cast antimagics at invisible mages?

Yes, you need Detect Invisibility (I still believe it should be renamed See Invisibility as per 3E) or True Seeing to target invisible creatures. Alternatively Spell Thrust still has an AoE, even bigger than the one SCS introduced back then (15 feet instead of 5).

Does the AI abide this rule? Because i know there are many creatures in the game that see and attack straight through invisibility and sanctuary. Liches, elder orbs all of them do that. They are super powerful and all that.

Afaik those creatures can cast as if they have a permanent SR's Detect Invisibility yes.

Btw is it possible to add contingency conditions "when hit by dispel magic"?

The god of ToBEx isn't around since ages start praying EE developers.

What happens if i install IR mid walkthrough?

Afaik you can safely install Main Component and all global changes mid-game.

The only component which could cause minor inconsistencies is Store Revisions because it may place an item you already have in a different place (thus giving you a second one), or you may not find an item anymore because it was moved to a quest you already did.

And where do i see the items listing?

You mean this?

Totemic Druid

Oh, by the way, KR's totemic druid is a cheese incarnate, but that probably should go into a respective subforum

KR's Totemic druid isn't even available to the public.

Protection from Acid

Well, what can i say. protection from acid is now a must have spell )) A natural counter to mage's acid shield.

Cure Wound spells

Can we have a faster casting time for cure wounds and heal/great restore spells? I think that clerics need a bit of buff in general as a part of the team. While i like the new empowered cure wounds spells, they could be cast faster like you know make them all 1-2 casting time. Should be able to land those reliably in the thick of things just because this promotes party play with cleric healers instead of everyone gulping potions.

 

Currently the bonus health healed with the buffed cure wounds spells still dont give a clear advantage when compared to drinking potions which cant be interrupted Imo, but ofc the cure critical wounds is extremely powerful with ~60 hp healed. Thats half the health of a top level fighter. Just a bit of speed up needed with all the spells flying around.

Mmm...Cure Light/Moderate/Serious/Critical Wounds already have casting time 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. I also halved casting time of Heal (from 9 to 5). If you play with IR there's a couple of ways to improve cleric's casting speed a bit, which means these spells get super fast to cast.

Wand of Paralyzation is 60 seconds stun, with a power level of 5 and save at -3 (vs wands). Ya, it's good.

So...it's pretty much an Improved Hold Monster because for some reason I let it keep stun opcode rather than hold (why did I do that?) and it even has a slightly harsher save penalty! I do think it needs to be changed at least a little bit.

how do i get around the 24 spells at sorcerer learn spells of X lvl screen at lvl up??

On EE you simply cannot. Only with ToBEx.

i know how much you're loving EE these days demi

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