kreso

else I'll start to panic.

..... he just refuses to frenzy.

EDIT:

Could it be in clab file?

@Kreso, I need more time for the actual new beta (you'll discover why when it's out - hopefully tomorrow around dinner) but I've "secretly" re-uploaded b16 just to give you the "new" Frenzy. If everything works fine (side note: I've fixed that 12 sec duration you mentioned) the Berserker now has 5% chance to enter a frenzy when struck. While enraged he works as before, 15% chance on each successful hit. I've also replaced Rage's bonus to saves. vs. death with bonuses vs. spell as you and kalindor suggested.

Tnx man.

EDIT:

He won't Frenzy when hit. I tried even increasing the chance to 50, it doesn't happen.

Archer

If we want to limit his spellbook a little I would probably simply make him not get summons, such as vanilla's Call Woodland Being, SR v4 new low level summons (Animal Summoning).

Another possibility is to add a -1 penalty to spellcasting speed.

There's your Archer.

For some reason, I don't mind him having a few spells - he's a Ranger, not a fighter. Let him benefit from that. I'd think twice before having him over a True Fighter (with pips in bows) in BG1. He's quite limited in early levels, and needs something to compete with full-plated fighters in BG1. I see no problem in casting few spells like Cure Light Wounds, Cure Poison, Entangle etc.

Archer

I guess the best I can try to do is to slightly tweak the various "spellbooks" (e.g. the Archer might not get certain spells) and maybe giving the True Ranger something unique.

So, if you give spellcasting at level 4 to True Ranger, Archer will get it at 4th level also? Mmmm....bad. Can you at least limit how many spells he'd have per level?

EDIT:

Also, much of his power derivated from imp.haste/un-nerfed Grandmastery for non-ending 10 apr (and the fact that he'd stay behind your tanks). Nerfing those 2 is a big hit to Archer.

I've tried out Archer kit (I modified it myself by editing his clab file to simulate KR version - bonuses 1/4 levels, Called Shots a la Fighter. I didn't bother to emulate AC vs missiles bonus but nvm) in BG1. Unfortunately, he became fallen in Baldur's Gate by killing innocents (Bereserker was along as well :D ) so I lost all his abilities, and couldn't remove the fallen thing.

Anyhow - I don't think that this kit will be that much unbalanced. Called Shots are great, but within BG1 he makes them (eventually) at a +2 bonus over a fighter, which isn't that much bigger bonus. He excells at BG1 "open plains" areas, but that is quite expected - everybody with 19 dex and a bow do. Things (by this I mean how much he kills) improved vastly after I got him a Longbow which has +10% critical strike.

Overall he was nice, but lacking behind my Berserker by a large percent (40% Beresker, 23% Archer).

One prominent feature of his is that it's notoriously easy to prevent him from attacking, oponnents would sometimes simply swarm him in close spaces and he'd die instantly if not for invisibility potions - than he has to move away and fire again; in the meanwihile Berserker already demolished 2/3 of oponnents himself.

I suspect he might be really good with his Called Shots within BG2 - especially vs Dragons.

I believe much of his "imbaness" was due to vanilla Called Shots stacking save penalties and strenght drain. Without those, he's good and all, but not gamebreaking or anything like that. Leather armor limitation completely messes him up in BG1.

EDIT:

At level 8, he'd be making Called Shots at +3 bonus over a fighter, but he lost his ranger abilities at 7th....

Technically....

Any chance for a new Berzerker today? I got the Frenzy itch

A little bug I found; in dvcl322a.spl (high level Frenzy) some effects have duration set to 12 seconds, instead of 18. The include all abilities apart vanilla rage immunities - numb.of attacks, AC penalty, saves penalty, min HP and Berserk.

Monk - one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful kit imo. Lacks HP to truly tank, lacks exceptional strenght to deal damage early. Yet, due to his high apr and Stealth feature preforms decently well in BG1, and excells at stunning oponnents with THAC0 boost from stealth. With some str equipment, matches and even surpasses fighter in terms of damage, for the sheer apr number. Immunities are great, Ki pool abilities exelllent as well. Slow time, even if tweaked, I still find very powerful, if not bordeline OP. It's only use is to kill mages usually, but if a mage is not under stoneskin/pfmw he's dead, since he won't be able to erect defences again. If I was to try a no-reload game, I'd pick this class for my protagonist. Paladin would come second.

3) I cannot reproduce that issue (using same male fighter avatar and 1PPv4 legacy BG1 shield). Could it be an issue with 1PPv4 avatars rather than the shields themselves? It's just a wild guess, but in my install I have the old 1PP avatars (the ones shipped with IRv3) and everything seems fine.

Yes, you are right. It's the new avatars which cause this issue, not the shields.

P.S.

Great news for 1) and 2).

Few questions for new release:

1) Will it include "remove critical hit protection" from headgear?

2) Will it include "damage resistance/dexterity penalty" to armor?

2) 1pp v4 has some issues with shield/helmet animations. Are these fixed?

Stealth doesn't seem to give +4 to ranged THAC0,, only melee. Exellent news (at least for me they're news!), regarding Archer's possible OP-ness with 0 penalty on Called Shots.

Divine Spellcasting

.....The latters can dual to both mage and cleric, and thus I cannot disable the spell button, nor remove the divine spellbook.

Ranger-mage?!

I'm preparing myself to the eventuality of been forced to keep spellcasting for all those kits and one case in particular worries me, the Archer. With kensai-like bonuses, Called Shots, and Divine Spellcasting it's going to be the most overpowered kit ever, especially for BG1.

Well, this might not actually be such a bad thing... Can you still make "custom" spellbook for them at least?

Isn't it already set to "no dispel"? If not, shame on me because I do planned it as not dispellable.

It is..... my bad. One time I noticed the icon gone after Dispel the duration must have ended. Checked again, it's definitely not dispelable.

May be just a crazy idea about Heroism. But:

How about making it non-dispelable? Pre-combat prebuff, and Cavalier seems fitting to lift up the fighting spirit among his comrades without resorting to magical means.

-The Paladin classes do not start with Lay on Hands, but the game still informs you on level up that "Lay on Hands increased by: 2." This does not occur on the Inquisitor.

o.O ? Is this a BGEE thing?

I have no such messages. I only get a message at 3rd - Gained ability - Lay on hands. No "increased by 2" later.

-Cavaliers still get Divine Spellcasting at level 4.

Can they actually cast spell? It would be strange considering spcl234 is there and now has both 'disable spell button' and 'disable spellcasting' opcodes...

No, they can't. They can only memorize them.

I like the idea about Heroism. Perhaps some animation like...ummm...Draw upon Divine might? Centered on caster, with a big enough AoE?

Otoh, if this should work like "Remove Fear" then keep it as it is. Once somebody's panicked, it's hard to hit him with it as it is, let alone standing near him.

Ok. Just want to see clones "standing out".

Otoh, I didn't install "Mages use Project Image and Simulacrum spells" from SCS (I don't use them either) so I won't be able to check for those.

Will try now. Above mentioned didn't work.

EDIT

I can target improved invisible enemies and friendlies now, if I have True Seeing activated.

Will need more testing for Mislead (need to find a mage who uses it) but otherwise works. Nice.

Berserker

. I haven't though about PW:Kill but it does seem the perfect counter to a frenzied Berserker.

Well, more to making Frenzy better!

Anyways, Wizard Slayer doesn't get +2 saves at level 5. I looked it up in NI, he gains dvcl136.spl at level 5 but when I edited the spell it seems to have "attack roll penalty" effect assigned to itself.

EDIT;

There also seems to be a bug in clab. file, since dvcl136 seems to be applied twice at level 5. Don't know if this is intended. Also, since the description says: ".....vs practicioners of arcane magic" don't know if this should work against wizards in general or just as a +2 vs spell.

Anyway, fixed it for myself to a +2 vs spells.

Berserker is vulnerable to PW:Kill while Frenzied (should be unkillable, no?)

.....even more strange is that very few noticed how damn powerful (if not OP) the Archer is. Ages ago I did a run with a sub-optimal ranger-like party (charname Archer, Valygar, Minsc, Cernd, Jaheira and Imoen) and the Archer was responsible of like 50-60% of the whole party kills. o.O

Well, you can never argue with cumulative penalty to save vs.spells (Chromatic orb galore) and stat-drain kills

Off topic, I'm pondering about a full BGT run-through with a themed party as well.

Options would be:

a troupe of Paldins, backed up by a Priest of Helm and a thief-mage (still waiting for UH)

oriental style - Monk, Kensai, Asassin, Druid (not oriental, but would shapeshift ), Enchanter (only for Black Lotus analogy), Blade (again, Black Lotus )

Northern warriors - Berserker, Barbarian, Talos Priest, Thief, Invoker, Skald

something based on AC defence - Fighter, Kensai/Barbarian, Swashbuckler, Bard, Cleric, Mage

Resistance/HP- Barbarian, Paladin, Skald, druid, thief-cleric, mage

Woodland Pride - Stalker,Archer,Ranger,Avenger,thief-mage, Beastmaster

Only thing that's stopping me is that I'd like at least one thief kit "revised"..... , I find BG1 very difficult without one and don't like vanilla kits anymore

Yes, they still retain it. I've played them even in ToB and it never occured to me that I should click on that priest scroll.

Stalker is a very powerful kit in vanilla game. In vanilla BG1 (Tutu or BGT), I'd dare to say that apart from Asassin, Cavalier, and Berserker/Barbarian, he's your best bet for a no-reload game.

Backstab x2 from level 1, exellent THAC0 progression, Stealth, 1d10 HP + constitution bonus - what's not to like? Due to high HP he can fight hand to hand as well.

Stealth feature is by itself very powerful.

At higher levels, backstab x4 + Critical Strike HLA usually means dead enemy.

He's not as good as f/t multiclass, but that's a game issue, no single class is as good as multi/duals apart from Bards and Sorcerers, and to a much lesser extent Paladins.

Stalker

Jokes aside, imo the Stalker should outshine every other class/kit in term of stealth. He is the best candidate for a 'hide in combat' feature. Something like:

- SHADOW STEP: The Stalker can instantly "teleport" to any place within 15? yards of his sight and immediately becomes invisible

- and/or a passive ability with a small (on hit) chance to become invisible

Shadow step - I fear abuse with this, and does seem monk-like. On the other hand, he should have at least 1 decent and powerful feature besides backstab, otherwise an Asassin with 3 Rings of Invisibility and 200+ Potions of invisibility will completely outshine him in BG2

Invisibility per hit - this is a weapon feature imo.

Altough, I completely agree with your stealth remark. In PnP, this class is considered a loner (heavily penalized in terms of party members), and enemies are very prone of killing him if he gets cought - he's quite hated. Given that these things don't matter in BG, perhaps add some kind of a bonus (like movement speed aka scouting, +x THAC0 and damage etc.) if he's x feet away from nearest party member?

Other:

Maybe even two points in one-handed weapon fighting style at first level.

This would be a nice change, however, given that Ranger bonuses are hardocoded I fear giving them 4 free pips is too much.

Yet another class with a rage like ability (Feral Rage). No offense meant, but no thanks. I think it's against KR's philosophy anyways...

And I can't think of any good way to explain how charname could've become a feralan...

Dumped in woods, Gorion found him, yet he remained true to his wild-natured spirit.

As for Divine Remix' Feralan (no offense meant again):

- Can only be proficient with [...] katanas [...]

Stopped reading here...

They somehow grew on trees!

Jokes aside, I'm all for keeping KR to vanilla kits.