Pale Master Kit for Sorcerers (1.4.5)
shawne
Member Posts: 3,239
Based off this Feature Request, @Artemius_I and @bfons86 have put together a Pale Master kit for sorcerers.
The latest build is here: https://github.com/ArtemiusI/Pale-Master-Sorcerer-Kit/releases
Per the description:
PALE MASTER: Necromancy is usually a poor choice for arcane spellcasters -- those who really want to master the deathless arts almost always pursue divine means. However, an alternative exists for those who desire power over undead but refuse to give up their arcane craft completely. Enter the pale master, who draws on a font of special lore that provides a macabre power all its own.
Advantages:
- 1st level: Gains Boneskin.
BONESKIN: The pale master's tough, cadaverous flesh gives them immunity to sleep and a +1 to AC (+2 at 7th, +3 at 13th).
- 2nd level: May use Animate Dead once per day.
ANIMATE DEAD: As per the mage and cleric spell, summons an allied skeleton warrior to serve the caster.
- 3rd level: Gains Deathless Vigor.
DEATHLESS VIGOR: The pale master’s body becomes more akin to the undying flesh of his undead associates. Gains infravision and +1 to saves vs. death (+2 at 8th, +3 at 13th).
- 6th level: The pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved flesh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. May use Undead Graft twice per day.
UNDEAD GRAFT: The pale master touches a target with a ghoulish hand. Target must save vs. death or be held for 5 rounds.
- 10th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -1.
- 12th level: Gains Tough as Bone.
TOUGH AS BONE: The pale master becomes more and more like one of the implacable undead. Immunity to hold, stun and poison.
- 14th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -2.
- 15th level: May use Create Skeleton Abomination once per day.
CREATE SKELETON ABOMINATION: Summons a powerful skeleton abomination to serve the caster for 2 hours.
- 16th level: The pale master's touch becomes deadly and can instantly kill a target. May use Deathless Master's Touch twice per day.
DEATHLESS MASTER'S TOUCH: The pale master touches a target with a life-snuffing hand. Target must save vs. death with a -3 penalty or die instantly.
- 18th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -3.
- 20th level: Gains Deathless Mastery.
DEATHLESS MASTERY: The pale masters are practically undead creatures themselves. Immunity to death magic and level drain.
- Hit Die: d6
Disadvantages:
- May cast one fewer spell per level per day.
- Alignment restricted to non-good.
- Incurs a -2 penalty to Charisma.
Feedback and technical assistance would be much appreciated if anyone has the time and inclination to jump in.
The latest build is here: https://github.com/ArtemiusI/Pale-Master-Sorcerer-Kit/releases
Per the description:
PALE MASTER: Necromancy is usually a poor choice for arcane spellcasters -- those who really want to master the deathless arts almost always pursue divine means. However, an alternative exists for those who desire power over undead but refuse to give up their arcane craft completely. Enter the pale master, who draws on a font of special lore that provides a macabre power all its own.
Advantages:
- 1st level: Gains Boneskin.
BONESKIN: The pale master's tough, cadaverous flesh gives them immunity to sleep and a +1 to AC (+2 at 7th, +3 at 13th).
- 2nd level: May use Animate Dead once per day.
ANIMATE DEAD: As per the mage and cleric spell, summons an allied skeleton warrior to serve the caster.
- 3rd level: Gains Deathless Vigor.
DEATHLESS VIGOR: The pale master’s body becomes more akin to the undying flesh of his undead associates. Gains infravision and +1 to saves vs. death (+2 at 8th, +3 at 13th).
- 6th level: The pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved flesh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. May use Undead Graft twice per day.
UNDEAD GRAFT: The pale master touches a target with a ghoulish hand. Target must save vs. death or be held for 5 rounds.
- 10th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -1.
- 12th level: Gains Tough as Bone.
TOUGH AS BONE: The pale master becomes more and more like one of the implacable undead. Immunity to hold, stun and poison.
- 14th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -2.
- 15th level: May use Create Skeleton Abomination once per day.
CREATE SKELETON ABOMINATION: Summons a powerful skeleton abomination to serve the caster for 2 hours.
- 16th level: The pale master's touch becomes deadly and can instantly kill a target. May use Deathless Master's Touch twice per day.
DEATHLESS MASTER'S TOUCH: The pale master touches a target with a life-snuffing hand. Target must save vs. death with a -3 penalty or die instantly.
- 18th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -3.
- 20th level: Gains Deathless Mastery.
DEATHLESS MASTERY: The pale masters are practically undead creatures themselves. Immunity to death magic and level drain.
- Hit Die: d6
Disadvantages:
- May cast one fewer spell per level per day.
- Alignment restricted to non-good.
- Incurs a -2 penalty to Charisma.
Feedback and technical assistance would be much appreciated if anyone has the time and inclination to jump in.
Post edited by shawne on
16
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Note to everyone else: The 'one fewer spell' disadvantage isn't implemented, and I haven't figured out how to make the kit use the Dragon Disciple spell table yet. If anyone knows how to do so, I would appreciate it.
Edit: There are two changes to the kit which I haven't mentioned. Boneguard is now named 'Skeleton Abomination' and immunity to ability drain seems to be impossible to implement (well, it's possible, but it prevents ability boosts as well) so that is no longer in the kit.
Second, an evaluation of balance: this kit is cool but suffers from the same balancing issues as vanilla Dragon Disciple (namely that one spell slot in exchange for a host of abilities is not really a balanced trade).
I've drawn this comparsion before, but consider that, instead of making a Pale Master, you had an item (The Ring of Undead Comparison) that had the following features:
- Finger of Death 2/day
- Hold Person 2/day
- Animate Dead 1/day
- Animate Dead ++ 1/day
- Immunity to hold, stun, poison, death magic, and level drain.
- 100% resistance to cold damage
- +2 AC
- +2 saves vs death
- +20 hit points
- -1 spell per level per day
- -2 Charisma
Your response to such an item would probably be "how can I get this on all my spellcasters asap?" That's the point of the exercise: there is not a substantial enough trade off to have to really consider whether you want to pay the cost to get the bonuses because the answer is so overwhelmingly yes. This item fixes a lot of the annoyances that spell casters face (low saves, low AC, low HP, vulnerability to annoying effects [especially level drain]) while only sacrificing a very small portion of their versatility. To be fair, vanilla sorcerer is almost always better than vanilla mage, so you can't hold that against sorcerer kits, but this kit is even more powerful than the already powerful true sorcerer.
Despite your foster father's many attempts to dissuade you, necromancy has always been your chiefest fascination. Over the years, you have learned to focus the raw magic within you in ways that confound even the most sagacious priests of Oghma. The dead, you have often claimed, make for better company than the living, and when they speak to you now, they promise even greater power beyond the walls of Candlekeep.
I don't personally care about "overpowered", but it is something that other people seem to consider when installing additional kits.
I would definitely install this mod though, looks great. Always support more kits.
/blech
>_<
AFAIK, undead and constructs in BG2 are all coded to be immune to instant death effects, and again, I'm just basing it off he rules here. I respectfully disagree, only because of my personal design ethics. It's not my place to decide what kits should be like, but ultimately I'm going to say that this fits my image of the Pale Master the best. I'd feel less satisfied with a heavily watered down version.
And personally, even with the idea above, I would still add the -1 to spells per day. I believe the sorcerer should be the most viable spellcaster out of the three, while the DD and PM are more specialized and niche.
I wish I was better at this, sorry for being a burden QQ
Edit: Didn't see the human only restriction for BG2:EE derp.
Still doesn't explain why it won't install to BG:EE Though =/
And while the following differentiates from PnP, perhaps prohibiting the Pale Master from using Illusion spells like Necromancers do would allow for a more unique playstyle amongst Sorceres. Just throwing out ideas here.
The whole point of prohibited schools for specialist wizards is because they focused their studies on one form of magic, they fell behind on another. A sorcerer's magic is innate, so that doesn't apply.
http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/34749/pale-master-kit-for-sorcerers
When I try to install it I get the following error:
ERROR; fl#add_kit_ee#get_2da_value could not find row SORCERER and column fallen_notice with 8 required columns
ERROR: [clastext.2da] -> [override] Patching Failed (COPY) (Failure("ERROR: fl#add_kit_ee#get_2da_value could not find row SORCERER and column fallen_notice with 8 required columns"))
PALE MASTER: Necromancy is usually a poor choice for arcane spellcasters -- those who really want to master the deathless arts almost always pursue divine means. However, an alternative exists for those who desire power over undead but refuse to give up their arcane craft completely. Enter the pale master, who draws on a font of special lore that provides a macabre power all its own.
Advantages:
- 1st level: Gains Boneskin.
Boneskin: The pale master's tough, cadaverous flesh gives them a +2 to AC.
- 2nd level: May use Animate Dead once per day.
ANIMATE DEAD: As per the mage and cleric spell, summons an allied skeleton warrior to serve the caster.
- 3rd level: The dark begins to lose its mysteries to a pale master, who gains infravision.
- 6th level: The pale master gives in to terrible necrophiliac urges. He cuts off his arm and replaces it with an undead prosthetic, which may be skeletal in form or preserved flesh stitched in place like that of a flesh golem. May use Undead Graft twice per day.
UNDEAD GRAFT: The pale master touches a target with a ghoulish hand. Target must save vs. death or be held for 5 rounds.
- 8th level: Gains Deathless Vigor.
Deathleass Vigor: The pale master’s body becomes more akin to the undying flesh of his undead associates. Gains +2 to saves vs. death.
- 10th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -1.
- 12th level: Gains Tough as Bone.
Tough as Bone: The pale master becomes more and more like one of the implacable undead. Immunity to hold, stun and poison.
- 14th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -2.
- 15th level: May use Create Skeleton Abomination once per day.
CREATE SKELETON ABOMINATION: Summons a powerful skeleton abomination to serve the caster for 2 hours.
- 16th level: The pale master's touch becomes deadly and can instantly kill a target. May use Deathless Master's Touch twice per day.
DEATHLESS MASTER'S TOUCH: The pale master touches a target with a life-snuffing hand. Target must save vs. death or die instantly.
- 18th level: Undead Graft saving throw at -3.
- 20th level: Gains Deathless Mastery.
Deathless Mastery: The pale masters are practically undead creatures themselves. Immunity to death magic and level drain.
- Hit Die: d6
Disadvantages:
- May cast one fewer spell per level per day.
- Alignment restricted to non-good.
- Incurs a -2 penalty to Charisma.
- Race restricted to human.
Please tell me what you think or if you find any bugs.
- I like the suggestion that was made earlier about adding the "innates" to the sorcerer's list of known spells. Since all of the sorcerer's spells are essentially innate abilities that binds well with what the PM is best known for. Although it does change the "grafting undead parts to yourself" thing a bit.
- Consider adding a scaled "Color Glow Pulse" effect (opcode 9) to the character's skin and hair colors, with RGB values of 50/50/50 and a cycle speed of 1. It will lighten the character's skin color without "changing it", and give the sense that the character is becoming more undead. You could then, at level 20 or so, change their skin color permanently to a color that looks like bone. Color index 170 works well for this.
Other than that, I like where it's heading.