Modding Spells

RahonaOstrimo

Dear community,

thanks for the many great guidance and developments which have been brought together by you tremendous efforts ! Even thought the games game out ~15 years ago I still enjoy the new dimensions i find in games and underlying mechanics.
For this reason I have also been replaying the games, especially Icewind dale 2, but after the first 10 levels or so i find my´self spending so much time on micromanagement of spells and buff. And eventually lose fate and start a new party Would i find a great improvement to the games would be if the single target spells, "spirit armor", "stone skin" etc. could be recreated to also so have an AOE effect. Simply to reduce the time it takes to cast all of these on 6 party members and possible summons.

I have searched for how the spells work, and used Near Infinity to inspect the spell, but I simply do not understand what in the spell that specify the area of effect. I can find attribute that specify where to cast the spell, and the range there it can be cast to, but not the area size. Can you please assist me.

Grammarsalad

One way to do something like this would be to change the 'projectile' of the spell (this often involves changing the spell from a ' normal' spell to a 'projectile' spell.)

What do i mean? Well, you know how when you cast certain spells like hold, fireball, or remove fear, you target one creature but it 'spreads' to other nearby creatures often with interesting graphics? It does this via projectile. Projectiles have different properties that influence how the effect is applied. For example, a hold spell is party friendly as the projectile will only affect enemies while remove fear is friendly in a different way-- it only affects party members with a beneficial effect. (i assume rf works like this in iwd2).

Now, i haven't looked at iwd2 for a while, but you could look at a spell that 'spreads its effects' in a way that you like. Look at that spell to see what projectile it has, and then change the projectile of the spell you want to change to match that one. Then, if necessary, change it to a projectile spell.

I do most of my spell editing in dltcep ( both dltcep and near infinity are excellent tools). I'd be happy to give you instructions on how to edit the spell in dltcep if you like

RahonaOstrimo

Hi Grammarsalad

Great feedback. I will look into this effects on the "projectiles". I made the test using the latest verion of Near Infinity from the forum, used the Projectil for "Protection from evil 10' radius (258)" and it worked like a charm, all characters got Mage armor! Thank you so much!

Such an easy change!
thanks again.

OlvynChuru

Projectiles aren't very customizable, unfortunately. It's impossible to make a fireball spell with twice the radius or a stinking cloud spell with twice the duration. You can still do a lot of cool things, though.

Grammarsalad

I'm glad it worked out! Let me know if you need more help with this ( you can 'summon' me with @grammarsalad )

RahonaOstrimo

Here to everyone who would like to simplify buff spelss, attached is the new versions for
Mage armor
Spirit Armor
Ghost Armor
Bark skin
Bull strength
Cat's Grace
Eagle's Splendor
War Chant of Sith - Armor Bonuses and Regeneration

Simply put it in your game folder in a folder called “Override” this works for me in Icewind dale 2, and you may be able to use it directly for other games, or se how to modify your own using Near infinity.

All the best.
-Rahona