Obviously, many of these wouldn't work. But some might emulate certain magical spells, for example. I could see a 3 second invisibility for quick escape, for example (complete with a puff of smoke, say, from a home made smoke bomb)
Obviously, many of these wouldn't work. But some might emulate certain magical spells, for example. I could see a 3 second invisibility for quick escape, for example (complete with a puff of smoke, say, from a home made smoke bomb)
@Grammarsalad the Smoke Bomb is one of KR's new abilities for the True Thief. It's part of the Dirty Tricks main feature which is thief response to fighter's Called Hit within KR. Fighter's CH includes under a sub-menu all combat maneuvers like disarm, trip, and sunder, while thief's DT includes entangling or blinding attacks as well as the above mentioned smoke bomb.
If only I could find a decent animation for it, I swear I once saw a "smoke explosion" or something similar within IWD bams...
Obviously, many of these wouldn't work. But some might emulate certain magical spells, for example. I could see a 3 second invisibility for quick escape, for example (complete with a puff of smoke, say, from a home made smoke bomb)
@Grammarsalad the Smoke Bomb is one of KR's new abilities for the True Thief. It's part of the Dirty Tricks main feature which is thief response to fighter's Called Hit within KR. Fighter's CH includes under a sub-menu all combat maneuvers like disarm, trip, and sunder, while thief's DT includes entangling or blinding attacks as well as the above mentioned smoke bomb.
If only I could find a decent animation for it, I swear I once saw a "smoke explosion" or something similar within IWD bams...
I had a working version in vanilla bgt with what I thought was an acceptable puff of smoke... I don't think it was a custom bam, but I'll look when I get time.
Subtle, what kind of bams and pros are you looking for? I'm not an expert, but I've been creating a lot of visual effects lately. It's amazingly easy with DLTCEP.
We should create a repository for something like this. Seriously, I've been creating a number of cool visual effects that just don't fit my needs (I've deleted most of them, but I could start saving and uploading them somewhere)
Sorry, I meant icons. I never have enough spell icons.
Easy enough for a feat that increases physical resistance to use the Armor of Faith icon... but what about a feat that boosts your save vs. spells and makes you impervious to Charm? It could use the Chaotic Commands, because the effect is similar (resist mental/magic attacks). But that icon looks weird, just a bunch of lines going different directions. I could use the same icon as Magic Resistance, which looks perfect, like a shield in front of a head... but players seeing that might think the ability has something to do with MR.
Really every new ability should be using a new icon. But I don't have the ability to make them, or the time to learn how. Sigh...
And not just icons...special effect icons. Is it possible to add them?
I can...sort of make them. It's not that difficult, but it's tedious. I mean, it's time you could be spending making more kits, or whatever.
I have been working with Grammarsalad on some Icons for the F+P mod. As this and that mod seem to be designed to work together, I could consider making some for you as well @subtledoctor.
Of course what I really want to end up making is some visual effects, as that is more to my interest, but I know that icons are in much greater demand so I am starting there.
I would love to try and help get new visual effects into the game at some point though.
So paladins don't get those feats, right? They have magical tricks and defences allready, so it makes sense. And, any idea for kit-spesific feats? Like one special feat that only kensais can do, another that only wizard slayers know, etc.
Still love your work subtledoctor. And I hope there are enough people who wants PSIONICs. Because I want them very much
(This post sole purpose was to motivate for Psionics )
One question, I think you made some changes to the Wizard Slayer in an older version. Is this still included in the mod (cannot find it in the changelog)?
@Darkersun I'm still doing conceptual work trying to figure out how to make psionics distinct from magic, in effect and in function.
Maybe have a look at the Cipher class from Pillars of Eternity, and its spells (called Powers), which are different from the Wizard spells of the same game in various ways:
Shape:
Wizard spells tend to be standard cone- and circle-shaped AoE's, projectiles, or affect only the caster him- or herself.
Cipher powers often have more unusual "shapes": Things like jumping from target to target (like BG2's Chain Lightning), or beams (think Aganazzar's Scorcher), etc. - with a few twists, e.g. sometimes requiring you to target an ally in order to create an AOE (circle, beam, jump...) around it that harms enemies.
Effect:
Wizard spells tend to do mostly elemental or physical damage, self-buff the caster, or summon stuff.
Cipher powers tend to cause afflictions of the mind such as Confused/Charmed/Stunned/Paralyzed, do Raw damage, "overwhelm" enemies' defenses in some way, or "drain" them of stats in some way.
Resource mechanic:
Wizards can cast a certain number of spells of each level per day (like BG2 Sorcerers).
Ciphers don't have any per-day limits; instead they need to spend a certain amount of "Focus" (think Mana) for using a power. They start each combat encounter with a set amount of Focus (not enough to use a high-level power), and need to generate more by causing damage to enemies with weapons. So they need to be good at physical combat as well. Come to think of it, they're themed similarly to BG2 Githyanki that way: Combining weapon use and psionic abilities.
Some memorable examples of Cipher powers:
Mental Binding – Overwhelms the target's mental ability to communicate with its own body, Paralyzing it and causing its soul to emit a shockwave that can leave nearby enemies Stuck.
Ectopsychic Echo – The cipher and an ally generate a bolt of psychic energy that periodically rebounds between them, causing Crush damage to anyone caught in the area.
Pain Link – Links enemies to the cipher mentally, forcing them to experience any Damage suffered by the cipher.
Detonate – Splinters the target's soul with sheer force, inflicting Raw damage to them - targets with low hit-points explode, causing Crush damage to all in the area of effect.
Mind Plague – Destroys an enemy's memory with calculated accuracy, Confusing and Dazing them before rapidly jumping to up to five other enemies.
Time Parasite – By siphoning power from enemies' souls, the cipher is able to slow them down and increase his or her own speed.
Of course, not all of that may make sense within the Infinity Engine ruleset, but maybe it can serve as inspiration. And I think having spells like a Chain Lightning equivalent that stuns targets or drains them of attributes instead of doing damage, would be pretty interesting.
I think the tricky part about making psionics distinct from magic is that magic already takes up so much conceptual space. As is implied by Ineth's comparison from PoE, it is much easier to make psionics distinct if you limit the design space for wizards so that they can't do everything. As it is, in D&D, everything you'd expect psionic characters to be good at, magic users are already good at.
I like the idea! I won't miss the bard class one little bit (I think it could be converted to a thief kit, myself).
But what about the instrument icon, ie the button that is used to play the bard song. It doesn't really say 'psionics'to me. Would it be easy to change it?
Also, an alternate idea. Perhaps the psionicist 'spells'could change the bard song in some way. Perhaps you could even have very powerful effects, but limit it either through constitution drain or non lethal damage.
Say a telepathic ability that makes the bard song charm or hold s all enemies, but also drains one con per round, or, if that is too strong, does some number of non lethal hp dam to the caster.
You have this unique, and very moddable ability (the bard song mechanic). I say use it to its fullest
A little aside. I understand that it is possible to make poison weapon not penetrate mirror image/stoneskin.Maybe this could be an optional component in this mod:
@kjeron How do you mod that? The bypass mirror image flag or something?
Opcode 326/318 and Splprot.2da with:
"X 273 0x40000000 7" for a Mirror Image check. "Y 88 0 5" for Stoneskin effect "Z 199 0 5" for the other Stoneskin(Golem) effect "YZ 259 Y Z" for either stoneskins effect "XYZ 199 X YZ" for either mirror image or stoneskins For Poison Weapon Ability(SPCL423.spl):
LPF ADD_SPELL_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode = 101 target = 2 parameter2 = 25 END // Immunity to Effect "Poison" LPF ADD_SPELL_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode = 169 target = 2 parameter2 = 6 END // Prevent Portrait Icon "Poison" LPF ADD_SPELL_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode = 267 target = 2 parameter1 = 14662 END // Prevent Display String "Poisoned", there are others, just a sample.
If the target has Mirror Image or Stoneskins up, they will not become poisoned. Can be extended for items that poison on hit or for other effects as well.
Comments
http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/skills/skilltricks.shtml
Obviously, many of these wouldn't work. But some might emulate certain magical spells, for example. I could see a 3 second invisibility for quick escape, for example (complete with a puff of smoke, say, from a home made smoke bomb)
If only I could find a decent animation for it, I swear I once saw a "smoke explosion" or something similar within IWD bams...
Subtle, what kind of bams and pros are you looking for? I'm not an expert, but I've been creating a lot of visual effects lately. It's amazingly easy with DLTCEP.
We should create a repository for something like this. Seriously, I've been creating a number of cool visual effects that just don't fit my needs (I've deleted most of them, but I could start saving and uploading them somewhere)
I can...sort of make them. It's not that difficult, but it's tedious. I mean, it's time you could be spending making more kits, or whatever.
Anyway, @Demivrgvs and @subtledoctor the animation that I used for smoke bomb is "SPCLOUD2"
Of course what I really want to end up making is some visual effects, as that is more to my interest, but I know that icons are in much greater demand so I am starting there.
I would love to try and help get new visual effects into the game at some point though.
And I hope there are enough people who wants PSIONICs.
Because I want them very much
(This post sole purpose was to motivate for Psionics
One question, I think you made some changes to the Wizard Slayer in an older version.
Is this still included in the mod (cannot find it in the changelog)?
Thanks for working on all these nice mods.
Shape:
- Wizard spells tend to be standard cone- and circle-shaped AoE's, projectiles, or affect only the caster him- or herself.
- Cipher powers often have more unusual "shapes": Things like jumping from target to target (like BG2's Chain Lightning), or beams (think Aganazzar's Scorcher), etc. - with a few twists, e.g. sometimes requiring you to target an ally in order to create an AOE (circle, beam, jump...) around it that harms enemies.
Effect:- Wizard spells tend to do mostly elemental or physical damage, self-buff the caster, or summon stuff.
- Cipher powers tend to cause afflictions of the mind such as Confused/Charmed/Stunned/Paralyzed, do Raw damage, "overwhelm" enemies' defenses in some way, or "drain" them of stats in some way.
Resource mechanic:- Wizards can cast a certain number of spells of each level per day (like BG2 Sorcerers).
- Ciphers don't have any per-day limits; instead they need to spend a certain amount of "Focus" (think Mana) for using a power. They start each combat encounter with a set amount of Focus (not enough to use a high-level power), and need to generate more by causing damage to enemies with weapons. So they need to be good at physical combat as well. Come to think of it, they're themed similarly to BG2 Githyanki that way: Combining weapon use and psionic abilities.
Some memorable examples of Cipher powers:- Mental Binding – Overwhelms the target's mental ability to communicate with its own body, Paralyzing it and causing its soul to emit a shockwave that can leave nearby enemies Stuck.
- Ectopsychic Echo – The cipher and an ally generate a bolt of psychic energy that periodically rebounds between them, causing Crush damage to anyone caught in the area.
- Pain Link – Links enemies to the cipher mentally, forcing them to experience any Damage suffered by the cipher.
- Detonate – Splinters the target's soul with sheer force, inflicting Raw damage to them - targets with low hit-points explode, causing Crush damage to all in the area of effect.
- Mind Plague – Destroys an enemy's memory with calculated accuracy, Confusing and Dazing them before rapidly jumping to up to five other enemies.
- Time Parasite – By siphoning power from enemies' souls, the cipher is able to slow them down and increase his or her own speed.
Of course, not all of that may make sense within the Infinity Engine ruleset, but maybe it can serve as inspiration.And I think having spells like a Chain Lightning equivalent that stuns targets or drains them of attributes instead of doing damage, would be pretty interesting.
But what about the instrument icon, ie the button that is used to play the bard song. It doesn't really say 'psionics'to me. Would it be easy to change it?
Also, an alternate idea. Perhaps the psionicist 'spells'could change the bard song in some way. Perhaps you could even have very powerful effects, but limit it either through constitution drain or non lethal damage.
Say a telepathic ability that makes the bard song charm or hold s all enemies, but also drains one con per round, or, if that is too strong, does some number of non lethal hp dam to the caster.
You have this unique, and very moddable ability (the bard song mechanic). I say use it to its fullest