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High level abilities & mods in multiplayer

Hello folks. I am planning to do BGII:EE multiplayer run with my two friends, but I would like to sort out 2 important things first:

a) How are the spellcaster high level abilites handled in EE?
It always extremely bugged me, that caster HA shared spellslots with your 9th/7th level spells. Does EE handles this the same as original game?

I remember that i got inspired by some mod back in original TOB and used Infinity engine to turn the HA spells into regular fighter-style HA that solved the problem. But it made my game very crashy, making it extremely inpractical for multiplayer session.

b) Speaking of multiplayer stability, does anyone has experience with mods and multiplayer? I would like to use SCS if possible. We are goint to play 3 using regular LAN.


Thanks for your help in advance.

Comments

  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    a) There are no changes to this mechanic, as far as I know.

    b) Sorry, I don't have personal experience of modded MP games, but I imagine that it should be fine if everyone has the exact same setup.
  • karnor00karnor00 Member Posts: 680
    I'm pretty sure there is an option in SCS which turns HLA for casters into once/day abilities rather than taking up 9th level spell slots.
    Arizael
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Just make sure that everyone playing have the same mods installed in the same order and the same components selected.
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    I don't think mage HLAs taking up level 9 spell slots is a huge problem (and may be how PnP handles it, I don't know).

    Timestop and Chain Contingency are the best of the regular level 9 spells by a long way with Shapechange, Spellstrike and Wish having some uses. After memorising 1 Timestop I usually have no qualms about filling the rest of the slots with HLA spells. If I need extra castings - that's what Project Image is for.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited February 2014
    Cleric HLAs in Pen & Paper were treated as 10th level spells or higher. I don't quite remember what the rules for mages were, but clerics had to forfeit ALL spells of the highest level they could cast in order to hold a quest spell, the equivalent of the HLA in BG2.

    Maybe @LadyRhian remembers what the rules were for wizard's epic spells...
    Post edited by mlnevese on
  • WebShamanWebShaman Member Posts: 490
    These would be the 2nd Ed rules, right? Hmmmm.

    I know that in 3rd Ed, Epic Spells are considered 10th and higher level spells, so do not take up lesser spell slots.
  • ArizaelArizael Member Posts: 263
    karnor00 said:

    I'm pretty sure there is an option in SCS which turns HLA for casters into once/day abilities rather than taking up 9th level spell slots.

    This might be what I am looking for. Thank you all for helpful insight.

  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Minevese There were no 10th level spells for Wizards in 2e. At best, there were Quest spells for priests, only granted on quests for their God, and to carry one Quest spell meant forfeiting the entire roster of the highest level of spells you could cast while the Quest spell was in your "memory" (So to speak- Priests don't "Memorize" spells as such.

    Wizards at high levels just got to cast *more* High level spells. Now, I looked up "DM's Option: High Level Campaigns" and it mentions 10th level spells, but I am certain that these were banned after Mystryl (the former version of Mystra) died to save the weave from Karsus (who cast the 12th Level Spell "Karsus's Avatar" to take her place, and ran into trouble because he couldn't control the weave, which underlies the magic of Faerun and allows magic to function). Mystryl sacrificed herself to save the weave and her successor remade the weave to not allow any magic over 9th level to function. Some of these spells still exist (most notably some elves still have records and scrolls, but if cast, as far as I know, they will simply fail to work. Netheril, Empire of Magic (a Boxed Set) notes 10th, 11th and I believe 12th level spells, and gives some examples, but in "Modern" Faerun, they just don't work (assuming one could find copies of those spells, considering the desert of Anauroch lies where the Netherese cities once flew, and the only city that survived went to the plane of Shadow and doesn't return until 3rd edition. There are also the Phaerimm that live under Anauroch's sands who would attack any looking for the secrets of Netheril. Even in Halruaa, a country of Wizards made up of the remnants of people from Netheril, couldn't cast 10th level spells.

    The changing of the Weave that Mystra undertook was called Mystra's Ban. It also made it so that Wizards needed to memorize spells, could only cast and/or memorize a certain number per day and also made it so that the wizards didn't interact with the weave directly- they had to do so through Mystra. She would grant them access to it, but they could no longer "touch" it directly.
    jackjackmlnevesegolingarf
  • golingarfgolingarf Member Posts: 157
    Interestingly the High Level Campaigns book says that a true dweomer (10th level spell) can never be written on a scroll or in a spellbook, and there is no notion there of an 11th level spell, so the above must refer to some other system. The system in High Level Campaigns resembles 3rd edition True Sorcery - wizards can concoct spells out of a large set of options and variables and have to roll a check to succeed at casting, the difficulty being determined by the parameters of the spell. The "true dweomers" don't occupy spell slots and wizards don't memorize them - the rationale is that wizards of beyond 20th level can understand how magic works and invent spells themselves.
    RAM021
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @golingarf True. But it's also not specific to the Realms, which really has its own set of rules. All the worlds do. Like Dark Sun with its defiler and preserver magic. (They actually don't know any non-defiler spells there. You either suck life-energy from the land around you or you give it up yourself, but there is no kind of "standard magic" in Dark Sun, as far as I am aware). Of course, Dragons are also defiler wizards and they have Avangions that are Preserver Wizards that are the analogues of Dragons (Both are what high-level wizards of either type become), so there is that as well.
  • WebShamanWebShaman Member Posts: 490
    We need to seperate spell slots from spells here. AFAIK, it is always possible (even in FR) to use spellslots above 9th. For example, Extend spell versions, Quick spell versions, etc. These can, dependingly, occupy spellslots above 9th level (provided one actually has them, of course).

    The actual casting of a 10th level or higher spell is currently not supposed to be possible due to the limitations on the Weave placed there by Mystra. However, one could theoretically go back in time to before this point through a portal, for example, to when it was possible. So I am sure that a really enterprising mage may be able to create a spell that warped back through a time portal and cast itself from there on him now.

    It would definitely have to be above 9th level, of course.

    Also, I believe that if one "circumvents" the Weave (the "standard" method of spellcasting) ala Dragon Magic or perhaps by using a functioning Mythal (which could perhaps amplify enough to cast 10th level or high spells, dependingly), one could cast spells above level 9 - sort of like the Epic Spell System (explained before).
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