polytope

I believe this is actually due to the melee attacks of the shambling mounds accompanying Nyalee. If struck by one of those mounds and failing any of several saving throws (at +4, +2, 0) then your character's hp are set to 25% with a staggered delay. However that will also actually increase the PCs hp if it were below that threshold. This looks like a fixpack thing @CamDawg I'm pretty sure the concept is that the target loses 25% of their hp per round (or half-round as implemented) while the shambler suffocates them, so decrement rather than set. Should also probably add a "dying" icon to their attack, to give the player a clue that they're in trouble if hit and failing a save.

Now that I think about it, in pre-EE games rolling for a dwarf only the one in every 216 (or thereabouts, since RNG it isn't actually a fair 3d6) that has a natural 18 gets it either reduced to 17 or rerolled (however the engine does it). So 3-18 with a subsequent -2 penalty indeed puts usual charisma score for dwarves lower than 3-17 minus 1, even though the maximum is the same the midpoint of the bell curve isn't. Since dwarves were among the best races to pick for almost any fighter class/multiclass I guess it's fine to enforce their stat penalties a bit more rigidly.

Yes, that's another difference between EE and classic, it amounts to the same thing though (Cha no higher than 16, and game frozen if you try to make one a paladin). I wasn't aware they'd changed these two files and don't see why anyone bothered to, it works out the same and is the source of the same bug in certain class/kit/race combos.

Dwarves by default have a max rolled CHA of 17 and a further -1 penalty (2DA files ABRACERQ and ABRACEAD respectively), which leaves them ineligible for the paladins min of 17 (if a mod allows choosing new classes for demihumans anyway). It's an old bug for certain race/kit combos. Only matters in character creation screen when the game gets stuck in an endless loop trying to fulfill contradictory requirements of a minimum roll that's higher than the maximum allowable, when actually playing the game there are no further checks except maybe in dialogues and quite a few NPCs don't have stats that match their class.

It wouldn't matter, the bonus for attacking with a melee weapon vs unarmed aren't contingent on the target having a useful ranged weapon - although that does count - but rather on not having a melee weapon equipped.

I'm going to disagree that the problem is the plot or the railroading, it's already railroaded in the late game of BG1 and BG2 once you get to the Underdark really. The problem is progressive late game imbalance due to a surfeit of abilities and artifact level-items, the seeming complexity offered by all the options available to high level characters is redundant because there are so few meaningful challenges at that point.

Not just ranged weapons, also applies to attacking anyone "unarmed" except monks*, I think equipping anything with a melee header as a weapon (beyond the default fist attack) prevents it, this includes monster's natural weapons. *(Monks of course are only relevant in IWDII and IWD:EE)

I don't think base movement rate is cleanly divisible by 5, so it's probably not a 20% increase anyway, and should maybe be converted to a flat +2 bonus*, which should work in conjunction with worn items modifying it. *(closer to the ideal value than a +1, but more powerful)

Yes the beholder is standard for its type, it's just that their original AI prioritizes PCs for eye-power targets, with a few references to summons and nothing about creatures outside the party & uncontrolled, so besides melee attacks it can't do much to either one of them. Now I tend to zap it with a 3x Flame Arrow sequencer before it can try to disintegrate them. A confused creature will only ever attack the nearest creature, so you can tank them with your best protected party member if you want to avoid them harming each other (even in the upcoming version 35, if it's important to keep an NPC alive), I also don't think Web or Entangle were making neutral NPCs hostile in this last version (probably never came up) but if so this can be used to bind up the confused creatures to avoid them endangering each other. I've always allowed myself reloads for obvious bugs, like allied NPCs injuring themselves and becoming hostile, as it's clearly not intended, no different to a reload from a crash to desktop imo.

That's good to know although contrary to what subtledoctor reported with repeating #326s triggering it, unless those trigger a subspell by #146. I know that #232 triggers SpellCastOnMe() also.

The projectiles, as I recall, are tied to the school by default so sparkly gold for enchantment, but since that's the majority of AoE save-or-else stuff plus Greater Malison (except for the Hold spells lineup, which use a smaller golden AoE) it doesn't really solve the problem. Not to mention that it's a balance issue if some spells outrun others, an already present issue, true, with for instance Flame Arrow spells particularly speedy and Flesh to Stone quite slow, but no need to aggravate it.

There are some obvious nerfs though, of spells which he specifically said were too powerful. Mislead, Holy Smite and Skull Trap were called out, while other spells like Larloch's Minor Drain were increased in power but without including new effects that would make the use of such spells attractive to a specialist in particular (I'm not sure if the hidden specialist-saving-throw penalty was fully understood yet when Demi withdrew from modding).

I know of one modded case where this definitely happens, but it's usually irrelevant for a regular Nishruu which can heal only equivalent to a CLW spell from each blow that probably did way more damage. It becomes a problem if CLW is improved to heal more or if the Nishruu is damage resistant. Otherwise the Nishruu script could be rewritten to check if LastAttacker() is a mage or other arcane caster to deny the heal-on-hit thing, alternately, the CLW spell could be patched to not heal more than once per round if target race = MIST or something like that, I think not all mod added Nishruu are definitely mists, but all should use the mist creature animation. I'm not sure it's worth fixing...

Only if the spells inside actually require different types of saving throws, i.e. Web and Stinking Cloud in a Minor Sequencer. Comboing spells with the same projectile-speed and save type (like Emotion and Chaos) still only results in one saving throw rolled (most of the time, it's a bit random). If you successfully saved vs Chaos at -4 then the save was also made against Emotion etc. Note that Slow is faster than most "sparkly" AoE magic, so if put in a sequencer with others will be saved against first and separately.

Yes, but long ago Demivrgvs decided Haste needed a nerf to be at the same power level as other 3rd level spells in SR. I don't actually agree because in spite of the power of Haste it's not a game-breaker in the same way that unmodded game Mislead, Project Image and Improved Alacrity are. And you can probably only use it once (and not more than twice) before your party ends up badly fatigued. Still Haste has to be changed from what it was in SR (i.e. not really haste), as that causes bugs with AI being unable to detect it. The original bug of it doubling poison/disease/regeneration rate is usually trivial, the only way it can matter is with the 7th level spell Regeneration or the Shapechange option for greater wolfwere. Needs a programmer to fix that one. It seems to be pretty ironed into EE. Might as well revert both the spell and the boots to vanilla behavior at that point (i.e. spell grants opcode #16 type 0, boots opcode #16 type 2), at least that's inherently unstackable. Isn't it kind of odd for Haste to be less useful if you're wearing the boots?

I'm interested what happens if MR-by-level-penetrating spells are cached in a Sequencer or Trigger, my recollection is that so long as the projectiles have the same speed (or no projectile) these can end up resolving simultaneously, so that the 2nd spell might penetrate MR at twice the value it should & the 3rd spell three times. Do you think it's worthwhile to add a zero duration #101 vs #166 at the end of the feature block? It will require some time in testing to even see if this bug can be triggered as is though, it's a bit inconsistent but it certainly happens with saving throws.

Rogue Rebalancing should still be compatible with SCS and improves Aran among others in this questline, but I'm unsure where EE-maintained versions can be dowloaded from anymore. It should also be mentioned that by default you get substantially less xp from the quest line of siding with Bodhi to get to Spellhold, so I'm not sure if it needs to be equally hard, on the basis that it's also less rewarding.

Interesting, you use unseen creatures & scripts to keep track of weapon type and number of proficiencies? I considered something like that but was worried it would be too cluttered with slowdowns. About the styles: Without mods it's 2 proficiency slots (specialization) to get an extra 1 attack per 2 rounds , or 5 (grand mastery) for a whole extra APR, but only with a specific weapon, whereas this modification applies to all weapons of the two handed type. The +50% melee damage from strength will also be greater or equal the +5 damage bonus you'd normally get from weapon grandmastery once the character's strength is 22 or higher. My point being, it looks like a better idea for characters in the early game to spend slots on this style than in actually specializing with specific weapons. These look good actually, but maybe reserve the shield bashing thing for 2 proficiency slots and its improvement to 3 (if you're going to expand allowable proficiency point spending). A +1 to AC vs melee weapons and a +2 bonus to the first attack in a round is already pretty good for 1 proficiency spent, especially at low levels when you have few attacks per round and it's more notable to boost even one.

That sounds like a good option which still leaves the spell useful for AI priests survivability, but without enabling the player to trick a high level mage/lich into wasting their wiltings, DB etc. The 7th level version may not need a nerf, since it's the highest possible spell level for priests being "exchanged" in that instance.

I don't regard negative saves from dispellable buffs as such a big problem per se, as there exist other fairly low level spells which give blanket immunity to certain save-or-else attacks, Resist Fear, Death Ward, Free Action etc. and it was possible even in mid-game without mods (starting with a dwarf, gnome or halfling). Mages shouldn't blithely cast at such a buffed character/should try to debuff them. Negative saves from equipped things (multiple protection items, a non SCS tweak) is honestly worse. That said, the stackability of some of those buffs has its own problem. With Emotion Hope & Emotion Courage your characters are already at +3 to hit, +5 to damage for 1 game hour. Add in two short-duration spells, Recitation & Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (same alignment) and you're up to +7 to hit, +9 to damage, an extra attack per round which by default does stack with (Improved) Haste, contrary to the description... oh, and best of all +8 hp haha. Little reason to be a single classed warrior with that loadout available as AoE magic that doesn't have drawbacks in contrast to, say, Champion's Strength or even Aid, even without matching alignment for the more potent version of RWoTF I think I'd much rather memorize it of vanilla CS. It gives the advantage to a party of dual classed fighter->casters, or even thief->mages/clerics. I concede it would be a little harder to get it off in the thick of combat, but then again, it's a 5th level spell not a HLA, priests can have pretty good AC and missile protection (buffs or otherwise) and a ward from single target offensive spells at least. If it's truly needed to keep the short casting time then perhaps it should only grant +50% resistance to all damage, still more useful to the player than the AI though, and encourages stacking with other things like Hardiness, this spoils some of the uniqueness of these two spells though. My preference would be to revert DP/GDP to original casting time and also allow touch range casting on an ally, plus it really needs to be detectable for the AI (my earlier comment on boosting resistances rather than blocking the damage opcode should incidentally accomplish this, but I know it's not the spell's original concept).

Divine Protection (formerly Shield of Lathander), specifically with the reduced casting time, making it instant with the amulet of power. In terms of the comprehensive protection it provides on the fly, the closest equivalent would be a mage firing off a Spell Trigger of Protection from Magic Weapons, Protection from Magic Energy and Protection from Fire; true, all those last longer (if not dispelled) but the mage could still be killed with: Normal weapons Triple Chain Lightning Triggers, or triple Lightning Bolt sequencers Cone of Cold Acid Storm ...and of course the mage needs to be 16th level, and could do this once per rest period, clerics get DP at level 9 and have a lot of 5th level slots by mid game. Even a potion of magic shielding (another "panic button" type defense that can be used very swiftly) only grants +50% damage resistance from magical/elemental sources, no protection from physical attacks, and is rare, expensive and consumable. I think there was a good reason why it was originally so slow to cast.

In my games at least if you do it the other way around it chokes, if you have 5 controlled creatures with gender = SUMMONED then you can't summon anything else no matter what the allegiance or gender field. On the other hand you can have arbitrarily many friendly but uncontrolled monsters with gender = SUMMONED, or controlled monsters with 0x20, but only if they're summoned first.

Unless the most recent version of EE changes this, having 5 "summoned" allies (or whatever value is in summlimt.2da) already in an area prevents any more allied creatures being summoned, regardless of what's in the creature's gender field. One way around this; when you want summon-disrespecting spells or effects, have them set a global variable. The background script needs to be appended so that whenever the variable is of a non-zero value an unseen "spy" creature is spawned next to whoever cast/used the ability (detectable stat on the caster), which proceeds to spawn secondary allied creatures by script, the type & number dependent on what value the variable was initially set to, before returning the variable to zero and despawning. Or it may be fixed globally soon anyway.

There are two ways I can think of doing this if you don't want to remove the summoning cap (which needs a hack anyway on original BG2). Treat the shadows as summons which aren't directly controlled by the player (EA.ids = GOODCUTOFF) like the rabbits from Limited Wish, those disregard the hardcoded summoning cap as much as enemy summons. They'd need to be scripted to attack and follow the party at a distance of course, rather than run around like the rabbits. Abstract the "dark swarm" ability, say rather than 10 shadows you'd get a "single" shadow which has: Undispelable Mirror Image 10 attacks per round, or alternatively... Only 5 attacks per round, but an ability like Fire Shield triggered on hit (say 50% chance) to apply the effects of a shadow's touch to the nearest attacker The second option sort of simulates 10 shadows fighting as a unit, like the Insect Plague spell, which doesn't actually summon insects treated as individual creatures in game.

The thing about implementing a bonus active while outdoors is that it may be difficult to gatekeep and ensure that it can't be used while just outside an entrance to some underground area where enemies lurk, and persist for the battle ahead. Area type is something detectable by scripting and by spell header field, not by any particular stat on a creature. What kind of buffs do you think rangers should get outdoors through tracking? Backstab immunity? Bonus to attack speed factor? Bonus to hide in shadows/move silently? Those are all justifiable by AD&D standards, it makes sense that a ranger's better at hiding in a forest than an urbanite thief. All a bit weak for a situational HLA though. I think every warrior passes on War Cry though, and most on Magic Resistance since it's a set percentage although in vanilla game it can be stacked with a potion of Magic Protection for 100%. There's one other mod that replaces tracking and various other HLAs, Improved Anvil, it's most probably not what you're looking for though.