valky

On 12/20/2022 at 7:22 PM, Bartimaeus said:

It seems in 5E, "silver" weapons were more like "silvered" weapons, meaning that such weapons aren't usually typically made completely out of silver, but just have a silver coating. Which...does make sense, considering silver would be an atrocious weapon material. However, who knows for Gith silver swords...

Sry for the late response & yes you are right. After 3.5E the whole Silver-sword-business/shenanigan deluded a bit. While they are still made out of the metal 'silver', they don't are unique anymore and like the Durgar next door can craft it...and some wandering mage just put an enchant on it.

Though, despite being a +3 weapon as per PnP, I think making it into a +4 weapon with your properties fits the theme quite well, given the hassle it requires to actually craft it. By the time you are done with Underdark you've beaten like 85% of SoA and you shall be rewarded!

Though, my new party is quite evil and doesn't require such a weapon - am usually drunken as shit, when posting, so take it with a smile

arigatou gozaimasu =^.^=

38 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not me, Demi and Mike, the creators of Item Revisions, I just run this "Revisions Revised" off-branch. Unless you're actually talking about specifically my changes, in which case, O.K., fair enough, but you'd have to have played non-Revised IR and know it very well to know which is which, so when in doubt, just give credit to them.

Then I give kudos to all of them! It's literal a mod I can't play BG1/2 without....

Thank you very much for all the hard work!

38 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I honestly don't remember the history of the Gith silver swords: are they actually made out of silver, or do they just...look like glowing silver? I'm reading the Forgotten Realms wiki page on them right now, and it's really not clear to me. Willed into existence...from maybe a piece of a portal to the Far Realm? Maybe it's just assumed they're actually made out of silver, I don't know...

I really need to look up on that further; it was often the decision of our mighty DM *bows down*

The gith hunted them, that for sure - but I think there was no explicit rule to wield them.

'Thy cut down the thread, that is the life, that binds life & death' - in a way they are more powerful. I think they also are restricted to the wielder and/or search for a powerful person....

you could kill but a god with a Githyanki sword ^^

edit: Silver Greatsword +3 

wielded by Githyanki-knights, they look but an average sword until un-sheathed. Then thy glimmer like liquid silver made into metal...

sever astral-cord is prolly the vorpal-effect - save or die.

more powerful version also have a dispel-like or destroy-magic effect.

can be crafted in newer versions

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Carsomyr: IR changed it from +5 to +4 until you enhance it in ToB, and also chopped down its 50% MR to 20% (25% enhanced). IRR changes it from 20% to 10% (20% enhanced) but gave it additional Dispel Magic charges (its original 3 instead of just 1). I'm still not certain how I feel about this, I'm sure it's made someone somewhere kind of mad that the SoA version has so little MR in comparison to vanilla's insanity.

Silver Sword: In normal IR, the Silver Sword is actually not usable by Paladins, which...I kind of get, but I also kind of don't. IR introduced a number of "paladins can't use such an evil artifact!" item restrictions, but unlike something such as The Ravager, the Silver Sword is not an inherently evil artifact as far as I'm aware (decapitation is kind of grisly to be sure, but the other vorpal weapons aren't disallowed to paladins and I'm not certain that paladins would actually have a problem with such). Two-handed weapons are paladins' bread and butter, so it feels like an unnecessary form of pigeon-holing to force them into Carsomyr, especially with how relatively easily accessible Carsomyr is. The "if the death effect fails, then it at least deals some extra damage" was my own invention for making the vorpal effects less "it either works or it doesn't"-y, which also makes it easier to not worry about the saving throw penalty (or lack thereof) being too weak as much.

You got me there! (Carsomyr was way too strong however you look at it === really good nerfs)

The Silver Sword thingie is a good point, though. I might be mistaken, but a Paladin could further imbue his power into a silver-weapon and made it holy and further increase the effect of keen. But I think, there is no real restriction, to why thy should or shall not wield such a weapon. Silver is literally the element of anti-evil and despite being a weapon, that *whirrs and aims to kill* while being unsheathed, I see no issue to some restriction for a Paladin.

It's rather the 2nd effect, that makes it a true paladin-weapon (silver weapons get double the benefit of keen for a Paladin, but that is a mix of house-rules and 3.5 + 5e stuff and some very old 2e reading). No Complain about being 'vorpal' - 'vorpal' is just what it is....

You did some excellent work in making boring weapons useful.

'Lavender Ioun Stone' should be renamed to 'Deep Red Ioun Stone' to better reflect the new effect as per PnP.

Though, it might conflict or rather duplicate the item-component of Rogue Rebalance, as it adds one to the shadow thief merchant. (which is a bit silly, as it can be bought right after leaving the Irenicus Dungeon). A few Ioun stones should be available earlier anyway, by the time you get most of them, they add little to no effect (0.02$)

Ioun stones should probably be renamed in some cases, as a lot of their effects including vanilla doesn't make sense.

- gold: your effect is either scarlet & blue or orange (if drunken, orange looks as much as gold, so it's ~okayish~)

- obsidian (?): -> pink

- silver: -> icandescent blue

- bronze: -> amber~ (should be ~okayish~ same as gold)

+ thanks for the insight in how to edit charges!

Really love 'em changes, while my "good" party is close to finishing SoA - my 'tiny' evil Party just got recently rolled, but is still busy in BG1EE. Highly looking forward to wield a complete different weapon-layout. That sword of the Mask for my Kensai/Rogue ....

It's also good to see, that Carsomyr ain't the OP weapon it once was or at least with SCS - get's replaced by the new & cool Silver Sword very soon. The save or die or rather decapitation effect on a few weapons is really awesome.

edit: noticed you didn't add the 'sword of the flame' (sw1h53.itm) - scimitars are still scarce, even if you get the whack-a-mole thingie in Cloakwood (Rashad's Talon) it would be nice to see it added to some vendor. Ulgoth's or Sorcerer's are probably fine - by that time, you already swim in quite a few +1/2 weapons anyway.

And you can loot a scimitar+2 on top of Dhurlag's Tower - if am not mistaken.

Heya CamDawg,

cool for bringing this up-to-date

I noticed some minor stuff, while currently (again..) having her in my party.

The init-meeting script went into a loop for me, most likely cause of lvl1npc and her level8.cre file had a bow in the second hand equiped instead of the basic +1 sword. (switched her to bow prof for reasons)

- changed the script (g#tfcut1.baf) from/to

    DisplayStringHead("G#Tyris",~"What the...?"~)
    EquipMostDamagingMelee()
    SmallWait(1)
    Attack("G#TFSkeleton1")
    ActionOverride("G#TFSkeleton1",Attack("G#Tyris"))
    ActionOverride("G#TFSkeleton2",Attack("G#Tyris"))
____________________________________________________________
	DisplayStringHead("G#Tyris",104603)  // "What the...?"
	SmallWait(4)
	ActionOverride("G#TFSkeleton1",Attack("G#Tyris"))  // Tyris
	ActionOverride("G#TFSkeleton2",Attack("G#Tyris"))  // Tyris
	Attack("G#TFSkeleton1")  // Skeleton

She always killed the first skeleton, but thereafter nothing happens. Should probably work without lvl1npc ^^

The g#fix.baf call should be placed on anything but 'F'  It was stupid of me to chose that very button and it's still implemented the same way!

I even removed the call for that script, cause some of the *wavs are too annoying *whistle* and I switched them to some basic female sounds (kinda fits).

The flirt-stuff: holy hell! increase the dialog-induced-timer or whatever else timer! The 3hour nagging triggers way too often!

Else still a cool mod and everything is working so far!

Cause the patch interrupted my last try/run in BG2:EE,plus I was further drawn to other stuff and so on ^^ Was bored again and now with patch 2.5 and IRR / SRR (1.0.11) + SCS and am having a blast!

Your item changes are so much fun and re-introduce new cool stuff.... some minor thingies/ideas and possibly some weird text, cause my mind jumps for a bit...err yeah.

- Overall the ranged weapon changes are awesome, while some would probably argue to reduce a bow's ApR down to 1.5, I think and experience (!) that it's well suited. (crit on a 18-20 .. yeah!)

- Pixie-thrower of burning awesomeness (Crimson Dart) .. Sometimes I do think, it does a tad bit too much damage, specially in the hands of untrained henchmen (or proficient)

- quiver/case o' plenty rather easy obtainable, but the bag o' plenty can only be salvaged in ToB and rather late - could be maybe re-positioned -> see next

- slings: the +1 ApR sling is fun, but lacks cheap fodder ammo. Also with all the changes done to this type of weapon (...some for the better: STR anyone?), they feel like a lackluster.

Experimented for a bit with the +1 and +3 ammo bag, but still no real challenge for the dart. Might matter in ToB, but definitely not SoA.

I am not even sure, why I bring this up - cause I never really considered slings to be a weapon of my choice. Dragon Tooth should also be the better choice.

Just sayin' ...:)

- +1 dex item (Ring of the Burglar) | I do get the increase in thieving skills but going from 19 dex to 20 changes nothing further. (thac0, AC ..). Modded the ring to give +2 dex instead, and everything was changed to reflect the 20(21) DEX. The Gauntlets of dex are working fine, but they come already with +2. (edit: natural 19: elf multi-pass mage/thief and a robe, so only items which don't reduce speed/dex *double-checked*!))

- the good ol' Celestial...the stun procc is *awesome*! I just got it in my current game (so much fun with patch 2.5 and the latest revisions of thy mods!) and it's a game-changer. Some ppl might need to have a bigger number on their enchantment to compensate (..who knows ^^) but CeleFury remains awesome and +3 works for nearly anything. Else there is magic...and it's a legandary sword!

Iit was mentioned to give it the resistance it should have, but only maybe 50% towards electricity (immunity would make the weapon insanely powerful in terms of bg2 enchantments). On the other hand, the player needs something powerful once in a while ^^. Gave mine 50% resistance with no other change and it works out ~well; might need to reduce the spell-ST required, cause in a 3 ApR warrior's hand the weapon is just amazing.

- FoA +x/y/z . the slow-procc happens too rarely and could be increased to 2 rounds instead (also various effects have -1% chance to happen ^^ nice topic)

- clubs;  d4 is too low and Blackblood should get its +3 back, cause it is harder to obtain than other +2 - +4 weapons. There are those kind of ppl, who prefer a steady club over +1/2 ApR

- prot. from critical hits: I changed some helmets, so I'm not sure, which one had protection already enabled in your mod: Helm of Defense (no change - it's a helm of 'defense'!); Dragon Helmet (+2 AC/ crit immune - friggin' sturdy piece of dragon armor), enhanced Helm of the Rock (sounds very defensive to me) + Baldurs (legendary?)

That's it for now ... (I do hope, it's readable...)

Sunray's (sppr707.spl) secondary effect, to destroy certain Undead, is set to a +2 saving throw instead.

In this case, you have used a couple Time Stops, Improved Alacrities, a Spellstrike, and a Pierce Shield in order to remove the protections of the enemy character. That's a total of about 4-5 level 9 spells and a level 8 spell (Pierce Shield is level 8, right?). I would expect any mortal human character to crumple under the power of five level 9 spells and a level 8 spell. That's like hitting a Fighter with five Meteor Storms and a Horrid Wilting. If they are not dead/vulnerable, it's time to cry. Refinements also takes Improved Alacrity away from Sorcerers, which helps to balance things a bit. I am not sure if Kit Revisions will do the same.

Damn! That's quite an argument and I am just speechless...

If I go for the Irenicus Example Hell 1/2 the success just depended on being able to cast time-stop or not ^^ (depends, if my mage(s) were targeted or not)

But you are right, the amount of spells in that case alone, should make a caster go fizzle or being unable to cast stuff for quite a long time, since the mind is completely smashed.

[though, it's a SCS scripted lvl 30 ^^ mage in SoA, which on the other hand is completely impossible to beat without SR!]

If all else fails, thief's Detect illusion skill bypasses SI:Div, making the wizard targetable. Another option is ADHW (unless he's protected from Magic Energy), and cloud-type spells. Of course, if he Gates in 3 modded Pit Fiends and given you don't want to cheese them out but fight them, I'd say you're dead.

SInce I was discussing it this with the very author of the mod:

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy284/valky667/gnaaaa/init_overkill_zpsdc37eb02.jpg~original

This is what happens, if I don't do a thing. I know this is an ultimate worst-scenario-case-mod and doesn't seem to be intended to ever work with SCS, but even if my party level was slightly (very) high [Watchers keep = clear | random tactics-reputation-trigger spawn | random Beyond the Law-trigger == massive XP], this obnoxious insane lvl 30 mage was a major pain in the butt.

And that it how itd look like, if I don't do a thing:

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy284/valky667/fiend_spam_zpsb4b94f2c.jpg~original

[i was fully unbuffed/unprepared..since the only working spell to prevent this trigger is the almighty 'Sphere of Chaos'!!!! and it was a show-case-scenario]

I can only second this. It does make any mage battle so much easier, even without AoE. In addition, it makes any other similar spell redundant.

Ha, forgot to add liches

My current nearly mindless performed action: hammer timestop -> hammer imp. alac. -> Spellstrike -> pierce shield -> cast other useless spells, just to get the most of the timestop -> once timestop is done, feel satisfied, to have xyz enemy gone for good within 1-2 seconds (currently Keldorn is casting true sight - just in case ^^)

Within the time stop, the AoE component hits all the time and thanks to the AoE it always strips them naked.

I know, it might be hard to balance, and without the AoE stuff, enemies with Imp. Invis/prot Divination will be your worst nightmare and r*pe you *point*

Very good example of this: (NPC mod: kova & Kiyone, and this stupid wizard is level 30 in SoA!)

http://i800.photobuc...e4.jpg~original

Issue: I can't beat him, without time-stop since he moves a lot...with time-stop it _is_ possible, but he casts time-stop (2x) as well (and his 3 gates *lol*). SInce he spawns with 3 other wizards, I might be getting interrupted. Once I got interrupted am done for good....(notice the nasty protection combo and he still hasn't fired his contingency trigger ^^)

I think, without the improved spellstrike from SR I might just quit the game for good. On the other hand, in this posted example, my sole-classed mage (Tyris) was lvl *erm* 22 or something like that, so she had quite a bit of spell-slots, but Kova still was able to cast only 1 lvl 9 spell thanks to his multi-classing.

So it's a give-or-take situation.

[though, it's a SCS scripted lvl 30 ^^ mage in SoA, which on the other hand is completely impossible to beat without SR!]

Charm

So much more useful for the human player. Are you able to make charmed party members act hostile? Or else disable the ability to control charmed creatures (which would make the spell so much less appealing).

As I recall, they already act pretty hostile, the melee classes at least. However, it would be nice to assign the custom script to charmed character according to his class, so warrior could fight in melee (It's the default behavior for the enemy-charmed characters, isn't it ?), rogue backstab, mage cast some spells available to him and so on.

 

I wouldn't recommend to disable control of charmed creatures, that's for sure.

I'd differ between Monster/Humanoid and if you are able to communicate with your charmed whatever thingie. That'd be also in unison with the good ol' 2nd Edition....ie:

Monster: act completely independent and no control or whatsoever allowed - similar to the current Mordekainen's sword (due to the engine, I guess select all and give an order is the exception)

Humanoid: can be fully controlled

But both types can roll a SavingThrow every round to determine if the charm is still in affect.

That'd be similar to 2nd D&D, as each hostile action of the caster has a chance to break off the control of the charmed critter. Since your typical BG2 caster has some kind of (ranged) weapon equipped and should attack at least once per round (if not necessary casting a full-round action spell ^^), I'd consider this as an overtly hostile act.

Not sure, if such a thing is possible ^^ but the saving throw each round should be...

edit: else, I wouldn't mind if the control of the charmed person/monster is completely disabled (player already has more than enough advantage)

I am OK with Spellstrike stripping all defenses, but that sounds like something you could instead use as a HLA spell for a specialist mage.

I might be wrong, but since the added radius the spell's efficiency went sky-rocket...and strips off anything despite several protection, which should make this very spell harmless for at least 1 cast?! If I remember the Hell-fight against irenicus (with SCS) I just needed 1 spell strike + 1 pierce shield to fully make him "naked"

Correct me if am wrong, but once I can cast this very spell even SCS mages ain't a real threat...

You'd be surprised how many enemies aren't actually evil.

To correct myself then: enemies, where it matters to have a weird & insane high or negative AC are usually evil. I know there are a lot of exceptions, but those matter in terms of different protections, ie. friggin' caster.

If my math is right, he comes close to -19 Thac0 (!) [base: -8, STR +7, weapon +4] so any tiny boost to ones AC makes a very huge difference. Mazzy had something like -26 AC IIRC (forgot to cast def. harmony...and with the 'old' Barkskin) including the attack penalty from prot evil. (+some funny items from weimars i-upgrade)

The base AC, i.e. not counting bonuses not appearing in the inventory page, is limited to -20 + DEX bonus + single weapon style, i.e. -26 is usually as much as you can get, any more would be wasted away by the engine. In other words, there is not much difference whether Barkskin grants +4 or +5.

Aaah, I completely forgot about this and you'r right *whistle*

Though there are 3 exceptions, as they did get applied on the opponents' to-hit roll and not on the visible AC:

-2 prot/evil as mentioned

-4 imp invisibility

-x special armor modifier against pierc/slash/crush attacks

So it's possible in that case to reach at least -32 AC against evil opponents, which are roughly 99% of your enemies...

(since I don't bother to gulp the dex potion all the time, it's arguable if it matters or not ^^)

edit: she only had -24 'visible' at that time, I already counted in the 'hidden' AC boost from prot/evil.

The cap was lowered from +5 at level 12 to +4 at level 9 after playtesting because the spell was considered overpowered. Even in its current form Barkskin is extremely powerful for a 2nd level spell imo, especially because it can be cast on others and stacks with armors.

I agree partially...like I said, for a vanilla game +4 'natural' is a sick boost to the AC. But for a more recent example (yesterday *g*) with the SCSII boosted Demogorgon fight:

If my math is right, he comes close to -19 Thac0 (!) [base: -8, STR +7, weapon +4] so any tiny boost to ones AC makes a very huge difference. Mazzy had something like -26 AC IIRC (forgot to cast def. harmony...and with the 'old' Barkskin) including the attack penalty from prot evil. (+some funny items from weimars i-upgrade)

So he was punishing her for quite a bit and roughly all the time and without Hardiness it would have been a slaughter..for him ^^

Yet he/it(?) was debuffed though, so it gave "it" maybe only a 50% to score a hit, which still did hurt.

Don't bother my comment, as said in SCSII it is okay to change it for yourself, if needed to. But for the majority of players (I assume) the +4 version still does the trick and is already on the limit to OPness.

Was only wondering, cause I was so darn bored that I installed BG2 recently and started playing for a bit, only to notice, that it bores me again without having a real challenge. ANd with tactics/scs it's is actually much more enjoyable

Protection from Evil

@valky, which version of SR are you using? Because I reverted the "nerf" you are talking about ages ago, and now Magic Circle against Evil simply work as a "mass" version of ProEvil which lasts 5 turns as its lesser version.

Silly me has "VERSION ~v3~" according the tp2 file and the hotfix' posted applied manual to the override to avoid messing around with my flawlessly working installation. I learned the hard way to not touch mods installed in before some major ones, like SCS in my case.

Guess I'll grab the mod and manually apply the Mag. Circle change, but am currently using the vanilla version anyway, so it'd make only a minor difference according the duration. And it's the same as the 'real' counterpart from the 2nd edition's rulebook.

Leaving aside that paladins should not have those uses of ProEvil in the first place (though it could be developer's silly way of implementing PnP Aura of Protection), I actually tweaked paladin's version of ProEvil too, and it shares the 5 turns duration.

I c, I only was wondering about the spell in the first place. Hmm, they should have given the Paladin a persistent protection from evil nonetheless to reflect their aura (it's also a weaker version of the spell anyway). Need to check how temple of elemental evil implemented it...

Despite the duration and as already mentioned, my main character is an imported BG1 fighter switched to cleric...am now @24 wisdom (after hell/Lum & card deck) and have a sh*tton of bonus spells. So I really don't care about learning 5/6 prot evil spell on my cleric only and skip the Paladin innate ability completely. Hell, even the mage lvl 1 spells becoming more useless in ToB with SCS and I have only mage armor & shield learned. That gives me more than enough slots to learn that spell.

Despite having reverted the circle to its old behaviour :>

Death Knight

Yeah, it's probably a tad OP. For V4 we'll make sure you'll have to "pay some sort of price" for casting and "bribing or subjugating" powerful gated demons/devils.

Hmm, the Gate summon is already more than punishing according the description, specially for a good aligned party, thanks the amassed AoE spells, which already are a tiny bother in case of the Death Knight, since you can't have other summons. Else they would turn hostile thanks to the Fireball thingie. (and/or fear aura)

I actually haven't tried Gate yet and won't necessary do so, cause I rather stick to the Deva/Planetar overhaul (Celestials), which do their Job just fine for me in case of need.

Else, your other revised summons do their job just nicely and are actually very useful again.

But for a few supposedly hard encounters with even SCS the Death Knight is a b*tch! Mind-flayer dungeons comes to my mind, Kua-Toa dungeon and the so-called tougher Demon Knights and similar stuff. When I was bored with some fights, I just summoned it and closed the door only to go in later to grab the loot *eg*

Only some minor thoughts about Barkskin & Prot from Evil...despite that I seriously am in love with the mod

Barkskin: While I really welcome the change done to reflect the real 'natural armor' behaviour, I don't get it, why it stops to advance to +5 at level 12 as it is supposed to. Doesn't really matter in a vanilla game with prolly only tweaks/fixpack but accidentally makes a huge difference in stuff like SCSII. Changed mine to reflect it in my game though....

(Demogorgon didn't care about Mazzy's ~ -27 AC anyway and continued to hit her like friggin' truck *d00h*)

Prot/Evil: Now that's a serious one in several ways, you made the single spell so damn useful that I don't bother anymore to ever learn prot/evil 10' (or magic circle whatsoever). You kind of switched the PnP duration from both spells and made the circle even more useless with the 2nd condition attached (Any creatures leaving the aura's area of effect will lose these protections within one round.)

From the rulebook the BG2 vanilla 10' circle reflects the real behaviour more closely, cause any creature, who partially got covered while the spell is being cast or got some sprinkles of the components on his clothes too (I think holy water is involved ^^) is treated as being the recipient of a single casted prot. from evil spell and should get the 3 rd/caster version instead. Yet it doesn't matter in ToB and the uber high level you can achieve, so the circle should provide roughly the same duration instead to those leaving it. (henceforth the vanilla spell)

[or for the sake of quoting: A creature unable to fit completely into the area of effect remains partially exposed and subject to whatever penalties the DM decides. If such a creature is recipient of the spell, the spell acts as a normal protection from evil spell for that creature only.]

Anyway, since the abundance of spell slots I have, I usually cast the single version, so I don't really care - though it would make several SCSII fights easier, cause of the partially insane spell stripping involved from certain enemies and a re-casted -2 AC for the whole party (or whoever is in range) makes a huge difference.

Also, the Paladin innate ability should make use of the same duration, but still uses the old duration of BG2, which makes it completely useless, since it lasts like 1.5 minutes instead of 5.

Changed mine as well, cause Keldorn currently could cast 26 times a useless spell in my game :>

I might further add that the Death Knight summon is a friggin' machine for at least SoA *yay* Made some SCSII powered-up encounter ridiculous easy...