Salk

Cloak of Bravery

I don't see a real need of it so I'd leave it out.

Death Ward

Agree with you and F-man.

Defensive Harmony

I don't think its duration is too short but I don't find this spell very appealing for its level. How is the PnP version of it?

Divine Power

I like the way it is now.

Lesser Restoration

It is situational, yes but it's not the only one that shares this characteristic so I'd leave it unchanged.

Magic Circle against Evil

If you feel that it is somehow a duplicate of Defensive Harmony why was this spell ever introduced? Because it's not a vanilla spell in BG, is it? Doesn't it come from IWD? (Forgive me but it was a long time since I played the game)

Poison

Decent enough but I'd not tear my hair if it was not available.

I find myself sharing (as usual) Shaitan's opinion about level 3 divine spells..

I am with Demi here and I believe Animate Dead should be Evil only (even for consistency with the Turn Undead power) and if we go for it the logical choice for Repulse Undead (I like it better than Searing Light) is to make it a good-alignement only spell. But then the problem is: what about neutral clerics? Will they lose both spells? It'd be atrocious so my proposal is to let neutral clerics gain both spells halving their effectiveness somehow.

Halving a spell's effectiveness would mean making it pointless imo. Neutral clerics should just simply get both spells (as they do for Holy Smite, Holy Word and their evil versions) or only one.

I understand the problem but giving both spells or non seems unfair in both cases.

Would it be possible to grant higher saves for the targets when such spells are cast by neutral clerics? I still do think that neutral clerics should have both but that the spell effectiveness should be minor somehow.

Animate Dead/Repulse Undead

I am with Demi here and I believe Animate Dead should be Evil only (even for consistency with the Turn Undead power) and if we go for it the logical choice for Repulse Undead (I like it better than Searing Light) is to make it a good-alignement only spell. But then the problem is: what about neutral clerics? Will they lose both spells? It'd be atrocious so my proposal is to let neutral clerics gain both spells halving their effectiveness somehow.

Dispel Magic

Useless to keep on discussing the capping option. Leave it as it is.

Invisibility Purge

I agree with you here, Demi.

Wind wall replacing Storm Shield

I like the proposal and would welcome the change.

Holy Smite/Unholy Blight

Following the same idea above, I'd say these spells should inflict half damage to neutral targets. But if Ardanis says that it's okay to make it a combo then how would it be different from my own proposal of making Cure and Cause Light/Medium/Serious/Critical wound the same spell too? If the latter is not accepted neither should this one be.

Spiritual Hammer & Flame Blade

I wouldn't change them. Spiritual Hammer is fine as it is and Flame Blade will be mostly useful vs enemies weak against fire (think how useful it could be against trolls )

Goodberry

Removing fatigue sounds like a good idea to me but I'd make it chance based (10% per berry eaten) to keep it balanced.

Draw Upon Holy Might

I like it the way it is now. The fatigue is a good countermeasure.

Barkskin

I think I'd like to introduce the immunity to critical hits, with a shorter duration as countermeasure.

All the others

They're good as they are. No much work for you here, Demi.

Spells I'd like to see (in order of preference):

Animal Summoning I

Frost Fingers

Obscuring Mist

Long Strider

Bane

About Cure/Cause wounds, instead of making them separate I would just change the effect depending on the target: if hostile, damage; if allied, healing.

Magical Stone

According to me, there is only one way to make it better: improve its accuracy so that it can become a choice when it does matter to have a high chance of a first, interrupting hit. I'd do that and leave the rest unchanged.

1st Level Divine Spell

 

Armor of Faith

I'd increase its duration to 5 turns (1 hour). With ToBEx concentration tweak it may actually become a real must have even with short duration because the concentration check is easier the less dmg the caster suffer, and thus we may look AoF as having a -20% spell failure effect. Regardless, raising the duration wouldn't hurt imo.

 

I'm not sure if druids should have it, but I can probably vote to let them keep it. Assuming within FR lore druids still worship some nature god, and not just nature itself, thus they do have some sort of "faith".

Agree with everything except letting druids have access to the spell.

Bless

It should be fine, I already hugely boosted it by halving its vanilla casting time and increasing its duration from 6 rounds to 5 turns.

 

Druids probably shouldn't have it (they don't in PnP), but if they end up with too few spells I can live with them keeping it.

Just like for Armor of Faith, these are two spells that shouldn't imho be available to druids. You might consider introducing new druid only spells to the game instead.

Command

Pratically cleric's version of mage's Spook. I think it's fine now, though not incredibly appealing.

I use it sometimes. Keep it untouched.

Cure Light Wounds

I'll probably create a dedicated topic for Cure/Cause Wound spells. In short I think this spell should heal slightly more hit points. Not much, but enough to make it appealing mid game to decently cure heavily injured d4 mages, mildly wounded d6 characters, and lightly wound d8 ones.

I fully support your suggestion.

Faerie Fire

Pratically druid's version of Glitterdust. Does it need any change?

No, it doesn't.

Magical Stone

I've tried to turn this ridiculously pointless spell into priest's MMM. What do you think? Is it appealing enough now?

It's better than vanilla, for sure. Not enough to make me want to memorize it though.

Protection from Evil

I do hope ToBEx will make this spell's opcode work as it should. That being said, should I add it "immunity to charm" effects as per PnP even if I cannot restrict it to charms cast by evil creatures?

Your hope is my hope. But I am against adding immunity to charm because that would make it overpowered. For once, I am suppoting a non PnP take of a spell. I think Bioware did right in this case.

Sanctuary

I've read again dozens of pages in the Feedback topic as I forgot the huge discussion on this matter we had with DavidW. After much thinking it seems this spell may not require the huge revision I planned to replace its original opcode, though I'm not 100% sure because of (*).

 

It seemed we agreed on improving it by reducing its casting time from standard (4 in vanilla, 5 within SR) to instant (1). Furthermore we also agreed to (*) make it not affected by divination spells.

 

What do you think?

The agreed implementation suits me well.

Strength of Stone

I would probably reduce the movement speed penalty to make it more appealing.

Yes, do it. Now that IR comes with movement speed penalties components, it's even more important that you do.

Sunscorch

As per PnP, though I would have probably preferred a different spell progression (e.g. faster but capped sooner). Being the only 1st lvl damaging spell (limited to druids) I think this was a truly great addition, and one of my favourite low lvl druid spells.

I am fine with the current progression but I wouldn't mind a faster one since druids can't really sport many other offensive spells of that kind.

In order of preference:

1) Dimension Step

2) Fog Cloud

3) Monster Summoning I

By the way, I am really looking forward to go back to Find Familiar revision! It was sooooooooo long ago...

SM III vs SS

 

In my experience, they are equivalent more or less so I would not change anything.

 

They are certainly not, and even without ogre-mage.

I don't measure the power of a summoning by a mere practical test in a predetermined scenario (built by you). I measure it by checking what qualities the summons have. The Shadows have harder time to hit (not that the Ogre are much better) but they have more staying power, resulting in more attempts to hit. On top of that, they have natural resistances that Ogres can't even dream of.

I still think the spell shouldn't be modified.

In the end, it's up to Demi.

SM III vs SS

In my experience, they are equivalent more or less so I would not change anything.

Some feedback:

Breach:

I am with you here.

Chaos:

It's a bit too similar to Confusion, true. But I'd keep it the way it is in lack of any better alternatives.

Feeblemind:

What about making the affected creature drop anything that's being hold in its hands on top of the existing effects?

Suommoned/gated creatures:

Generally speaking, I would like to see a nerf of their staying power because at high levels the battlefield reminds me of Warhammer 40k and that is not good

Oracle:

Yes to your suggestion but no to merging Detect Alignment. I know it's a rather useless spell but it's characteristic and I would not want to see it gone. There is not only efficiency to consider when you evaluate one spell, in my opinion.

Protection from [Element]:

I support the merging here instead.

Protection from Normal Weapons:

A bit like Detect Alignment I find this spell deserve being "protected" in its current form and I'd therefore advise against changing it.

Spell Immunity:

You know how much I hate this spell (perhaps more than you do) and you also know that I'd like to see it gone forever. Your solution though seems the best that can be attained without breaking SCS's AI.

There is really a lot going on here now.

Some of my thoughts:

Dimension Door

If we want to change its level slot then I would rather see it down to Level 2 (or even 1 as Demi suggested)

Charm spell

I do agree that they should be changed so that they'd work the way they are supposed to. Unfortunately Demi, not only you have been idle in these months. No news from DavidW and Ascension64 either...

Dispel & Remove Magic

I think that these spells are overpowered at high levels so I would not mind a cap. But I seem to remember most people disagreed.

Fireball

I'd leave the radius the way it is in vanilla.

Flame Arrow

I would go for another solution: grant more arrows at early levels like you said but instead of being unharmed with successful save just lower the damage dealt instead.

Confusion

I am also for reducing its duration.

Fire Shield

I would welcome the use of a single slot for this.

Simbul's Spell Matrix

Your remedy would be a bless.

I wrote many other comments but this awful message system introduced after the unsatisfactory overhaul of the G3 board made it disappear somehow. Also, pushing backspace causes serious issues, moving me to a wrong point after having used copy/pasted lines or bolded,underlined, or italic functions.

I find myself in agreement with Demivrgvs.

I just wish he could be back to full modding power!

Hello ericp07!

It's right. The familiar gains the HD equivalent to the caster level. We are speaking of fixed amounts though: Lvl1 1D6, Lvl2-Lvl9 1D3, Lvl10-Lvl18 1D2 and a +1 from Lvl19 onwards.

The system shock portion is something I am actually very fond of because it's one of those PnP parts I am trying to restore/emulate.

The familiars selection would remain the same.

(LATEST BUILD AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST)

Hello!

As usual, I find myself with an idea in mind (have had it for quite some time actually) but I am short of any coding skill so here I am again looking for a kind soul who volunteers to help me realize what is going to be my last modding project.

The idea is basically an overhaul of the Find Familiar spell. The goal is to take it closer to its PnP interpretation, adding some personal flavour in the process.

Practically, everything is ready, I just need a coder that turns ideas into working code (of course, suggestions would be welcome).

Going into details, here are the baselines for the modification:

• Familiars start at Level 1 - EasyTuTu and BGT players can finally use this spell without unbalancing the game
• When casting Find Familiar, the caster will select one familiar close to his alignment [see Table under]
• The Spider has been added as ninth familiar making it so that each alignment is represented by a different familiar
• Casting time for the spell is 12 in-game hours and the spell can only be cast outdoors
• Familiars acquire the summoner's level when the spell is cast and level up subsequently together with the caster (only the mage class advances the Familiar's level)
• Familiars Pseudodragon and Imp grant the summoner a minimal base magic resistance (2%) if within a 10 feet range
• The caster receives half of the familiar's HPs (rounded down). This number changes dynamically when the caster levels up
• Familiars will have soundsets and portraits associated to them
• New/recolored bams
• Familiars will nag when they feel enough time has been spent in the backpack
• At the death of the Familiar the summoner loses the extra HPs. If the summoner is still alive and he must save against system shock or fall unconscious for a brief period (see table under). Regardless, he loses 1 permanent point of Constitution until a new Familiar can be summoned for 3 in-game days. A new Familiar can be summoned only after 7 3 in-game days have passed (mourning period)

CON System Shock
------------------------
1 25%
2 30%
3 35%
4 40%
5 45%
6 50%
7 55%
8 60%
9 65%
10 70%
11 75%
12 80%
13 85%
14 88%
15 90%
16 95%
17 97%
18+ 99%



Familiar HPs progression Table
---------------------------------------

Lvl 1-9 10-18 19+

HPs 4 +2 +1



Familiar Summoning Table: Selection by alignment
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LG: LG, NG, LN
NG: NG, TN, LG, CG
CG: CG, NG, CN
LN: LN. LG, LE
TN: TN
CN: CN, CG, CE
LE: LE, NE, LN
NE: NE, TN, LE, CE
CE: CE, NE, CN

Okay, that is all.

If somebody is interested in helping me with this, please contact me via PM or by posting here.

Thanks!

LINK TO TOPIC AND LATEST BUILD: http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=5278

Nice to know that your IR and SR projects are near completion.

I know it might take some time for SR v4 but I trust you are that kind of modder that won't just suddenly disappear from the scene, leaving his projects incomplete. You might take some time but in the end you deliver. Thanks for that.

It seems I will have to wait for SR v4 to really start playing this game...

Congratulations on this new release! I am still hoping for my own sake that one day this will be compatible with BGT...

Nice to see you again, plainab!

And nice to see you are still willing to work on the BG1 Fixpack!

I agree with all comments made by Shaitan above.

God bless Ardanis...

I guess we could say "who cares, it's probably given for granted that by then you have to rely on Mass Cure and Heal and ignore lower lvl CW spells", fine...but why should it be so when we do managed to keep almost all other spells interesting even later on?

I do understand you have this mission at heart, Demi.

But there are limits. I'd rather not change drastically a spell only because it is balanced for most part of the game and loses its importance for the rest of it.

In a way it is natural to have some sort of high time for spells and forcing them to be equally useful through all the game isn't always feasible.

But it's your call of course.

Cure Wounds

I actually am with Thailog on this one. Perhaps because I am a BGT player and appreciate how important curative spells are for keeping my people alive.

I hope you don't mind if I continue with this discussion. Since I know you are a civil person I try debating.

Call Lightning

Just to make the devil's advocate (because I don't have much problems changing the name if most players prefer so and very few are against it): when you say PnP, you should say AD&D PnP, because within 3E PnP this spell neither requires to be cast outdoors nor to have favorable weather conditions.

This specification is not really need in my opinion because Baldur's Gate is built around AD&D 2nd Edition for its bigger part. I would feel the need to point out what PnP sources I am talking about only if different from 2nd Edition PnP.

Regarding its supposed "background", I know well it could have a non-magical nature as you seem to prefer (as per AD&D - though it still allows a magic resistance check, which is a nonsense), but it can as well have a classic magical nature (as per 3E) as 99% of druid's spellbook. Should we also start questioning about things such as Entangle being usable pretty much anywhere?

Entangle being usable everywhere is:

1) Consistent with PnP (2nd Edition )

2) Easier to envision in, if not all, many indoor environments (vegetation of any kind could find its way through cracks in walls, stone, etc.)

so on my part there is no questioning Entangle being usable pretty much anywhere.

I don't judge a spell by its max dmg output alone, but 100d8 makes it a Disintegrate spell on steroids (with the disadvantage of requiring 24 seconds to take full effect, but with an outstandingly higher min dmg output). Just compare it with vanilla's Flame Strike, which is two lvls higher and capped at 20d8 (with a save for half just like CL).

The problem here is the lack of a more reasonable cap. Still, in the context of the druidic offensive magic and that the spell is intended to be used only outdoors, I don't find Call Lightning, even in the vanilla version, a shame to be corrected at its root. Though I envision the spell as a manifestation of Nature and as such I agree with you that the Magic Resistance check is out of place.

In the end, Call Lightning in AD&D 2nd Ed. has a very specific character which SR changes deeply. For that reason only, I would change the spell's name. This new SR version of the spell will certainly be more balanced and perhaps reasonable. But also less original.