Modding raise dead/ressurection in BG/IWD

gunman

I have this idea to make raise dead more realistic in the infinity engine games, especially at lower levels, before your characters can learn the spells. I wonder if it is possible to be modded with the BG:EE and IWD:EE engine (or even in IWD2 if someone is familiar with it?)

For each recruitable NPC, on his death a body item (such as the one of Samuel, from the BG1 quest) to be spawned and dropped on the ground on the spot the character has died, together with his belongings. The weight of the body would be different, of course, based on NPC's race, genre and class. In order to raise him at the temple, you must also transport the body, as the raise dead / ressurection spell will only work if you have the body in the inventory. Upon spell being cast, the body will disappear and the character will be raised. In case death is not ressurectable (chunked), no body will be spawned on the ground.

I think this would make the play more interesting for ironman runs, since when you are about to lose a battle, or many characters have died, you no longer can just gather the most important stuff and flee, you will also have to save the bodies which can cause significant encumbrance. What do you think, is anyone interested in this idea? Is it possible?

gunman

*bump*

gunman

Can you help me understand why the following script does not get executed?

IF
Global("ImoenBody","GLOBAL",0)
Dead("IMOEN")
THEN
RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("ImoenBody","GLOBAL",1)
TextScreen("toscst")
Continue()
END

I saved it into DEADIMOE.BCS and placed it into override folder
I also assigned DEADIMOE.BCS script as override script for IMOEN.CRE also found in override folder.
Now when I attack and kill Imoen, I was expecting a text to be displayed in game window (identified by "totcst" which I copied from another script), but nothing happens. What am I missing?

gunman

If I put the above script in BALDUR.BCS then it gets executed. So either the script DEADIMOE.BCS is ignored entirely (why?) or the IF condition does not evaluate to true.

evildevil97

Someone answer this man! It's the exact solution I've always wanted to see for raising dead in BG1.

TheArtisan

Scripts tied to creatures can't play if the creature is dead.

gunman

My solution was to drop the dead body at the feet of the Protagonist, not a perfect solution but it works.

gunman

Progress made, killing Imoen and Xzar drops their bodies:








Raising Imoen with her body in inventory removes her body:




Attempting to raise dead without the body shows a message (temporary) and removes the character for good:

gunman

Creating bodies for each joinable NPC requires giving him a weight.

I gathered the following information based on D&D 2nd edition player's handbook

Race - Base weight male (female) modifier
Human 140 (100) 5D10
Dwarf 130 (105) 4D10
Half-Orc 150 (110) 6D10
Half-Elf 110 (85) 3D12
Elf 90 lbs (70) 3D10
Drow 90 (110)
Halfling 52 (48) 5D4
Gnome 72 (68) 5D4

I added in a modifier based on character strength, considering the base weight for the average strength of 10.

I ended up with the following values:

Ajantis - 182
Alora - 42
Branwen - 118
Coran - 106
Dorn - 213
Dynaheir - 106
Edwin - 134
Eldoth - 176
Faldorn - 112
Garrick - 164
Imoen - 94
Jaheira - 105
Kagain - 160
Khalid - 130
Kivan - 122
Minsc - 188
Montaron - 70
Neera - 89
Quayle - 66
Rasaad - 176
Safana - 118
Shar-Teel - 148
Skie - 106
Tiax - 69
Viconia - 110
Xan - 102
Xzar - 164
Yeslick - 155

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gunman

So far I only changed SPPR504.spl (Raise Dead spell), but I guess the change could be made to work from scroll as well if needed (I guess scrolls are in a different file, right?).

NPCs added by mods, not modified to work with this system, can be raised without the body like in vanilla, since the the check for body is done in a custom script attached to each NPC, that checks for a local variable set by the Raise Dead spell. If this script does not exists, the variable set by the spell will be ignored.

I guess I will alter Resurrection spell as well to check for the body and consume it, otherwise resurrecting a character will have his/her body hanging around (although another one will not be spawned upon death)

chimeric

Sounds like a good idea on the whole. We should, of course, have to carry the bodies around, and when no one is strong enough to shoulder an extra 200 pounds we may even have to leave them behind and come back for them. It's a hassle, but it's the right kind of hassle, the sort that creates immersion. I think you should make a hardcore version of Raise Dead, too, where it takes away a point of Constitution permanently, as it's supposed to.

gunman

This is when lesser potions of strength can be useful.

gunman

Attached is a Weidu installer, but be warned it is not fully tested, so consider it as a beta version.

A link to the mod can be found here:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/61786/npc-bodies-a-raise-dead-resurrection-mod

In this mod Raise Dead spell will also lower constitution by 1 point.

I will consider what to do with the other raise dead spells such as Harper's Call or Mass Raise Dead, but for BG1 for which this mod is intended, they should not come into play.

gunman

It seems that costs of Raise Dead and Resurrection in temples ignore the price set in the .STO files and it take the values from RAISDEAD.2DA file instead. There is no 2DA file for resurrection costs, and it appears there is a direct formula of resurrection cost = 1.5 x raise dead cost. Is this modifier hard coded or can be modded somewhere?