New mage spells for Underwhelming magic schools

bbear

For the School of Divination, the highest level mage spell is lvl 6 True Sight. Whereas other schools get bigger and nastier spells, Diviners dont get any new ones. I propose the following spells:

Life Scan
Level: 7
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: 1 turn
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: 1 target
Saving Throws: None

Instantly, all information about the target creature is revealed. This includes its name, character stats, alignment, current hp, physical and magical resistance, saving throws, current beneficial protections and harmful statuses. In additional, each round, the target's current hp is displayed in the battle log. Magic resistance and any spell protection (except spell immunity) on the creature cannot shield the creature from this spell. Also, there is no saving throws.

Prognostication
Level: 9
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: 1 turn
Casting time: 1
Area of Effect: All hostile creatures within the caster's visual range
Saving Throws: None

When this powerful spell is cast, each round for one turn, the dice rolls of all hostile creatures will be displayed in the battle log. The caster and the party can use this valuable information to determine their own actions. Since knowing the outcomes of those actions, the party can flee if something ominous is about to happen. For example, if the party knows that the targets will roll 19s and 20s in the next round, the party is advised to run away earlier or put on the necessary protections. Like other powerful divination spells, magic resistance and saving throws cannot stop the effect of this spell.

bbear

The Life Scan spell is gear toward ease of use for human players. A determined player can always count how much damage he/she has dealt to the target from the previous actions in the battle log. However, this is a bit tedious and the life scan remedies this issue. Also, one can always find the target creature's information online or from shadowkeeper, but this spell is beneficial to the casual player who just want to enjoy the game.

Zanian

I get your point that this school could use some higher lvl spells, but I kind of doubt the usefulness of the 2 you have listed. They seems geared more towards numbercrunchers than "casuals", and not really worth a spell-slot.
I would personally prefer something like the NWN divination spells. Premonition comes to mind. Damage reduction would seem more useful while still sticking to the school.
Also, listing all that stuff in the battle-log, would probably require quite a lot of scriptwork for something that will just end up being clutter.
Or maybe an extended Find Traps spell, one that could disarm them as well. That way, one could finally do without a thief in the party.

Sorn

Wizards are already overpowered at higher levels - allowing them to get rid of traps would eliminate the need for a thief entirely. You'd get find traps to find things, your familiar to pick pockets, a trap disabling spell, knock for locks... I'd prefer something like "extended far sight" where you could target / cast spells at people about 2 screen shots away. You'd draw aggro, but you'd have range.

Zanian

That seems much more overpowering than a trap-disarm. If anything, I'd prefer if all spells got their range decreased so killing something off-screen would no longer be possible. Fact is, the thief is the ONLY class you pretty much have to have with you in a party, which makes little to no sense.
Plus, making trap-disarming a high-lvl spell still wouldn't mean that thieves would be obsolete or anything, just that you could finally do a run without having to pick that one annoying thief. It would still take up a spell-slot that could have been used on something destructive. Also, the thief still has his traps and backstabs.

bbear

@Sorn: I think what you suggest is overpower. The ai is too dumb to notice that it is getting killed when it cant see the attacker.

@Zanian: I think trap-disarming spell is great for a solo mage, but this ability should be restricted to one class since this is what really defines a thief. It's ok to not bring a thief in the adventure along as long as your characters can survive traps. A mage w/ mirror images, stone skin and other protections can survive all traps in the game (at least in bg2).

Zanian

I'm fairly certain the wall-crushing traps are fatal no matter what. At least I've never survived going through one. And the usual tactic of sending in waves of summons always killed the summoner as well. Although that definitely had the smell of a bug on it.
It's just that the Divination school is very limited in what you can do with it. It's basically just utility spells, and I don't see how a master diviner wouldn't be able to see all the intricate patterns of a trap, so he could safely disarm/avoid it. Also, BG2 doesn't have any good thieves. None that stick around anyway.

elminster

You could always give divination a spell that reveals the map (regardless if it is underground or above ground) and on the map you see represented in red circles the numbers and locations of enemies. You can't see what type of enemy they are, only just where they are and in what numbers.

Zanian

I like the idea of showing markers on the map that reveals the location of enemies, but revealing the entire map just seems like a cheat to me. Hell, it actually already IS a cheat. xD But I'll admit, I did consider an extended Farsight myself.

elminster

Yea but under this I guess you could only see enemies in your map, once you left your map it would cancel the spell. So its still I imagine a nerfed version of the cheat (I can't say I've ever used it). But revealing the map but keeping fog of war is what clairvoyance does anyways, though it doesn't work underground (if I'm not mistaken).

Zanian

I'll admit I never used Clairvoyance myself, because I prefer the map to stay black if I hadn't been there before. Helps me make sure I've explored everything there is. And yeah, it only works outdoors. Or it should anyway. Quite a few indoor zones are mistakenly flagged as outdoors.

bbear

Just come up with a new idea for divination. The following spells are an attempt to mirror the conjuration limited wish and wish spells.

Ritual (Divination)
Level 7
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: 10 turns
Casting Time: 3 rounds
Area of Effect: 1 target
Saving Throws: None

The ritual is a spell that sacrifices a summoned monster to offer benefits to the caster and the party. At the successful casting of the ritual spell, the summoned monster is instantly slain. The first benefit is that it temporarily adds 25% of hp of the sacrificed summoned monster to the caster's hp, up to 20 hit points. The second benefit adds +1 luck to all dice rolls to the party per 5HD of the summoned monster. The caster should be careful that the summoned creature is well aware of the situation. There is a 5% each round that the summoned monster will turn against the diviner. If this occurs, the ritual spell is lost.

Greater Ritual (Divination)
Level 9
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 3 rounds
Area of Effect: 1 target
Saving Throws: None

This is more potent version of the Lv7 Ritual spell. The diviner must sacrifice an extremely powerful celestial being (planetar, elemental prince, deva). At the successful casting of the ritual spell, the gated monster is instantly slain. The first benefit is that it temporarily adds 20 hp to the caster's hp for 10 turns. The second benefit is that all party members gain +3 luck to all dice rolls for 10 turns. The final effect is that all members in the party gains the temporary benefit of Improved Alacrity for 3 rounds. The diviner should think twice before casting this spell. For each round in the ritual, she must do mental battle to outwit the celestial being. If the diviner has less than 16 Intelligence, the celestial being will turn against the diviner. At 16 Int, there is a 50% chance of failure each round for 3 rounds and for each additional Int score, the chance of failure is reduced by 5% each round (at the maximum of 25 Int, there is still a 5% of failure each round).

bbear

Here is another one:

Cease Fire (Divination)
Level 8
Range: All
Duration: 3 rounds
Casting time: 1 round
Area of Effect: All opponents on the map
Saving Throws: None

Immediately after casting this spell, all enemies on the map are all teleport away into another dimension (they are not harmed). For 3 rounds, all offensive abilities/spells have 100% spell failure and all attack rolls are critical miss. The party can use this valuable time to heal, regenerate and rebuff. After 3 rounds, the battle is resume and all enemies return to the normal plane.

aerefrygt

bbear said:

Just come up with a new idea for divination. The following spells are an attempt to mirror the conjuration limited wish and wish spells.

Ritual (Divination)
Level 7
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: 10 turns
Casting Time: 3 rounds
Area of Effect: 1 target
Saving Throws: None

I dont think it would make sense for this to be a Divination spell because it seems like a Necromancy spell (sacrifice and all) and Conjuration is the opposite school of Divination (makes this useless for solo-Diviners).

Madhax

Not a fan of spells with a chance for failure, so I'm not sure I'd like those Ritual spells. Seems like I'd use them to pre-buff, and just reload if they fail.

The cease-fire spell, however, sounds awesome. I'd love to be able to cast it.

Darkcloud

Zanian said:

I'm fairly certain the wall-crushing traps are fatal no matter what. At least I've never survived going through one. And the usual tactic of sending in waves of summons always killed the summoner as well. Although that definitely had the smell of a bug on it.
It's just that the Divination school is very limited in what you can do with it. It's basically just utility spells, and I don't see how a master diviner wouldn't be able to see all the intricate patterns of a trap, so he could safely disarm/avoid it. Also, BG2 doesn't have any good thieves. None that stick around anyway.

There is none you have to go through and with good timing and haste it is possible without problems. I almost never have a thief in BG2 and there are almost no moments where I miss one. In BG1 it is a bit different because some traps are nasty but for the ones that get disabled after activation a summon is enough and for the others you might need a few reloads.

For new spells I wouldn't make up new ones but look at existing ones from PnP books, preferabely 2ed and add them.

ZanathKariashi

It's largely because there's only 3 divination spells above 6th level, and they're very situational or of no direct combat value.

The 9th level spell foresight detects traps, prevents being backstabbed or ambushed, and gives a +2 AC bonus for dodging attacks. The duration is pretty crappy though 2d4 rounds + 1 round per level...then again a round is 1 minute in 2nd edition, so I guess that's actually pretty good. (It would be 2d4 turns + 1 turn/level if it was added to BG).

The other two just ask questions (Vision) or assist in blocking scrying attempts (Screen).

Now illusion on the other hand has a TON of spells that weren't included in BG, which is why they're supposed to lose three schools if you specialize in them (but it wouldn't be a huge loss as several illusion spells can duplicate the effects of evocation and necromancy spells, and to a degree abjuration).

Pantalion

Enchantment: How about getting the PnP Antipathy/Sympathy and Otto's Irrestistable Dance into the game?

On the Divination front, have you considered lifting from the third edition for spells?

True Strike
Level 1
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 round
Casting time: 1
Area of Effect: Self
Saving Throws: None

The next attack roll the caster makes gains a +~10 bonus to the hit roll.

Mage/Thieves rejoice.

Moment of Prescience
Level 8
Range: Personal
Duration: 2 turns / level or until discharged.
Casting time: 4
Area of Effect: Self
Saving Throws: None

The next roll the caster makes gains a +~20 bonus to the roll.

Foresight
Level 9
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 turn/level
Casting time: 8
Area of Effect: Self
Saving Throws: None

As Zanath mentioned, immunity to backstabs alone would make Divination desirable.

Illusion: Again, as Zanath mentioned, aren't there entire swathes of Shadow Spells replicating pretty much everything for Illusion?