kreso

"better description needed..." LOL .

I think one possible compromise is to make the Stalker's Quarry ability special in that it prevents enemies from going invisible, whereas the other Rangers' Quarry abilities do not.

I like the idea very much...and I believe Stalker is an awesome kit even without it. Since now he'll get a slew of new spells, I think this might make him a very upgraded version of the True class. He'd be getting tailored spells, better stealth, backstab, anti-invisibilty skill and would loose on heavy weapons (which he doesn't really need) and medium armor (he never had it anyway).

Conceptually, I like it.

I fear it could be very powerful (negative resistance +backstab) for a single character to have.

And I don't know if Stalker will be getting Quarry in the first place, or it will be True Ranger unique feature.

Regarding non-magical abilities having "at will" uses, I kinda agree, but we have plenty of them using x/day uses for balance purposes (e.g. Rage, Called Shots, etc.). It all comes down to find the best compromise between concept and balance.

I agree, and I think there is a distinction between Rages/Called Shots and Quarry. Rages/CS are instant - you gain benefits the moment you use them. Quarry takes a while - and it's obviously an anti-boss ability. It's my belief that "at will" abilities are "better" in sense that it doesn't force the players to rest that often.

[

I can impose a huge hide penalty, but are there opponents actually using it?

Good question. If they do, it's a rare occurence - SCS usually relies on potions or invisibility in a minor spell trigger.

I can block invisibility via potions only if IR is installed (because IR makes potion work via spl)

Fine with me .

Completely unrelated, but I hope you know that Invisibility is hands-down the single best spell defensive spell in BG1, and a mage spamming it can solo the game without defeating more than 7 enemies. My proposal would be to nerf the duration of spell/potion/10' radius drastically (2-3 rounds). It would also have a side-effect of making Stealth a rather useful skill, since now it's almost obsolete by a 2nd level spell which has no check needed and lasts forever. At 3rd, it gets AoE version which is insane, since 99,1% of BG1 enemies have no means to detect you.

Stealth skill

I know, my point is that we need to discover if "stealth 100%" means "move silently 100% AND hide 100%" or just "move silently 100%" as the 2da seems to suggest. It makes a huge difference because it would mean that right now a ranger maxes out with a chance around 50-60% when wearing no armor.

I've tested it now with a Human ranger (KR) in EE2-ToB, 14 DEX, level 16. He succeeded in hiding 100% in 10 attempts in broad daylight. Don't worry about it - it just makes light armor more appealing.

True Ranger

a) Would it be better as an x/day ability? Should it be gained later on to give the class a mid-level thing to look for, or will it be too defining for the class to be gained later?

I really, really like bonuses/extras at 2nd level aka kensai +2 speed factor, I was gonna suggest that each kit gains something similar. I'm fine with it being on a 2nd level. Gameplay-wise, you'll probably want your Ranger fighting with a bow early on, so it will balance itself out (very few enemies have HP pools to last for a few rounds, and I'd rather have my Ranger spending time on fighting than Quarry).

Since it's (I'd guess) supposed to be a non-magical ability I'm fine with it being usable at will.

b) I'm trying to have some sinergy with the other class defining features of this class, thus I'm taking into consideration the possibility of making allowing the ranger to target II creatures while using Tracking

Not sure, but you may implement and we'll see how it plays out.

d) in terms of effects this ability currently is an almost perfect copy of SR's Know Opponent, plus Glitterdust inability to become invisible (I'm worried about the latter in particular being too powerful against SCS mages)

It might indeed cause some issues. I don't know if you could code it so it would make enemies unable to hide via potions, but still able to do via spells - even tough, SCS mages sometimes use potions for invisibility as well.

On a side note, one more thing I recently discovered that might be worth trying to test is ranger's Stealth skill itself. The relative skillrng.2da only list move_silently values, thus I'm wondering if that means the ranger actually lack a hide in shadows %. If yes, that means that the ranger actually has half the chances to use stealth than those listed (e.g. even at high levels it's never more than 50% + a small % based on DEX and race).

It's irrelevant, since Move Silently covers both HiS and MS in one skill. You don't need a single point in HiS to hide, even for thieves this skill is obsolete. Blame the developers...

I am in no hurry. kreso might actually transform into a berserker if he has to wait too long, however.

I already tweaked him similar to what he will be in next beta (I don't know if there will be other changes than what was written or the exact percentage probabilities), but am reluctant to play it yet. I'm actually rather excited about Rangers now - all of the changes look really good....I'll probably leave Minsc as a true Ranger now, which I haven't done since 2007 or so.

And I still have to install SCS on top of it, which takes hours. It's probably a wide-scale consipracy Demi & DavidW are plotting.

I must have messed up quite a few things judging by the multiple failed installs.

I once blew a complete install when tweaking Improved Haste, so take your time. I probably (surely) won't be able to playtest today since I need to get up from bed in 7 hours but I'd like to install it tonight so I can put SCS on top of it (takes 3 hours on my prehistoric laptop to get BGT+SCS) and go to sleep.

Demi, had your dinner yet? Don't keep us waiting

.......

Demi, this is outright amazing. I love good news when I come home from work.

Anyhow, T-up for Stalker having self-only II - even in PnP, it's a "loner" class.

Jokes aside, I'll (be happy to) play all 3 of them.

What Demivrgvs is conidering here isn't True Seeing, but Teleport Field. As I said before, the spell is used even by BG1 mages and in conjuction with Missile protection is outright crazy for more than one reason:

1) no access to Breach

2) out of Inquisitor, there's very little chance of dispeling the protection

3) save penalty is huge

4) mages often employ MGoI, making themselves immune to tons of disables used in BG1

So yeah, it's powerful as it is, and making it a no-save would be even worse - there's no real "counter" to the spell, apart preying for a good roll or using up potions. The effects of this spell can be much worse for your fighters than the description would have you think - what often happens is that they get teleported near a mage who blasts them with Sunfire or Cone of Cold.

True Seeing

"When this spell is cast, the caster gains the ability to see all things as they actually are.

I can't help you much with description, really not my forte, but do drop this line from the description. Take it from a Transactional Analysis Psychology student ....

- slight revision of Fighter and Archer's Called Shot features (ranged Trip has proven itself too powerful, especially when used by the Archer, and we are replacing it with Pinning Shot)

You could always make the tripping attack a HLA and give it specifically to the true Fighter or some such.

 

*Edit: Or Monk.

Fighers keep Called Shot:Trip kockkdown feature - but only usable in melee, making it less overwhelming against mages which are easilly destroyed via ranged Trip with non-enchanted arrows if they don't use Mantle-type spells. I haven't yet checked newest SCS in BG2 (according to info, mages do employ Mantles more) so that feature alone could help...more if Mantles with SR are changed to a spell which protects against all weapons, not only up to +x. I think this won't mess up the AI at all.

But even as it is, Mantle-type spells are hugely effective against arrows even without SR and with SCS tweak to them, since you can't get +4 arrows easilly.

Otoh, I'd simply give every BG2 mage a Protection from missiles spell prebuff as well - it's a cheap spell in BG2 and, with SR, makes the mage immune to almost any missile weapon regardless of it's enchantement.

another attempt at introducing Barbarian's Leap Attack feat

As I can remember, what happened with this is that

a) it triggered constantly, even with neutral targets

b) you could get a THAC0 as low as -70

Maybe the trigger could be changed, since that "enemy within 10 feet" didn't work well, or merged with Cleave.

heavy changes to the Berserker kit to hopefully make it less overpowering within BG1 and more controllable for BG2 (e.g. Frenzy loses +1apr in favor of increased damage, and Frenzy mechanic itself is slightly revised)

Anything I write about tweaks to this class is very experimental (I think as so far I created about a dozen different Berserkers) - but few things are certain, from all of attempts:

1)Berserk opcode will get you killed in boss-fights unless you provide him with either huge regeneration while he's berserking or some kind of damage resistance/minHP - nothing else will help him. Even in "relatively succesfull" attempts at making this kit work he had to be a part of a "greater picture" - i.e. - a custom-made party for him (preferably with an Archer as a second physical damage dealer), heavy metagaming (GM in long-swords, evil aligment) and similar; and I didn't like that.

2) damage-per-tick thingies (aka poison, insect bites, even magic missiles) usually make berserker very angry

3) gameplay vastly differs from BG1 and BG2 experience

4) balancing out huge drawbacks of berserking is a pain to handle (how can you balance the possibilty of wasting 18 seconds attack on a mage protected with Fireshields and PFMW, while there are valid targets around? And still not make it OP against "soft" targets like other fighters?)

5) enemies coded as Berserkers get all features my PC berserkers do with new SCS, and that's amazing to see

If possible I'd love to add at least the Stalker, because Beastmaster's Animal Companion might slow me down too much.

Just add Stalker. Even EE developers didn't bother with a proper Animal, he still gets his Fairy Dragon .

I don't think this spell needs any boosting, tbh....it's the ultimate mage-slaying spell as it is, only SI:Conjuration or Invisibility will protect the mage from it when his HP goes below 60. It's one of those spells which are (imo) perfectly balanced already. 9th level, super-fast cast time, very specialized, and very powerful. Keep in mind that this will probably benefit the party (I think AI checks HP treshold) much more.

You're allowing a save vs PW:Kill?

facing an AI which uses Imprisonment is annoying at best, if not game-breaking with the current implementation.

It isn't as game-breaking (all you need do is cast Freedom, if you have it) but the annoyance factor of this spell is extreme.

SCS refuses to use it on protagonist by default.

My question was: does countering gated demons (and tweaking it to counter celestials too) offer any appeal to this spell? Can we imagine ways to make this spell actually usable?

I could imagine this being useful in Ascension, but even there as soon as Mellisan shows up she casts Freedom - in turn, this would make the battle even harder - The Five + a Fallen Solar with dispelling vorpal arrows....yeah...

As for Demons/Celestials - meh. I won't be using 9th single-target level slot on a Demon, be it vanilla/SR/SCS/aTweaks modification.

For example, a daring idea could include all or some of the following tweaks:

- lower casting time

- increase range

This could backfire easilly. The only known ways to protect yourself from Imprisonment is SI:Abj, or vanilla Rage. IR has boots with Dimensional Anchor.

Other than that - one thing can save you - never let a high-level SCS mage get near you, and if he does, and starts chanting some Abjuration spell - go invisible so he looses targeting (does not always work).

Casting time and range increase would, in this case, mostly benefit only AI. None of these changes would make me cast this spell.

Other than that, it kind of breaks the flavour of battles. What good is a battle if you get rid of a powerful adversary without any retaliation? Same reason why I don't use Maze. Maybe people using Maze would give better info on usage of these spells.

- replace permanent timing with "only" a very long duration

Would it make any difference? If an oponnent is out of the battle for 60 seconds, rest assured - when he comes back, he will find no comrade of his alive. If he's out for 5 minutes, it's a pain to wait it out.

The idea has merit (at least in Ascension finale, and perhaps Abazigal battle) but I'm not really convinced (Iirc, Mel will instantly free any Imprisoned targets, Abazigal's pet dragons may be simply immune with SCS).

Imo, Imprisonment is almost exclusively useful for AI. I don't think I ever casted this. Melee range, huge casting time, 9th level slot, and you loose both XP and loot. I don't know if there is any target in the whole game on who I'd cast this - those worthy of it are mostly immune anyway. Maybe Edwin could use it since he gets 4 level 9 slots upon reaching level 18, but otherwise no. And still I'd rather have Alacrity/Planetar and similar stuff.

It seems that every time I check these forums, kreso has a new implementation of the Berserker.

You don't know the half of it.

@kreso, the next version will pretty much include everything you're wishing for. The Stalker really isn't a problem, the only reason it wasn't there in the current version was that in theory it should be out after the Beastmaster and not before it.

Nice. Anyhow - you might wanna try some things again while you're at it. It could be that EE fixed EFF so auras could stack properly.

Basically, try re-implementing Tactican aura stacking for True Fighters, it could work, at least with EE (I don't think it's that important, but it would be a significant boost to AI - most of them are True classes)

And Cavalier....

It does indeed work with BG2:EE.

But it does deserve an update

Some toughts:

- nerfing Fighter's Called Shot (ranged version) so that it disables movement instead a full Trip

- ditto Archer

- Berserker revised - I tried numerous things. One thing I'd prefer to be reverted is that Rage has immunities - AI controlled Berserkers would benefit greatly with this.

I experimented with removing "on-hit" Frenzy and increasing "when hit" to 10%, reducing the Frenzy to 12 seconds and re-implementing enchantement immunities to Rage innate (Rage=Controlable Frenzy without Berserk), applying worse penalties (-4 saves, AC, potions and all abilities dissalowed) and removing THAC0 bonuses completely from the Kit. He got scalable damage (4,8,12) instead of +1 APR.

I ended up with a very bad tanking character who relied on Rage to keep himself controlable if focused, which in turn delivered very big damage. Didn't find him OP by any means (apart when he scores a critical, then he levels everything ).

My new implementation I can't yet get to work properly, and I don't know if the idea has any merit:

Basically, his bonuses increase as he lowers his health - less than 50%, he can't use potions or be disabled, controlabe

-less then 25% - full Frenzy - large damage increase, uncontrolable.

Ranger - Quarry ability implementation

Barbarian - jumping attack

And please consider implementing Stalker (at least early level casting, invisibility or similar).

Will this version work with EE 2?

................

PfMW with Entangle & AoE Breach?

And how do they work exactly?

Same as BG - check for HP treshold (even Blind, which doesn't in BG). It's higher in PnP, however - PW:Kill kills creatures up to 100 HP, unlike BG version.

Their defining characteristic is that they affect a single creature and never allow for saving throw.

Short story - immunity to +X just doesn't work if you can't predict ahead what weapon enchantments you'll be facing the next battle. Which is why I suggest to skip it entirely and make all the 6-9 spells immune to all weapons with target/duration/speed/etc. as variable parameters.

I actually like this. I'd only change duration,however, not target. In addition, you could make Mantle +2 to saves, Imp.Mantle +4 to saves, Apsolute Immunity - well, apsolute immunity to damage/saves are made automatically.

@Kreso, I'm getting old and I guess the version of Psion's Blade currently available to players isn't the same of my current build. Does it still grant full Mind Shield and no Mindbreaking on hit effect?

Full mind shield - charm, confusion, stun, fear, feeblemind, domination, hold, sleep, psionics. No "Mindbreaking" in it.

P.S.

Agree on Drow. You would never, ever, steal Psion's Blade from there.

P.P.S.

I checked via NI. It has a 15% per hit to cause DVMINDBR.spl. However, the .spl file is nowhere to be found.

Psion's blade isn't exclusive in it's use - it's very convinient to have a "mind shield" even in ToB (makes you rather hard to disable, and is amazing on Sarevok, who doesn't need any damage/on hit effects since he has Deathbringer assault). I'm with April's suggestion here. By Underdark, you'll have at least two +3 two-handed swords, and having the first +3 axe in level 4 of WK is indeed late....it's not like it's needed, but I would like a +3 axe, if for nothing than for Korgan.

In addition, Psion's Blade can be aquired at the same time as Greenstone Amulet, with same effects.

This way, players who consider the Illithid City and/or Beholder's Lair too hard can make the choice of spending a fortune to make their life easier, but if those items were granted as loot we would just have convenient items which make the game easier for everyone. Don't you agree?

I wouldn't compare the danger of Beholders to those of Ilithid, tbh. I do buy Psion's just for the rest of the game, but it's not like it's needed for Ilithid - they can't remove Chaotic Commands, which you'll probably have plenty of here. Mirror shield in my install simply gets taken away by telekinesis, so I find it much overpriced for Gaze reflection effect. Psion's blade is of much more use in WK and ToB than Ilithid lair, and remains useful for the whole game.

I'd rather remove the axe from the minotaur, add it in the drow shop in Ust'Natha, remove the Psion's Blade from the drow shop and add it to the Githyanki Captain in the same floor as the minotaur. Kind of makes sense imo.

+1. You get plenty of +3/+4 Two-handed swords anyway, and Psion's blade is indeed tailored for Githyanki.