subtledoctor

I would love it if wild mages could cast normally in wild magic areas. That would be a wonderful switcheroo. Or maybe just get a bump to their surge result, so there would still be wild magic but they would be better at magic there than other casters. The former is probably not possible. But the latter... could a mod run through areas looking for a wild magic flag, and apply a scripted spell with an op281 effect targeting wild mages? Hmm... I write this in the CDTweaks forum, but now I kind of want to do it myself I don't know how wild magic areas are flagged/coded, however. EDIT - looks like it is done in the area scripts: IF !GlobalTimerNotExpired("WildmagicTimer","AR3009") // Watcher's Keep -- Wild Magic ? THEN RESPONSE #100 ApplySpell(Player1,WILD_MAGIC_AREA) // SPIN645.SPL (No such index) SetGlobalTimer("WildmagicTimer","AR3009",14) // Watcher's Keep -- Wild Magic ? END Lava does the same thing to the Firewine Bridge area (and Firewine ruins dungeon!) in SotSC. So I guess a mod would run through every area script looking for application SPIN624/WILD_MAGIC_AREA, and then add a block with a spell targeting wild mages. Doable! ...but not a top priority.

Another note on Breagar: his kit is SUPER underwhelming. Advantages: a bit of fire resistance (meh) innate Spiritual Hammer (meh) Disadvantages Can only get GM in two weapon proficiencies (doesn't say what the limit is for others) No shield-fighting, no dual-wielding, and (spoiler for the mod's BG1 content) That is rough for a basic fighter kit with not much to do except front-line work. The ability to tank is severely hampered by the lack of shield use, and there's nothing that really makes up for it. I'll have to think of some stuff to spice it up without leaving the "master smith" theme behind. An obvious special ability is the Enchanted Weapon spell... though that spell is of extremely limited utility so it doesn't add much. Maybe something sound-based? The Smith is so use to the ringing of his hammer against an anvil that he can perform a special Thunderwave-style attack? Kind of like a paladin's Smite, but themed for a smith. Maybe something defensive? Maybe the smith's intimate knowledge of the form and maintenance of armor grants a bonus to AC or DR? That would offset the lack of shields - to an extent.

Okay, I may have been swayed by the question of when to dual-class. I went back and loaded a save at 3rd level, before picking up Minsc. I could play this fighter to level 6, picking up more of my fighter skills from the Combat Skills & Proficiencies mod and more ki powers. That would let me get to mastery in scimitars, clubs, or bows. Then dual to druid and focus on quartstaff and 2-hand style, to specialization. Then the question is, what kind of druid to be? Options are 1) Regular druid. My ki points from my earlier career as a samurai would work to fuel more shapeshifts per day. Which is cool. But, does not synergize with that weapon mastery. 2) Totemic druid. The ki points would not synergize with my spirit animal summoning… but it could if I changed totemic summoning to use my “semi-spontaneous-innate” mechanism! Which is maybe worth doing anyway. 3) Lost druid. Solely for rp reasons. A druid, but tinged with death. Pros: super cool, and access to the sphere of Death. Cons: no access to the sphere of life/healing (!!) I’m leaning toward option #2. Meanwhile, going back to chapter 2 can make NPC management easier. I picked up Breagar and Brandock before Nashkel. Ran through the mines and the SE corner of the map. Then Breagar leaves the party and goes back to the smithy. Perfect! I can drop J&K, and go pick up Minsc & Littlun & Dynaheir. Then go through the SW corner of the map, then trade Minsc & Dynaheir for Breagar & Neera. The only thing giving me pause is, when leaving Breagar said something like “Come see me at the smithy - don’t take long!” Does that mean it will get screwed up if I take too long to see him? Sigh. These NPC mods give me anxiety.

Thanks! I added the most recent install order to the first post in this thread. It is very much broken down into categories: BG1 quests, then BG2 quests, then BG1 NPCs, then BG2 NPCs, then friendship/crossmod stuff, then items, then spells, then IWD stuff, then spell tweaks, then kits and Unearthed Arcana mods, then most tweaks, then EET_end/SCS, then late tweaks. I’ll wait til BG2 to judge whether all the content went in without conflicts, but so far, so good! It’s worth checking out.

Ah. That's annoying. Well, annoying for this playthrough anyway, since it really means you can't have Jaheira/Khalid with you when you go to rescue Dynaheir. More generally, playing these games together in an EET game is a bit weird. When the games are separate, you figure you will play each game multiple times, and bring different NPCs into your party. So when Safana talks to you like she knows you in SoD, or Mod Kivan does that in SoA, even if you didn't take them along in your most recent game of BG1, you almost surely did at some point in the past. So it kind of works. Whereas, in a single EET game I know Kivan is going to come up and act like we are bros, and that puts pressure on me to take him into the party for at least a chapter or so of BG1. And ditto J/K/M/D, and Imoen, and Safana, and Brandock and Breagar and Sirene and... lots and lots of NPCs. it definitely complicates my party composition in the BG1 campaign, and makes it a bit more difficult to find room for NPCs like Littlun, Valerie, Flara, etc. I'm playing with a modded proficiency system so levels 7/9/13 don't mean much to me. Technically it would have been more optimal to play fighter through level 6, since in my system you get pips every 2 levels and can get mastery at 6. But I wanted Jaheira to leave the party in chapter 3 and I wanted to dual while she was still around for pure role-playing reasons. As it is I am now a fighter 4/druid 6, with specialization in scimitar/quarterstaff/bows/single-weapon style. So I have base 2 APR with scimitars and 3/2 with quarterstaff (and more damage/crits with 2-hand style). I can get more proficiency points at levels 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21, which will let me get to mastery and base 5/2 APR with scimitars, mastery and base 2APR and extra damage with quarterstaff. That, with a full-level single-class druid. A pretty solid thac0 plus buff spells like barkskin/stoneskin plus lots of spells from a sphere system means I am very flexible and not stuck in a support role. Also, I had the Samurai kit before dual-classing and the Samurai ki abilities share a point resource with my druid shapeshifting, which means I combine the point pool and have more uses of both sets of abilities. This is a fun character.

It only ended up being two of my mods, so I went ahead and made the updates. Now they simply COPY_EXISTING ~sppr101.spl~ ~override/#bonecir.spl~ If you re-download Might & Guile and Faiths & Powers (as applicable to your install) there should no longer be a problem.

I think everything about it is great except the pacing is crazy. From the moment you leave for the grove/basement until the very end of the Avernus excursion, there is no time to take a long rest that isn't completely at odds with what is happening in the story. That includes four separate maps full of enemies, plus five increasingly large set-piece group battles, plus one tough Charname duel, plus a trip to hell going through a couple dozen fiends, plus the final battle which is extremely long and involved and for which you are pretty underleveled (but overequipped). More than anything else, I would like to see a mod add some reasonable breaks in the action 1) between the basement mission and the final Coalition Camp encounters; 2) between the Coalition Camp and the Siege of Dragonspear Castle; and 3) between entry to the castle and the entry to Avernus.

So I have started a new EET game with this install, and have been playing at a decent clip. I was a bit worried about the overly categorical install order - I thought some of the idiosyncracies of my prior order that Jastey hated so much for inexpressible reasons were derived from time-worn wisdom and BWP suggestions. But, as of about 40% of the way through BGEE, I have seen almost zero bugs and I am pretty confident about this weidu.log. (Knocking on wood after writing that…) A few of my own mods showed some quirky interactions, but I fixed all that a week or two ago. Now everything is running quite smoothly. I played the beginning of the game a bit differently than usual. Usually I take Jaheira and Khalid through Nashkel and then replace them with Minsc & Dynaheir through the Bandit Camp; that gives me exposure to the ‘canon party’ for story reasons but leaves room for others, and then I can use whatever party I want through the rest of the game. This time I played a fighter, and picked up J&K, then picked up Minsc and went to the Gnoll Stronghold before clearing the Nashkel Mines. This gave me more time with the full canon party - but kept me from taking on anyone else through chapter 2. The Gnoll Stronghold is absolutely overrun with strong mobs, and between that, the southwest side-quests, the Mines, and the southeast side-quests, I had hit level 4 as a fighter and dualled to druid under Jaheira’s tutelage. So far so good. After finishing up some stuff in the Beregost-Nashkel corridor, J/K/M/D all left the party. The problem is that a lot of NPCs are written with a very strong expectation that you will pick them up immediately, and keep them forever. Valerie disappears after you clear Nashkel, which I don’t think makes sense. I wanted to take Littlun on as my archer, but I can’t find her. Maybe she disappears after the Gnoll Stronghold is cleared? Or if you leave the Bear River map without picking her up right away? I don’t know, but it’s disappointing. I took Emily instead, even though I’ve already seen her content I’ve been meaning to do a run with Brandock since he has content throughout EET, and I want to take on Neera since I’ve never seen her BG2 content. Brandock is clearly meant to join before even the FAI. When he joined on he gave his “there’s an ogre in front of the cave!” speech but then immediately said “wait, you already killed the ogre?” and like four other dialogues fire right away. After that, though, he seems to be caught up, and is having interjections and quest updates as normal. (I really like his interaction with Melicamp’s quest, and that Brandock and The Calling don’t step on each others’ toes.) I respecced Brandock as a cleric/mage following Oghma. It has not caused any issues far; we’ll see if it contradicts anything in his story/dialogue. I have the mod where Neera doesn’t do anything unless/until you talk to her, which is great. She joined up and has had no problems. Finally, I wanted to take Breagar into the party. I don’t love his “Smith” kit so I refashioned him as a Champion of Moradin, to have a little extra flavor. But he does not seem to like this play sequence. I avoided him before Nashkel because he kind of forces himself into your party and I didn’t have room. I brought him some untainted ore, which he liked, but then his dialogue talked about “come back in a few days, at night, and it will be finished.” But he has never talked about the thing he was working on. Some dialogue got skipped there. I picked up Drake for some Bassilus hunting, then went back to Breagar, saw the explosion, and he joined my party. I’ve had a few dialogues - he told me about how he decided to become a master smith - and he has had some nice interjections with Brandock and Imoen. But since then he has become very quiet. I’m worried something went wrong. Isn’t there supposed to be a magic appendage? Or does that come later? I’m thinking about dropping him and picking up Sirene. I played through the Beregost portion of Black Hearts, and it all went very well and was quite enjoyable content. The only hitch was in one of the late fights, where an NPC basically needs a Remove Curse spell, the mod specifically looks for Branwen or Yeslick or Quayle. No mod-added clerics work and no other NPCs modded to cleric work. And the only option to progress in the mod is… unpleasant. Just have a check for anyone casting Remove Curse, or something. Heck, let me cast it from a scroll. Let me buy a purpose-built cure from Thalantyr or a temple! Or even let me carry the person to a temple, like I do with that Flaming Fist deserter. Give me options. Don’t railroad me, Black Hearts! That kind of single-minded one-track writing is why I removed Heroes Thieves & Moneylenders from my mod list. I have the Gorgon’s Eye mod installed, but I have not played any content from it, because I am a druid and I don’t think Emily/Breagar/Sirene/Brandock would be up for fun with burglary. Another time. So that’s where I am. I dropped Imoen with Fireface Elvenbutt and picked up Safana, again for future story reasons. I’m about to clear Firewine and Basilisk Town and the Ankheg Pit, and then head to the Cloakwood. Everyone in the party is 6th level. I want to meet Baeloth and play Black-Pits-in-Baldur’s-Gate, but don’t think I am ready. If I’m at 7th level after the Cloakwood Mines I’ll do BP then.

That’s not a problem - Might & Guile very intentionally deletes the file. The file is unused, malformed, and can screw up mods that try to apply patches to spells. Its presence in IWDEE is simple negligence; a putative EE FixPack should also remove it. Therefore, mods should not assume its presence. Put it this way: Might & Guile deletes the file, and Faiths & Powers also tries to delete the file. But those mods don’t trip each other up, because they conditionally check whether it exists before performing any operation on it. It is simple and easy to do so. EDIT - I suppose I might change all of my mods to overwrite that broken file instead of deleting it. But that won’t happen until the next update cycle.

Maybe this mod tries to disable or delete it without a IF_EXISTS check, and some other mod already deleted it?

I don’t know what exactly this provisions thing is, but if you have a stronghold you are supposed to want to use it as a base of operations… that’s what strongholds are in (A)D&D. Any mod that leans into this idea sounds good to me.

Different people sometimes have the idea to do the same thing independently. Or one version already exists, but someone thinks they could do it better. There are multiple versions of this, scroll caster level tweaks, fine/masterwork weapons, 2-handed axes, trap detection, innate Sequencers, non-bouncing Lightning Bolts, thieving/casting in armor… the list goes on and on, and on, and on. Honestly, it’s really on the player to avoid installing mods that very obviously modify the same part of the game. (That’s why I think modders should use fairly specific component names, to make it as obvious as possible. (That’s why I’ve criticized Tweaks/SCS for using vague names for their werewolf shapeshifting components.))

This is precisely my thought. A barbarian/thief in the big city would not use lockpicks, they would just smash the lock to smithereens. Is this the proper pure bard kit? Or the mage/thief multiclass kit? Looks like the former to me, but just want to confirm. The pure bard kits are all a bit rough - I haven’t played with proper bards in 5+ years, instead using my 1E-style multiclass bards. So I don’t give the bard kits much attention. TBH the only reason I made those kits was because in 2014 it looked like Song & Silence would never be updated. But now it seems Cam is actively maintaining S&S so I have half a mind to just scrap these kits. Compare my Jongleur, Meistersinger, and Loresinger to S&S’s Acrobat, Luring Piper, and Chorister. Maybe I’ll just have a small tweak adding “Summon Forest Animals” to the S&S Luring Piper kit… I think someone once told me that rabbits are within the “rodent” classification, like capybaras, and I uncritically accepted the assertion. In any event I’m pretty sure this is intended to summon rabbits, using clones of the Wish Swarm rabbit creatures to bypass the summoning limit. I’ll double-check and clean up the spell, when I get the chance.

Might & Guile is updated to version 5.7 with improvements/fixes for the Samurai kit Faiths & Powers is updated to version 0.86.6 with improved compatibility for new spells added by SCS and ToF 5E Spellcasting is updated to version 2.5.2 with some minor fixes and improved compatibility for new spells added by SCS and ToF The Unearthed Arcana series of mods represent a number of changes and additions to the way classes work in the Baldur's Gate games: Might & Guile offers new kits and various class improvements for fighters, rangers, thieves, and bards. Tome & Blood offers new sorcerer kits and various improvements and new mechanics for mages and sorcerers. Faiths & Powers offers many new priest kits, divine spellcasting changes, new kits and archetypes for paladins, and even more kits for multiclass priests - including more multiclass druids. Will to Power adds a 2E-inspired "psionics is not magic" point-based psionics system to the game, along with psion kits and even wild talents for non-psions. 5th Edition Spellcasting allows mages/bards/priests to cast spells with 5th Edition rules: you memorize a certain subset of spells, but then you can cast them interchangeably. Magic Battles Revised streamlines the arcane "magic duel" system, making it a bit quicker, and more sensible. BP-in-BG inserts the Black Pits 1 campaign into the regular Baldur's Gate game. Taken together, these mods represent a unified vision of how all the game's classes can operate and interact in new and improved ways. However because everyone's taste is different, they are designed to be as modular as possible, allowing players to pick and choose from among different tweaks and improvements. Compatibility with other mods is maximized wherever possible.

Combat Skills and Proficiencies is updated to version 1.4.3 making cantrips available to thieves via spending weapons proficiencies (if the Innate Cantrips are installed from SubtleD's Spell Tweaks) SubtleD's Spell Tweaks is updated to version 2.7 with fixes for the Innate Cantrips SubtleD's Item Tweaks is updated to version 1.3.2 with improvements to the components affecting Rings of Wizardry SubtleD's Stat Overhauls is updated to version 1.5.1 making Wisdom-based bonus spells available to paladins and rangers, and with improved compatibility with new spells added by SCS and ToF. The SubtleD Tweaks series of mods provides a large number of tweaks both large and small, to spells, items, abilities, and other game mechanics: Combat Skills & Proficiencies provides alternate rules for weapon proficiencies and fighting styles, and adds a feat system that is integrated into the game's proficiency system. SubtleD's Spell Tweaks overhauls some systems underlying certain spells, like familiars and illusionary clones, and tweaks several dozen spells on a smaller scale to make them more balanced, more distinctive, and more fun. SubtleD's Item Tweaks improves several items to make them more engaging and useful. SubtleD's Stat Overhauls improves various aspects of ability scores, adding new bonuses, new penalties (!), and more interaction with other systems (like spell memorization slots). IWD_EET_Integration alters the way tipun's IWD and IWD2 mods interact with EET: it allows those campaigns to be played independently from level 1, and optionally adds some IWD content into the BG2/SoA campaign. Taken together, these mods represent a unified vision of how the game's spells and other abilities can operate and interact in new and improved ways. However because everyone's taste is different, they are designed to be as modular as possible, allowing players to pick and choose from among different tweaks and improvements. Compatibility with other mods is maximized wherever possible.

Oh yeah, huh. I didn’t notice because I mod that silly mechanic right out of my game. I can likely add this, but it will take a bit of time to parse the relevant files and have the mod auto-generate a list of enemies appropriate for an arbitrarily modded game. I’ll put it on the “to-do” list. (Which is mercifully short these days!)

I just glanced at the Readme and I don’t see any mention of Totemic Druids. And Skalds and Cavaliers don’t look very different from the vanilla kits. What am I missing? (The Shapeshifter changes look good - though I may be biased as it looks strikingly similar to me own take on the kit )

No, MAGICATTACK is a secondary type, one of the fields in the SPL file. And opcode 204, which grants school-based spell immunity, does not block spells with the MAGICATTACK secondary type. In the unmodded game Breach has this secondary type, and bypasses SI:Abjuration. (All of the spells like Spell Thrust, Secret Word, Pierce Magic etc. also have the MAGICATTACK secondary type and those also bypass SI:Abjuration in the unmodded game. It basically only blocks Dispel/Remove Magic, not much more.) When SCS is installed, I believe Breach gets a new secondary type, "BREACH." In which case it would indeed be blocked by SI:Abjuration. I do not know, however, whether @DavidW intends Breach to be blocked by SI:Abjuration, or if this is an unanticipated side-effect of a change he made for other reasons. My guess is that it is intended - it mirrors how Breach bypasses Spell Deflections and Spell Turning in the unmodded game, but cannot bypass them when SCS is installed. I supposed you are meant to remove the Spell Immunity with a Spell Thrust etc. before being able to Breach your target.

The short explanation is, nobody is affected besides Jaheira. But I'll give you the long explanation as well. The mod was developed with the idea that you would install a sphere system - a lot of the effort is directed toward sphere systems. The sphere system enables things like, paladins with ranger spells and rangers with paladin spells, and clerics with druid spells and druids with cleric spells. But I try to make my stuff as modular as possible, so when I created the multiclass druid kits (a "druid/thief" cleric/thief kit, a "druid mage" cleric/mage kit, a "druid/ranger" cleric/ranger kit, and a replacement "fighter/druid" fighter/cleric kit*) I added a backup system that would give druid spells to those cleric kits even in the absence of a sphere system. This backup system 1) suppresses the game's usual mechanism for automatically populating priests' spellbooks, and 2) give druid spells to this kit. The game engine is getting its wires crossed a bit and not applying step 2 to Jaheira when she first joins the party. Maybe step 1 is blocking step 2? I don't know. But leveling up - even just leveling up her fighter class and leaving her priest class alone - fixes it. So, to replicate this, 1) you must not install any sphere system; 2) you must install the Multiclass Druids component; and 3) you must install the Apply FnP Kits to NPCs component. This bug only affects this particular install sequence. Start BG2 and Jaheira will be a level 6/7 fighter/cleric with the fighter/druid kit. She has no spells or spell slots**. Bring up the console and give her 130,000XP so she gets her 7th level as a fighter, and she will suddenly get all her spells and spell slots. This does not affect anyone other than Jaheira, because the Apply FnP Kits to NPCs component does not address any other fighter/druids. * Why create a fighter/cleric kit for fighter/druids when, unlike the other multiclass druids, the F/D already exists? Solely for the sake of consistency. Depending on many factors relating to a player's mod install, the base F/D may have different XP progression and spell slots than a multiclass cleric, and using a F/C for this kit ensures that, on the priest side of things, it is identical to the druid/ranger, druid/thief, and druid/mage. It may differ from single-class druids, but that is less important to me than making sure all multiclass druids are alike. ** Now I think about it, it is rather odd that in addition to not having spells, she also lacks spell slots. And the game doesn't automatically give you spells if you have no spell slots. So maybe it is to do with her spell slots being suppressed...? But at the end of the day: the in-game fix here is simple and easy (level her up); and the particular install sequence that triggers this is probably pretty rare in this mod (DO NOT install spell spheres, DO install multiclass druids and FnP kits for NPCs; and it only affects Jaheira. So I'm not super motivated to investigate further.

Honestly this doesn’t offend me. Sorcerers have such an immense advantage in having more and more flexible spell slots, it seems a reasonable trade-off for mages to use clever metamagic tricks like spell-storing sequencers and time-shifted contingencies.

You may be worrying too much about EET_End. It really has little to do with kit/spell/tweak mods. You could try an order like: Spell Revisions [IWD spells from whatever source] ZGMagic IWD/SR Water Elemental fix Item Revisions Rogue Rebalancing Forgotten Armanents ToF other than spells SublteD Spell Tweaks SubtleD Item Tweaks Tweaks Anthology EET_End SCS

Was actually thinking of Fafhrd from Fritz Lieber’s books. At some point in the 80s or 90s Lankmar was made into a TSR campaign world, and my faint recollection is that Fafhrd was specced as a barbarian/thief. I don’t want to tread on a ranger’s toes, so the concept is something like, you have the barbarian fighter kit but you add stealth and keen powers of detection (find snares/see through illusions). But you would not mess with mechanical stuff like locks and traps. And you would not pick pockets, you would just knock them out and rifle through their stuff when they are unconscious.

“Penalty,” even. “Malus” is a shrub.

I assume the issue with ToF and my spell tweaks have to do with my use of the 7 Eyes effect for missile avoidance. (In the revised Blur spell, also in the Gloves of Missile Snaring in my Item Tweaks.) APPEND strikes again, I suppose. I can look into firming it up… though, not immediately.

Was actually just thinking yesterday about adding a Barbarian/thief. But it’s a but tough to balance, given almost all of the Barbarian kit’s disadvantages are meaningless in a fighter/thief. I suppose could say, no Open Locks and no Pick Pockets? And no Set Traps? (Restricting Set Traps is quite annoying, but can be done.)