Caedwyr

I am working on a refresh of my Geomantic Sorcerer and am considering giving it a balancing pass. It is basically a Sorcerer kit with a penalty to its physical stats and casting speed. In return it gets some druid style polymorph and several druid spells including a few custom spells (wave spray, Summon Shambling Mound, and Tornado). At high level it gets a bunch of custom HLAs, both passive and as spells. I would be much obliged if you could take a look at the descriptions in the readme and give me you hot takes on which abilities are problematic from SCS balance perspectives (including abilities that won't play nice with the SCS Ai) https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-druidsor.html I am personally not all that concerned about the Geomantic Sorcerer getting access to already existing cleric and druid spells, that isn't really doing a lot more than what the mage cleric or ranger cleric already allows. The character will be versatile, but still limited by their action economy. It is more the HLAs, both passive immunities and granted abilities that I suspect will cause problems. Still, feel free to let me know either way.

One use at level 4, an additional use every 4 levels Grizzly Bear Level 8 - MBER1INV.bam - Combat - 19 Strength & 17 Con, 13 Dex, Priest THAC0, immobilize on hit attack, get movement speed from SCS, AC 6, 30% misssile resistance, 3/2 apr (8) - 2 apr (12) - 5/2 apr (16) - 3 apr (20), 1d12 crushing Cat Level 4 - Acatinv.bam Utility - Sanctuary, Free Action, Str 9, Dex 18, Con 9, 2d2 crushing, infravision, NPC bump, Mage THAC0, AC 8, 1 apr Dog Level 4 - mdoginv.bam Utility - Find Traps/Tracking, 1d4 piercing, str 12, dex 13, Con 12, infravision, +1 movement, Thief THAC0, AC 7, 1 apr Mule Deer Level 8 - aderinv.bam Combat - Knockback, 16 strength, 14 constitution, 16 dexterity, +2 movement, 1d10 crushing, AC 5, Priest THAC0, 3/2 apr (8) - 2 apr (12) - 5/2 apr (16) - 3 apr (20) Leopard Level 8 - mgclinv.bam Combat - Special attack, 2d4 piercing, 15 dex, 18 str, 12 con, infravision, AC 6, Priest THAC0, 3/2 apr (8) - 2 apr (12) - 5/2 apr (16) - 3 apr (20) Bat (inside) Level 8 - abatinv.bam Utility - Str 9, Dex 19, Con 9, echolocation (Detect Illusions spell), infravision, 1d1 crushing, Mage THAC0, 1 apr, AC 2, NPCbump Timber Wolf Level 8 - mwlf0inv.bam or mwlf3inv.bam Combat - Howl (horror enemies + bless allies), 1d8 + knockdown slashing, infravision, str 16, Dex 15, Con 16, AC 6, Priest THAC0, 3/2 apr (8) - 2 apr (12) - 5/2 apr (16) - 3 apr (20) Rabbit Level 4 - arabinv.bam Utility - Luck Aura (+2, cumulative), AC 7, Mage THAC0, 1d1 piercing, 1 apr, Str 9, Dex 9, Con 9 Revised set of polymorphs above. I'm still 50/50 on using the combat forms or just sticking with the utility forms. I have tried to create a niche for each. Thoughts?

I recall you mentioning that you had snake shapeshift as well. Here's a modified spell icon .bam for a snake. ca#dssn.bam

Here is a revised Boar spell icon BOARB.bam

This is an odd bug. I will take a look.

This mod reminds me a lot of the old Virtue mod, which I enjoyed a lot for its take on a similar topic for BG2, but is sadly is no longer compatible with the current set of mods or enhanced edition.

Wizard eye by description gives you a controllable invisible eye you can move around. The bat stuff needs testing. I dropped the snake form because I didn't like the animation for the snake moving.

Great. I will stick to set speed in that case. Thanks.

I got the wild boar all working just fine, including an icon (recoloured the grease icon), made sure there's a inventory paper doll, etc, but ended up dropping that since I am going to rework what shapeshifts are included in the geomantic sorcerer kit. The recoloured grease icon is below. If you want an inventory paper doll, provide a decent image for me and I can create one for you (though every creature that uses the MboaXXXX.bam animation series will get that paperdoll. The new set of shapeshifts I am planning on using (some still need some testing) are aimed at filling particular niches and being more utility based. Exact stat values are subject to change, but the general core idea of what does what is getting firmed up. Figuring out the combat stats is the tricky part, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up giving different forms at different levels. ca#dsbo.bam

Do people have any preferences for how polymorph spells/druid shapeshifts handle stat adjustments? The vanilla game handles it by setting the player statistics to a value that matches the target .cre (or this gets embedded in the custom .itm that the polymorphed creature wields). This means that it will set the character's statistics to match the value, either raising or lower the character's statistics. The druid becomes the bear in every way statistically. Another way to handle it is to give a stat bonus (+2 str) that the polymorph effect grants, so a druid with 18 STR would have 20 str after shapeshifting into CUSTOM FORM that grants a +2 STR. The druid with threws of ironwood, becomes imbued with the strength of the bear, while the spindly druid is strengthened by the spirit of the bear. Is there any strong feelings as to which is the best way to handle things?

Does the Speedy Bears gameplay tweak apply itself to everything with a bear animation, or just specific files? If I already adjust the movement speed for a custom bear polymorph (CA#DSBE.cre from CA#DSSC.spl, CA#DSBE.spl, and CA#DSBE.itm) and then install the speedy bears, will it result in hyper bears? I'm planning on moving most of the shapshift effects over to the weapon instead of embedding them in the bear, but I would like to reduce incompatibilities.

@subtledoctor See attached for 13x13 png files you should be able to add to States.Bam for Invisibility and Improved Invisibility portrait icons. @CamDawg feel free to use these in the tweaks anthology. InvisIcons.zip

Thanks, adding this to my sorcerer kit mod since I seem to recall that sorcerer kits could run into this issue as well.

Updated the 2nd post with the information provided by MilesTeg. Thanks!

I will check out SoD for the boar .cre. Thanks.

Thanks. I can always adjust the hp.

I'm trying to create a wild boar shapeshift form and while the BG2EE game has the wild boar animation, it does not appear to have a .cre for this critter. I've attempted to give the animation to another creature, but I get a crash when I try to use the shapeshift, making me suspect that there is some sort of mismatch between the .cre file I used as a base and the wild boar animation. I figure the easiest way to avoid this problem is to build off a .cre file that was originally a wild boar and modify it as needed for my shapeshift version. I think the wild boar animation is from one of the Icewind Dale games, but I don't have access these games at this time, hence my request for help. Thanks.

Eseries from what I recall isn't enemy AI, but for player AI. It would just add another set of AI scripts you could select from instead of the SCS Ease of Use AI option. I don't think the order matters too much, but I'd double check the readmes for both mods to see if they say anything specifically about how the two mods or category of mods interact.

Oversight is a BG2 mod. It was created before TuTu and the Enhanced Editions. I skipped the Harder Sendai component because SCS has a component that does the same thing. The Holy Liberator kit is not detected if you also install EET (it won't show up in game).

The post in the op is a bit out of date. I will update it later tonight. For Oversight, those 4 components are installed on BG2 before EET. They haven't caused problems so far during installation, but I still need to do some QC/QA checks. SoD to BG2EE Item Upgrade is installed before EET as per the mod's readme. Based on reports this works fine, but not if installing it later. The current BG1NPCs versions is supposed to be installed after EET. I haven't checked the Coran friendship mod for problems, but I think there are some reports of it working fine if installed before BG1NPCs. I will do some research and see if this is the case. BG1Classic Movies also restores a few more movies from what I read. Again I will double check.

As I recall, Refinements after RR was just for making the Refinements Rogue/Bard HLAs be the ones that end up in the final install vs Rogue Rebalancing's Rogue/Bard HLAs. I think there's some exact info on why you want that order listed in some of the documents.