Making a mod that allows casting spells while wearing armors...

Hoo

Hello.

I have a question for modding.

I'm now planning to make a mod for rebalancing classes/kits, and my first plan is to revise Bards.

I want to give Armored Arcana-like effect which reduces the spell casting failure chance while wearing armor to Bards, by allowing spell casting while wearing Light armors (Leather, Studded, and Hide, gradually according to Bard's level up)

However, as far as I know, the spell casting possibility (opcode) depends on armors, not characters... As a result, it seem that every armors, instead of Bard class/kits, should be modified for the implementation (Honestly, I'm not sure the implementation what I intend to do is really doable because of the gradual armor usability for allowing spell casting).

Could Such thing be implementable?

Tim

Wouldn't it be better to give the bard class a bonus on spell casting failure when wearing armor better AC X instead of modify all amors which would break the game balance completely...

Akuro

Hi there,

I just stumbled over your thread today - incase you' re still interested in this "casting spells while wearing light armor" thing:

Relax buddy, nothing is easier to mod than that
(To be honest, that's always one of the first things I mod when installing a fresh copy of the Baldurs Gate series...)

Here we go:
1. For modding I choose the DLTC Editor (Dragonlance Total Conversion Editor)
2. Open the armor (specific .itm file) that you want to edit, for example "leat001.itm"
3. Browse to the "item effects" category
4. Delete the entry "Disable spell casting abilities"
5. Save the edited *.itm - file in your override directory.
6. Done. Next time you're playing your thief/mage will be able to wear a leather armor while casting spells in it. AND I LOVE THIS!

CamDawg

This is already done by a lot of mods, including BG2 Tweaks.

Demivrgvs

As Cam says quite a few mods already offer various options to allow spellcasting in armor (generally replacing the "disable button" with a "spell failure"). The next BGEE compatible version of Item Revisions mod will probably add an option to allow bards (and only them) to cast while wearing light armors with no penalties.

@Tim, what you are suggesting ("bonus to spell failure") is not allowed by the engine.

DrEast

I'm curious if it would be possible to create an HLA to cut the spell failure penalty by X% (which could be taken multiple times), or would such an HLA cause that effect to be applied to everyone in the party?

Requiem

@Hoo you can do it exactly as @akuro has already suggested. You can use DLTCEP, or if you are familiar with weidu you can do all armors in one go with a script. Remove every occurance of the "disable button" opcode on all armors, and then add the opcode which adds a spell failure %-age.

The thing you couldn't effectively do is adjust that failure percentage through another source without messing up spells such as miscast magic and insect plague, i believe this is because (and i may be wrong here) miscast magic can only be set to a flat value, rather than being adjusted by say +10 or -10.

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CamDawg

Requiem said:

@Hoo you can do it exactly as @akuro has already suggested. You can use DLTCEP, or if you are familiar with weidu you can do all armors in one go with a script. Remove every occurance of the "disable button" opcode on all armors, and then add the opcode which adds a spell failure %-age.

The thing you couldn't effectively do is adjust that failure percentage through another source without messing up spells such as miscast magic and insect plague, i believe this is because (and i may be wrong here) miscast magic can only be set to a flat value, rather than being adjusted by say +10 or -10.

It can increment. What you're describing here is exactly what BG2 Tweaks does.

DrEast

subtledoctor said:

IF the 'Spell Failure Chance' opcode can be applied with a increase/decrease effect, then it should be possible to create a spell that permanently decreases your spell failure chance by, say, 1%, and apply it in the spellcaster's CLABxxx.2da file every level. That would be interesting and probably not game-breaking.

Make it 5% and takeable repeatedly and I would want this mod in BG2 for my figher/mages and cleric/mages, please. (Can you make an HLA exclusively for multiclass characters? IIRC, this should be possible...)

Demivrgvs

I don't want to ruin your dreams but as both I and Cam said: spell failure cannot be decreased.

KingGsterUK

Akuro said:

Hi there,

I just stumbled over your thread today - incase you' re still interested in this "casting spells while wearing light armor" thing:

Relax buddy, nothing is easier to mod than that
(To be honest, that's always one of the first things I mod when installing a fresh copy of the Baldurs Gate series...)

Here we go:
1. For modding I choose the DLTC Editor (Dragonlance Total Conversion Editor)
2. Open the armor (specific .itm file) that you want to edit, for example "leat001.itm"
3. Browse to the "item effects" category
4. Delete the entry "Disable spell casting abilities"
5. Save the edited *.itm - file in your override directory.
6. Done. Next time you're playing your thief/mage will be able to wear a leather armor while casting spells in it. AND I LOVE THIS!

Forgive me, I realise this is the BG:EE modding forum but I have a similar dilemma in IWD2 that I'm hoping someone from here could help me with.

The simple instructions listed here are not applicable for the 3rd edition IE of IWD2. Mages can already equip plate mail but they do so with an arcane spell failure percentage, which seems to be inherited from the base type of armour you select. With no option to change the spell failure percentage from within the item creation dialogue box.

I'm aiming to use this image: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/025/f/9/lich_by_trufanov-d4njr7b.jpg
to fuel ideas and recreate this mean sucker as a party member.

My design decisions so far are:
- He's a Necromancer/Fighter.
- He's voiced by The Transcendent One.
- He wears a unique set of platemail that doesn't affect the success of spellcasting in a negative way and gains power when he levels. Possibly through dialogue, conversing with the armour.
- More to come.

I've learned how to make the armour in DLTCEP, add custom effects (to a limited extent) and put it in-game via DaleKeeper2.

My problem is:
- I cannot seem to find the feat "Armored Arcana" as a spell effect to add to the item's current properties (probably because it's not an effect or it's one of the "unkown"). I can find "Armored Arcana" but it lies within the "Creatures" dialogue box, Unused tab/Icewind Dale II Specific Button/Feats Drop-Down Box and the other is from the list of IDS files named FEATS(editing this only has 2 options, the index value of the feat. and the name of the feat.).

OR

- Adding the spell effect "Miscast Magic" with a negative percentage value doesn't work(maybe it doesn't recognise the "-" operator before the value). 40% Miscast Magic means spells have a 40% chance of failing. I would have thought -40% Miscast Magic would have the opposite effect, giving you a +40% spell success, however the game doesn't seem to recognise negative values.

Any pointers you can give me will be well received, thank you.

EDIT: This problem can be fixed by selecting a different "Armor Type", It's now used as "Studded Leather Armor" with the armour bonus of "Plate Mail Armor". It still sounds like plate and looks like plate, probably because I have plate selected in the paperdoll drop-down box. It inherits 15% spell failure from the studded leather(3 points in Armored Arcana would nullify this effect) giving me the desired result I wanted.