polytope

I think a lot of rods (all except smiting, flailing, lordly might and terror) were intended only to be used for their magic effects, never as weapons and this is also the case with every wand except the wand of lightning (which could deliver a shock with a melee hit), the same seems to be true of staves of curing, command, magi (but not the staff of power) and swarming insects, those aren't listed as having a physical attack function. BG2 didn't distinguish quarterstaves from oversized-wand-type-staves but since the staff of the magi is the most powerful, it got a +5 enchantment level, but only +1 to hit and damage because it really isn't meant to be a melee weapon. I guess that was more or less the designers' logic.

This is not my best thread, for some reason I tested with the unmodded OBG flame tongue (which uses multiple #179s as an equipping effect) rather than the unmodded EE flame tongue (which ofc moves the damage to #177s in the feature block). Since #178 is like luck and a few other opcodes it's bonuses won't correspond to extra damage in the weapon's feature block, unless applied (and subsequently excluded by #324) in the exact same order. The first #178 on equipping (and top #177 in the melee feature block) should probably be the bonus versus undead, so that it would be fully +4 versus undead that were also classed as "cold using" if there are any. Or just revert the damage bonuses to #179 and reorder from greatest to least, so there won't be a problem with ceil rounding of small but separate damage increments when striking something that has physical resistance.

In my tests neither THAC0 nor damage bonus stacked, not even when using duplicate flame tongues in each hand, but the erroneously low +2 was used for a "winter wolf" cre that's also a lycanthrope and undead. Is it possible you had another source of damage like the bonus for striking at unarmed (+4)? Anyway, regarding overlap of bonuses: In game there are no undead trolls (spectral trolls are supposed to be undead, but clearly turning by priests would interact badly with the troll death mechanic), no undead lycanthropes and no undead elementals. Cold themed undead are present in IWD, but not BG. There are also no weretrolls or winterwolfweres. So it's really just Cryonax and his blizzard trolls then, plus the frost salmanders, ice mephits, and all regenerating mephits/imps. For what my opinion's worth, it's unlikely to break anything by assigning frost salamanders the "winter wolf" class, whereas trolls because of their emergent bugginess should be left alone if possible (and for the blizzard trolls it's only +1 to hit and damage on a late-game fighter with a lot of other presumable bonuses). As a unique monster Cryonax should probably not be reclassed, even if it means he can't be hit by flame tongue, put it down to a special "boss" perk that he can extinguish your fiery sword (but you have better swords by then so...). A flat +1 bonus versus the races of mephits and imps would be justifiable, doubtful if it's worth differentiating the ice mephits.

You're right, I obviously misremembered this as being fixed at the same time the effective enchantment level versus creature IDS entries were. This flametongue is still a decent offhand weapon later in the game, then.

Quite apart from the incomplete array of "cold-using creatures" for the sword's effects, many monsters with natural regeneration are also missed: Most mephits, imps, abishai and cornugon devils (plus pit fiends, but the sword is only +2 vs regenerating creature so couldn't hit them most of the time). IIRC, regeneration unfortunately isn't a detectable stat either, even on EEs. Although, conceptually, it's debatable that a flametongue sword would do extra damage versus a regenerator that is also immune to fire like imps and cornugons. Even though the sword's extra damage isn't fire, it's intensified against types of creatures that are normally fire-vulnerable. As for Cryonax and his blizzard trolls, it's really unlikely anyone will still be using this weapon if and when they encounter them (they don't show up in Ascension games), because it's only a +3 longsword versus cold based monsters, the party will almost certainly have more than one better longsword. I kind of liked in BG2, it's one of the best reusable early game weapons to backstab a vampire with, also possibly useful against demilich alongside Daystar if you haven't yet been to Watcher's Keep. EE hit it with the nerf bat though by restricting hit/dam bonuses to one hand, whereas belm, which is generally thought of as a much better offhand weapon got no such nerfing. Disregard, only the global +4 enchantment level was removed.

Yeah, it's exactly the same thing as far as the player wasting items when attempting something that wouldn't have worked (your previous example being "need to use your potions of thievery to finish getting everything"). If you can't pickpocket any more from someone, you're not informed as to why, you can either attack them, drink a possibly wasted potion, or give up. The EE's revision of pickpocketing is also a lot easier to get away with than in the original game absent a lot of reloading. I was quoting kjeron, there, you can reply to multiple people in one post using the + at the bottom of each post.

It's actually WEAPPROF.2da which you need to edit, don't know if that file is even present in IWDEE (don't have it installed) it wasn't used in the original, unlike BG2.

True that. Shillelagh and Star Metal Cudgel perhaps, but with the "blade" line of spells, wizard and priest both, it's clear from descriptions those aren't solid items that anyone else could grab. Flame Blade: "With this spell, the caster causes a blazing ray of red-hot fire to spring forth from his hand." Moonblade: "This spell summons forth a silent, weightless sword-like construct made of moonlight that extends four feet from the caster's hand." Phantom Blade: "This spell creates a translucent, shadowlike, weightless area of magical force extending from the fingers of one of the caster's hands." (unfortunately those blades do have visible hilts in sprite, contrary to description) Quite apart from pickpocketing, I'd like it if spells of this kind (and Chill Touch/Ghoul Touch) could remain active while polymorphed or shapechanged (because besides Moonblade I think they're unpopular for a reason, as are druidic shapeshift and 4th level polymorph self). Messy to implement though, and definitely in the realm of "tweak" rather than "fix".

Wasting potions to attempt something? Just a part of RPGs in general, unless you extensively metagame. Examples: Notice a monster is immune to the normal arrows you're shooting at it, switch to +1 arrows and waste a few before realizing it's immune to those as well. Should the game display "Weapon Ineffective (you needed at least a +2 weapon)"? Miss an enemy with an attack roll of 19, gulp a potion of heroism and still miss with your next 19. Again, is it necessary to inform the player "Attack Roll 19 -1 = 18: Miss (you missed by 4 points)"? The only use of thievery potions anyway is to either sell, or drink with the intent of stealing things that could also be sold, those aren't critical resources. I don't see how the unnecessary expenditure of such would ruin someone's campaign to the extent of being a bug rather than tweak. Isn't the magical weapon slot still used for Polymorph/Shapechange attacks etc.? It doesn't make sense to steal a mage-in-golem-form's iron hands. Even with other things like Spiritual Hammer it's hard to imagine taking it away from the cleric who cast the spell. Melf's Meteors are the only case I could see as a stealable item. Currently selected weapon is visible in game for most animations, so it would be obvious to the player, but again, how could a thief stealthily steal a sword currently gripped by someone else's hands, rather than from a scabbard?

Maybe (on installation) regexp search through .spl files and find those with spell school matching enchanter (0x0025) or spell type (0x001c) matching PSIONIC which also inflict a #39 in the feature block; this provides a list of obviously "mind affecting" spells or abilities causing sleep, then Chaotic Commands can be patched for opcode #206 vs these rather than the current #101 vs #39? Still needs to come last in the install, unfortunately, and there seems to be no consistency in modders actually tagging psionic powers as psionic, rather than innate, SPIN775 seems to be the main one to consider on vanilla (others are cutscene only). Wands and suchlike will also be a bit more complicated, and there are also edge cases where the spell/spell like ability causes secondary effects besides sleep if saved against that might not be conceptually intended as mental attacks.

It's essentially the same though, in the older versions the pickpocketing attempt would still return "target has no items" when they actually do, if in slots that couldn't be stolen from or outright flagged-as-unstealable items. You always needed to actually kill and loot the target to be sure you've taken everything possible. Strictly speaking "no items that can be stolen by YOU" is more accurate than "no items", since it covers the latter possibility. Besides, how exactly would a thief know for sure that the mark isn't carrying anything else? It would require a strip search to be certain.

It's always been like that. Trying to pickpocket someone with items marked as unstealable or in slots that couldn't be stolen from (armor, selected weapon, helmet etc.) would return the message "target has no items", only if the player goes ahead and murders whoever they were trying to steal from would they discover otherwise.

I would implement it via the summoning by .spl of an invisible creature on any killing blow with the weapon which executes the following script (or something similar): IF OnCreation() THEN RESPONSE #100 IncrementGlobal("SlainByXXXX","GLOBAL",1) SmallWait(1) DestroySelf() END Then ofc an addition to the background script with TakeItemReplace()... which won't equip the new weapon unfortunately, might be annoying if it happens in combat, but of course you can check for the condition CombatCounter(0) As for the conditions for triggering this, could set it up via opcode #232 as an equipping effect, like Dorn's sword, but this is a problem if dual wielding because it will still trigger on killing hits with the other weapon (and this condition isn't available on non EE games). Otherwise you can EFF target actors which are dead, in the feature block of the weapon, i.e. #177 matching parameter 2 (ids file) = 3 (general), parameter (dead)1 = 3 (dead). However, in my tests EFF targeting dead actors with shell spells can be buggy, so you might instead prefer to have the #146 directly in the weapon's feature block, and exclude actors who aren't dead (by #324 on EE, #177 otherwise).

In my tests it almost never mattered for sleep/knockdown/unconsciousness which seems the most contentious (being that with EE opcode #24 can selectively bypass immunities in its own right). If someone gets knocked down by a wing buffet/Dragon's Breath spell they'll be sent flying across the area, Remove Curse is a touch range spell with a casting time of 6 for priests, 4 for wizards, by the time you've walked your spellcaster over to them to remove it the knockdown has most probably worn off. Stinking Cloud, on the other hand, if you want to use #283 as a sleep-immunity bypassing helplessness (I'm not so sure, besides Chaotic Commands I think plenty of sleep immune critters would also ignore a SC, so needs an additional #324 in the spell's feature block or a #206 in their cre file)... Removing Curse would change little, they'll need to save again next round if they're still in the cloud. As for the longer duration disabling effect of Comet and Bigby's Crushing Hand, need to decide if we still want sleep or a sleep variant as the implementation, rather than stun/hold, as it once was. Any arcane spellcaster, of course, can set a Contingency:Helpless -> Remove Curse, but it's quite situational and unpredictable.

EE hasn't changed this, I believe. About the HitBy([EA],0)...HitBy([EA])The subsequent 0 means (oddly) crushing OR any listed damage type from DMGTYPE.ids. If you don't specify a damage type from DMGTYPE.ids HitBy([EA]) returns true for any attack regardless of the damage being blocked by Stoneskin or protection from weapon types. The other thing is that Mirror Image is different in this regard, attacks soaked by stoneskin trigger the HitBy() condition, but not if intercepted by a Mirror Image. For example BEAR.BCS has this block, only triggered by fire damage specifically: IF HitBy([ANYONE],FIRE) THEN RESPONSE #100 SetInterrupt(FALSE) RunAwayFrom(LastAttackerOf(Myself),200) SetInterrupt(TRUE) END

I'd add the Prestige Kit Pack by Inesius, one of the more balanced (mostly) kit mods I've seen It was hosted on Spellhold Studios, which is down, but I still have the files if anyone wants. I think that mod needs an update to EE compatibility actually, as it includes pre-EE (published in 2008) versions of Shadowdancer, Dragon Disciples (multiple colors) and Blackguard, the Blackguard being IMO better conceived than the version that eventually made it into EE.

Honestly I think it would be easier and less buggy to try to make this a HLA tree than either messing around with the 2da files and level up UI screen or adding a background script/invisible creatures and associated dialogue (which also feels a bit unnatural and immersion breaking). I.e. it would work similar to the power attack->critical strike->smite or extra 6th->7th->8th level spell choice progressions of HLA, first time it's picked grants weapon mastery, second time high mastery, third time grand mastery. Edit: I mean your character will probably be at epic levels anyway by the time you've spent 10 proficiency slots on a weapon, depending on your game 5 slots in a weapon might be achievable at 9th level, 10 slots at 24th, but for some setups you could have 5 slots as soon as 3rd level if you didn't spend them elsewhere, thus 10 slots at 18th level (which is above the threshold for rangers and paladins to start getting HLAs).

Always avoided using #272 for other reasons, so I genuinely didn't know this. Just tested and it's equally true on the original BG2 engine. Only the save/resist/power level of the original #272 are checked, the subsequent EFF in the resref always applies even if it has an associated save and the subject makes it. #177 did not have this issue, it's totally possible for it to check for example save vs spells and death, going through only if both are failed.

I think what he meant was that making a save against secondary effects applied through #272 doesn't end the application of that effect, it will be called again at the next specified time unit and necessitate another save. If you want prolonged status effects that end once a save is successful it's probably better to instead use opcode #146 to cast a chain of shell spells, i.e. the feature block should look like: Save vs whatever or suffer the status effect (and associated cosmetics) for a duration of X time units Also save vs whatever or this .spl is reapplied with a delay of X time units

I think we discovered that speed factor bonuses from WSPECIAL.2da aren't actually applied in game, although 5 stars gives an increase to attack rate which effectively reduces the delay associated with high speed factor weapons. He could've used a scroll though, even a scroll of Chromatic Orb (at lvl 10), or he could perhaps have been level drained. It makes more sense to me than a human - not a Medusa - wizard having such an innate ability.

Yes, but that was a bad call. Shadow dragons in 2ed way back when this was game was published had a breath attack that only temporarily drained levels. It's easy to understand why, every other level draining monster needs to get into melee range and successfully penetrate your AC to drain you of levels, shadow dragons have a ranged AoE auto-hitting breath, it was obviously felt to be excessively severe if that's also permanent.

My mistake, no consensus then, but even so, Assassination is clearly not a combat protection and the fixpack has a history of addressing obvious copyvover bugs (from cloning and cosmetically polishing a file but leaving a few important things unchanged). The protective HLAs have some commonality with wizard & priest spells classed as combat protections, i.e. immunity to instant death effects or damage resistance. There is not one other instance where a special ability that exclusively enhances a character's performance when attacking, rather than their defensive potential, has the combat protection sectype, neither a HLA (like Whirlwind or Smite) nor a special class/kit ability (Quivering Palm, Poison Weapon) nor even a wizard or cleric spell (Shocking Grasp, Slay Living etc., which usually have either the combination or "offensive damage" sectypes). Quite separate to the issue of whether abjuration spells like Breach should be able to strip a fighter or thief's HLAs is that Assasination is a really extreme outlier in terms of its sectype compared to the in game function of this HLA in any case. Stealth from rangers or thieves isn't dispellable, but the description of the Detect Invisibility makes it pretty clear how it's supposed to work: "When the wizard casts a detect invisibility spell, he is able to see clearly any objects or beings that are invisible, as well as any that are astral, ethereal, or out of phase. In addition, it enables the wizard to detect hidden or concealed creatures (e.g., thieves in shadows, halflings in underbrush, and so on)" I.e, anyone in the area who is trying to hide from the caster (magically or not) is revealed unless warded by Spell Immunity etc. It's a mystery how it works, just like the Identify spell (shouldn't it be harder to identify items made by different species? by those you don't share a language with?) but that's how it is.

That flail is really only supreme if you can stack it with other sources of physical resistance, i.e. a normal fighter with Hardiness and DoE takes 40% normal damage from hits (effectively 80% on insane), a barbarian would take only 20%, a fighter/cleric or even a high enough level ranger like Valygar would take only 15% with Armour of Faith. On Insane I think you're better off using stoneskinned character and summons to take hits from really damaging enemies, it involves a bit of micromanaging and SCS AI likes to switch targets to injured characters if they're close enough, but rarely switches targets more than once per round, so if you've goaded an enemy into attacking one character you're usually safe to charge in with a few others. About Celestial Fury, it's still good, but you'll probably be 15th level before you can even specialize with it, you'll almost be in ToB before your character has enough proficiencies to use it for maximum effect, and stun immune enemies become more and more common (as are high level enemy fighters with berserker/barbarian rage or potions of invulnerability/magical shielding) and you can get the Ravager halberd soon after completing SoA (well, soon if you've already done Watcher's Keep up until the final seal). I usually have two arcane casters (don't need to both be single classed) because it's so convenient to be able to throw a Ruby Ray and a Breach/Remove Magic in the same round, or Greater Malison and Emotion. The traumatized elf and bloodthirsty dwarf are incompatible iirc, unless you have another mod to make them get along, I never liked Aerie as a character anyway, but mechanically I think she's fine. Haer would also be a good candidate for using Celestial Fury, since he doesn't need 5 pips to be at his maximum potential with it, whereas it always feels awkward for a fighter who's spent the proficiency points to get grandmastery in one weapon to be wielding one of a completely different type that he's only proficient in.

Hi all For what it's worth I found the problem with energy drain to be not its unsavability but the duration, higher level characters (who ofc have better saves) will absorb more level drains before dying anyway, it's just very annoying to need to find a temple or rest twice to remedy it. I think a recovery period of about 1 hour/level drained (thus 1 for your average wraith, 4-5 for the very powerful vampires) seems reasonable... it's not like you'd kite them for that long. I also made a mod of NPP so that it would last for up to 3 turns but protect only from the first three level draining strikes, much like Stoneskin (on vanilla engine it involves three shell spells, and sectype/school removal, on EE still three separate subspells but at least removal can be done through 321), I also gave vampires a bit better abilities, I haven't published that one because there were other undead that also needed improvement and most players are happy with SCS anyway. I mean, NPP is almost like Protection From Magic Weapons against level drainers, they can still hit you for (usually) d6 + strength damage (only +4 for a regular vamp, might be +10 for a tough one) but their attack rates makes them fairly unimpressive and trivial to defeat since healing potions are so abundant by the time you encounter them. Yes, but this step of making vampires more like mindflayers, (while they have better THAC0 than mindflayers) was done in response to the abundant sources of immunity to level drain, I'd prefer it if such immunity were harder to acquire (and level drain temporary, as is already the case with shadow dragon breath for instance), unfortunately, most AI scripts will assume that the Amulet of Power, Improved Mace of Disruption etc. foil draining, if you replaced those with items that have different filenames (by default AMUL21, BLUN25 etc.) it would likely break some other mod unless you did so with very careful parsing of dialogues and scripts. With the "mindflayeresque" vampires in older versions you needed either a tank with an AC that dodged all but crits, or (more easily achievable) a F/M type under ProMW/Absolute Immunity, or just the usual extreme sorcerer cheese of Project Image -> Time Stop -> Imprisonment... Improved Alacrity storm for the ones that can't be imprisoned, like Bodhi (the last option was also the way to deal with bat swarms before that ability got nerfed a bit). Such powergaming actually makes the playthrough more dry, simplistic and repetitive in my view.

I've tried Spell Revisions but don't play with it anymore, IMO some spells were excessively nerfed while weak and unpopular choices were boosted to an excessive degree and it wasn't adequately balanced, sorry. The summoned Death Knight and Negative Plane Protection (it had such a short duration for a good reason) stand out in this respect. Spell Revisions Revised aims to address these issues but it is a work in progress. Rogue Rebalancing is good, but there are some collectable items you can acquire from the added content that are also overpowered, the new HLAs are reasonable at least compared to vanilla (at least the Time Trap is gone). More challenging mods which are compatible with SCS? I can't suggest any besides the post-underdark encounter added by Rogue Rebalancing (it's harder than most SCS content at that point). More challenging mods instead of SCS? Improved Anvil from blackwyrmlair.net, still the hardest after all these years, critics of that mod often complain that it sort of forces a specific party composition and that the repetitive grouping of certain enemies becomes tiresome, but the newest version (which I haven't really tried) has a lot of new options for single class clerics, and hopefully some of the repetitive encounters will be redesigned to be a bit less grindy... there are also some interesting and unique battles introduced though which get away from the sameness (the battles with Demogorgon and the dragon on the penultimate level of Watcher's Keep are much, much harder and have a lot more content than the SCS versions, there's a dracolich in a secret area in the underdark etc.).