Sorry I have been a tad busy lately, couldn't do much on this mod, but I am working on a new, rebalanced version, which I'll probably release by the end of next week. is available in the OP now. This will feature lower damage output especially at early levels, bugfixes and rebalanced spells/kit overall (some are really too good, like Poison Blast being so very OP in BG1).
I've just downloaded and installed it and it seems that Cloak of Shadows and Dark One's Own Luck can be cast infinitely every round and stacked. A mid-level Warlock in BG1 could cast multiple instances of both spells and get undispellable -20 AC and +20 to luck and saves for an entire day, making them more or less invincible. They'd take minimum damage from all incoming spells, get a 95% hit rate with maximum damage on their own attacks, a 95% miss rate for incoming enemy attacks, and be immune to all disablers and instant death effects that offered a saving throw. The only drawback would be that you'd have to cast numerous spells every day to keep up the effect.
Also, all the Eldritch Blast abilities appear to strike as level 1 spells, making them completely useless against almost any mage as well as (Ascension) Melissan.
Thank you for these reports. I'm on it, should be a fairly easy fix. Both will now be dispellable and won't stack anymore. Eldritch Blast will also be of a level equal to that of the max spell level a mage of the same level would be able to cast.
By the way, is there a way to mass edit that? I have 16 Eldritch Blast derivatives, with 15 spell abilities and up to 16 effect per spell ability, so editing it manually will take a super long time. Edit: Nevermind it's fairly fast with the Hex editor in NI.
What's with the superlong duration spells? Well, it's a matter of conveniency, as well as a reflection of 3E behaviour. Since you have an unlimited amount of spells, casting them over and over would just be tedious. As you may have noticed, the very powerful spells when used in the thick of combat have a very short duration, much shorter than their arcane counterpart (retributive invisibility and Dark Foresight), to counterbalance the fact that they can be cast at will.
If you're only going to cast an invocation once per day, there's no point of it being unlimited use. I know that many of the invocations in NWN2 had long durations too, but it wasn't a good idea there either.
I think that at-will warlock abilities should be fun to spam without being overpowered. The best way to do this, as you have done with Retributive Invisibility and Dark Foresight, is to make their abilities shorter but give them a more powerful effect.
Here's a cool warlock lesser invocation I came up with, which I give you total permission to add to your mod if you ever feel up to the extra work:
Most Twisted Strength: The warlock temporarily gains titanic strength, but body becomes sluggish and terribly malformed. For 1 round per 3 levels, the warlock's Strength is set to 25 but Dexterity and Constitution are set to 1.
What's with the superlong duration spells? Well, it's a matter of conveniency, as well as a reflection of 3E behaviour. Since you have an unlimited amount of spells, casting them over and over would just be tedious. As you may have noticed, the very powerful spells when used in the thick of combat have a very short duration, much shorter than their arcane counterpart (retributive invisibility and Dark Foresight), to counterbalance the fact that they can be cast at will.
If you're only going to cast an invocation once per day, there's no point of it being unlimited use. I know that many of the invocations in NWN2 had long durations too, but it wasn't a good idea there either.
I think that at-will warlock abilities should be fun to spam without being overpowered. The best way to do this, as you have done with Retributive Invisibility and Dark Foresight, is to make their abilities shorter but give them a more powerful effect.
Here's a cool warlock lesser invocation I came up with, which I give you total permission to add to your mod if you ever feel up to the extra work:
Most Twisted Strength: The warlock temporarily gains titanic strength, but body becomes sluggish and terribly malformed. For 1 round per 3 levels, the warlock's Strength is set to 25 but Dexterity and Constitution are set to 1.
Mmmh I mostly wanted to mimic the 3E class, but I guess your approach makes sense too
Concerning your invocation, well thank you for the suggestion. I like the idea but I'm afraid setting CON to 1 would cause issue with the various con-draining HLAs. I might adapt that somehow though.
Just fought Carbos in CandleKeep and find that the eldrtch blast is not doing 1d3+1 damage (see screenshot in spoiler). Note that he was alive after the blast. I killed him with my dagger after the blast.
EDIT: The bonus to DEX from leaps and bounds is wearing off after about 1 hour. However, the icon for Draw Upon Holy Might is still present. So the icon and bonus are not synced and I lose the bonus much quicker then the invocation says I should.
EDIT 2: The invocations per day keep going up after rest. It is like it is keeping track on how often I use the invocations (Eldritch Blast, Leaps & Bounds, Dark Ones Own Luck) and when I rest it inrements my uses per day by that amount.
Just fought Carbos in CandleKeep and find that the eldrtch blast is not doing 1d3+1 damage (see screenshot in spoiler). Note that he was alive after the blast. I killed him with my dagger after the blast.
I fixed some of the stacking abilities in the last patch but Leaps and Bounds slipped through it apparently. I'll look into that and the duration/icon duration.
Concerning the experience progression, well this is something that I have been pondering on for a while. It is mechanically normal considering I made this a thief kit, but at first it appeared to be too fast which is why I nerfed the blasts by removing the flat damage. I haven't updated the descriptions yet though, I have been quite busy lately, but I'll probably be doing that at some point during my upcoming holidays
EDIT 2: The invocations per day keep going up after rest. It is like it is keeping track on how often I use the invocations (Eldritch Blast, Leaps & Bounds, Dark Ones Own Luck) and when I rest it inrements my uses per day by that amount.
I know about that, and it won't cause any particular issue gameplay-wise as you have unlimited uses anyway. The thing is, back when I made the mod, I really was a beginner and there is something I must not have gotten right with the add/remove ability thing, and I couldn't fix it then. Same as the rest, it should be patched with the patch I'll make during my holidays.
I went up my 4th level and got another lesser invocation. I notice that I could select Dark Ones Own Luck even though I had already selected that invocation at 2nd level. I picked Cloak of Shadows and confirmed that indeed Dark Ones Own Luck is an invocation I have already.
EDIT: I am only getting 3 lore per level and not 5.
EDIT 2: Cloak of Shadows says I should get +10/level for Pick Pockets, Hide in Shadows, and Move silently. I don't get a bonus to Pick Pockets at all (I do for the other two).
It seems to me that Cloak of Shadows is a bit over powered. +10 per level is making it that I will have 100 base hide in shadows/move silently by the end of BGEE. If I have race and DEX bonuses as well, I could have 150 per ability. Extrapolating, by the end of BG2EE I could have 210 base ability and by the end of ToB I could have 400. Can straight thieves can only do this if they put 20 of their 25 points per level in Move Silently/Hide in shadows.
If you meant for the Warlock to be a supreme stealth kit, you did it. If you did not mean it, then dropping to 5/level would be better.
I went up my 4th level and got another lesser invocation. I notice that I could select Dark Ones Own Luck even though I had already selected that invocation at 2nd level. I picked Cloak of Shadows and confirmed that indeed Dark Ones Own Luck is an invocation I have already.
EDIT: I am only getting 3 lore per level and not 5.
EDIT 2: Cloak of Shadows says I should get +10/level for Pick Pockets, Hide in Shadows, and Move silently. I don't get a bonus to Pick Pockets at all (I do for the other two).
It seems to me that Cloak of Shadows is a bit over powered. +10 per level is making it that I will have 100 base hide in shadows/move silently by the end of BGEE. If I have race and DEX bonuses as well, I could have 150 per ability. Extrapolating, by the end of BG2EE I could have 210 base ability and by the end of ToB I could have 400. Can straight thieves can only do this if they put 20 of their 25 points per level in Move Silently/Hide in shadows.
If you meant for the Warlock to be a supreme stealth kit, you did it. If you did not mean it, then dropping to 5/level would be better.
I found the reason for the lore issue and fixed it. Concerning Cloak of Shadows I'll fix the pickpocket issue and lower the amount per level of the three thief stats to somewhere between 5 and 8. One thing I should point out, however, is that much like most spells in the game Cloak of Shadows caps at level 20.
Same thing as Weavescale Sorcerer, I'll update it by the end of next week. I have a long train trip tomorrow and will spend most of it fixing things on my mods
Just started playing around with this, and I really enjoy it. It is very well implemented. I just have one issue...the HLA portal spell
I just one shotted the chromatic demon with it. I know its an HLA, and I know it has a cost(-5 con malus) but it seems a little extreme to be able to do something like that. Not really sure what a good fix would be...I'd hate it to be magic resistance because its so overused in this game. Perhaps some kind of character based HD cap?(like the spell revisions sleep spell, where it functions now on any mob at your level or below). Maybe even, since it IS an HLA, character level +4 HD?
In a related note, the Balor it summons in the mobs place is kind of mean. When no enemies are present he constantly casts death spells at my party. Doesn't seem to have any effect, just thought I'd let you know.
@Arunsun, just started a new game of BG2EE to try this. I ran into a pretty big bug. Imoen cannot reach me to talk to me in the cage to start the game. If I remember correctly, other mods did this by creating an invisible creature to interact with the PC to start the ability selection process. You may need to move it further away so Imoen can reach the PC to initiate her dialog at the start of the game. At this point my single player game is over before it could start.
EDIT: I used EEKeeper to give myself 250k XP in BGEE to see what happens (I was 5th level prior to the XP boost). When selecting the greater invocation Devour Magic, it gives me the description for Tenacious Plague and when selecting Tenacious Plague it gives me the description for devour magic.
I just one shotted the chromatic demon with it. I know its an HLA, and I know it has a cost(-5 con malus) but it seems a little extreme to be able to do something like that. Not really sure what a good fix would be...I'd hate it to be magic resistance because its so overused in this game. Perhaps some kind of character based HD cap?(like the spell revisions sleep spell, where it functions now on any mob at your level or below). Maybe even, since it IS an HLA, character level +4 HD?
That's because it uses the "Replace Creature" opcode, offers no saving throw, and bypasses magic resistance. Plot-immune critters and bosses often have immunity to instant death opcode like the slay opcode, vorpal strikes, and PW: kill, but nothing is immune to the Replace Creature opcode.
That's because the game uses the Replace Creature opcode to remove critters during cutscenes and so forth. It's designed to be an instant death effect that nothing is immune to.
I just one shotted the chromatic demon with it. I know its an HLA, and I know it has a cost(-5 con malus) but it seems a little extreme to be able to do something like that. Not really sure what a good fix would be...I'd hate it to be magic resistance because its so overused in this game. Perhaps some kind of character based HD cap?(like the spell revisions sleep spell, where it functions now on any mob at your level or below). Maybe even, since it IS an HLA, character level +4 HD?
That's because it uses the "Replace Creature" opcode, offers no saving throw, and bypasses magic resistance. Plot-immune critters and bosses often have immunity to instant death opcode like the slay opcode, vorpal strikes, and PW: kill, but nothing is immune to the Replace Creature opcode.
That's because the game uses the Replace Creature opcode to remove critters during cutscenes and so forth. It's designed to be an instant death effect that nothing is immune to.
Ya, I saw that after digging through it. I set it(mine anyway) to only work on caster level HD using separate headers. Works fine now after testing, although I wonder if HD=Caster level is still too op.
@Arunsun, just started a new game of BG2EE to try this. I ran into a pretty big bug. Imoen cannot reach me to talk to me in the cage to start the game. If I remember correctly, other mods did this by creating an invisible creature to interact with the PC to start the ability selection process. You may need to move it further away so Imoen can reach the PC to initiate her dialog at the start of the game. At this point my single player game is over before it could start.
EDIT: I used EEKeeper to give myself 250k XP in BGEE to see what happens (I was 5th level prior to the XP boost). When selecting the greater invocation Devour Magic, it gives me the description for Tenacious Plague and when selecting Tenacious Plague it gives me the description for devour magic.
Weird, I don't have that issue in my game... I'll make it spawn a bit further from the character then, since you probably won't be the only one getting this issue.
I just one shotted the chromatic demon with it. I know its an HLA, and I know it has a cost(-5 con malus) but it seems a little extreme to be able to do something like that. Not really sure what a good fix would be...I'd hate it to be magic resistance because its so overused in this game. Perhaps some kind of character based HD cap?(like the spell revisions sleep spell, where it functions now on any mob at your level or below). Maybe even, since it IS an HLA, character level +4 HD?
That's because it uses the "Replace Creature" opcode, offers no saving throw, and bypasses magic resistance. Plot-immune critters and bosses often have immunity to instant death opcode like the slay opcode, vorpal strikes, and PW: kill, but nothing is immune to the Replace Creature opcode.
That's because the game uses the Replace Creature opcode to remove critters during cutscenes and so forth. It's designed to be an instant death effect that nothing is immune to.
Ya, I saw that after digging through it. I set it(mine anyway) to only work on caster level HD using separate headers. Works fine now after testing, although I wonder if HD=Caster level is still too op.
Well I'm probably going to change the replace self effect with a disintegrate/imprisonment+summon creature combination. That should do the trick, and it won't work on the creatures that are immune to death (or imprisonment) anymore, which should prevent one-shotting bosses such as the Chromatic Demon. Probably gonna go for the imprisonment version. I feel like the ability should work on vampires but they are immune to death, for example.
@Arunsun: You might keep the Replace Self opcode and then just grant critters with MINHP1 items (and maybe some other examples) immunity to the spell. That would allow it to work on enemies that are normally immune to instant death effects, say, but prevent it from deleting plot-relevant critters.
A level limit would balance it regarding the Chromatic Demon and other bosses.
@Arunsun: You might keep the Replace Self opcode and then just grant critters with MINHP1 items (and maybe some other examples) immunity to the spell. That would allow it to work on enemies that are normally immune to instant death effects, say, but prevent it from deleting plot-relevant critters.
A level limit would balance it regarding the Chromatic Demon and other bosses.
It seems to me that using the imprisonment opcode will solve it all balance-wise AND prevent issues with plot-relevant characters. It may not be exactly as good a solution but I'll settle for it and add some nice visuals, as it is much simpler to implement.
@Necromanx2 actually I also had that Imoen bug early in BG2, the reason why I never caught it is because I always skip the cutscene with escape and when you do that the door opens by itself and imoen doesn't try to open it .
@Arunsun, tried the Warlock update and this is what I found: 1) Lore is now 5/level. 2) Leaps & Bounds does not stack anymore 3) During invocation selection process, the Devour Magic and Tenacious Plague still are swapped 4) Still get incrementing of the special abilities after sleeping by how many uses I do
3) During invocation selection process, the Devour Magic and Tenacious Plague still are swapped 4) Still get incrementing of the special abilities after sleeping by how many uses I do
Meh, I totally forgot to change Devour Magic and Tenacious Plague...
Concerning the other issue, well it will take more work to sort out, so this will be for another patch, probably soon, but I didn't have enough time today to change it all. Like I said, besides the increasing numbers, it effectively has no influence over gameplay.
Playing in BG2EE and really liking the Warlock. I do think his quick level advancement is a bit OP. I mean I have the 11th level skeletal warrior at 220k XP which I get after coming out of the Irenicus dungeon. So I have good tanks way before the Cleric or Mage would get them. Combine this with my 11d3 Eldritch Blast and I am a mean machine at 11th level.
I travel the map invisible (one of my invocations). When I get waylayed I move out of sight, summon my tanks and send them in. I can send in a Tenacious Plague and go invisible and watch. Works very well in first half of game.
@Arunsun, I went up to 12th level and my Cloak of Shadows AC bonus dropped from +2 to +1. The description indicates I should have +2 at 12th level and I had +2 at 11th level.
@Arunsun, I went up to 12th level and my Cloak of Shadows AC bonus dropped from +2 to +1. The description indicates I should have +2 at 12th level and I had +2 at 11th level.
Indeed, a slight oversight. You'll get +2 again at level 13, I've fixed the issue and will include it in my next patch.
Concerning the other issue, well it will take more work to sort out, so this will be for another patch, probably soon, but I didn't have enough time today to change it all. Like I said, besides the increasing numbers, it effectively has no influence over gameplay.
The increasing numbers eventually causes a stack overflow, removing the ability from your character entirely and requiring EEKeeper to fix, unless you go for occasional save maintenance to keep it under control.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't have Eldritch Blasts and Beam as a toggled ranged magic weapon with set 1 APR and a to-hit bonus to represent their being a touch spell? MR could still be applied to non-vitriolic blasts, and it seems like that would be a lot more user friendly than having to spam the ability over and over every round (and allow targeting invisible opponents naturally without being gimped by I.Invisibity).
Concerning the other issue, well it will take more work to sort out, so this will be for another patch, probably soon, but I didn't have enough time today to change it all. Like I said, besides the increasing numbers, it effectively has no influence over gameplay.
The increasing numbers eventually causes a stack overflow, removing the ability from your character entirely and requiring EEKeeper to fix, unless you go for occasional save maintenance to keep it under control.
I just doublechecked in NI and both the number of memorizable spells of a given level, and the number of specific memorized spells are coded on 2 bytes, meaning no stack overflow issue till you've reached a total 65536 special abilities. Even with the stacking issue it shouldn't happen so soon. Anyway, it'll be fixed in the next patch which should come by the end of next week.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't have Eldritch Blasts and Beam as a toggled ranged magic weapon with set 1 APR and a to-hit bonus to represent their being a touch spell? MR could still be applied to non-vitriolic blasts, and it seems like that would be a lot more user friendly than having to spam the ability over and over every round (and allow targeting invisible opponents naturally without being gimped by I.Invisibity).
The 3E Warlock behaves roughly as mine. They have to cast Eldritch Blast every round, but on the other hand they can also attack during the same round. I wanted to mimic this behaviour at first, and I wanted a simple implementation for my first mod. The result isn't entirely satisfying and should be more user-friendly.
Besides, at the time I wasn't really satisfied by a flat on-hit bonus that would be the same against everyone. Both a fighter and a monk have a very low AC, but the former has it because they wear heavy armors, while the monk has it because it's expert at dodging.
One of the alternatives I envision, now that I have a bit of experience, would indeed be to use a weapon with 1 APR, and give that weapon a to-hit bonus based on the enemy class and your level (e.g. Against a rogue you would have a low bonus to THAC0 because their AC comes from their ability to dodge, but also from having a light armor that offers some protection. Against monks you would have no bonus because their AC is only natural. Against a fighter, you would have a huge bonus because their AC comes mostly from their armor. But specifically against a Kensai for example, the THAC0 bonus would be 0). Since every creature in the game has a class that's either one of the base classes or one unique to its species, it would be possible to tailor it and make it as close to a real touch attack as possible.
It's quite a shift from the current state, and I'll probably offer both alternatives in the install process. It's quite a nice amount of work, too, but clever implementation should make it doable. Most of the work was making the spells anyway.
Weapon immunities could give you grief. Protection from Magical Weapons should block it, and adding a toggle ability to the weapon so you could make it nonmagical or something wouldn't help against liches. Spell Revisions gets around this by rigging PFMW to only grant immunity to +6 weapons and less, and making spell-like weapons like Harm into +7 weapons.
@Arunsun, has this mod changed the resistances on the skeletal warriors? I find they can be petrified by Basilisks. The ones summoned by my Warlock.
The summons are the same as either the Wizard Animate Dead or the Priest Animate Dead, I can't remember which I copied, so the immunities should be identical.
I just checked, however, and it turns out that these summons wear a ring called ring95, that provides its wielder with many immunities that undeads typically have (level drain, panic etc...). And it turns out that this ring does give Petrification immunity in SoD and BG2 but not in IWD or BG.
So the bug is not yet another of my mistakes I'll make a bug report on redmine for it to be patched for v2.5. If they don't correct it I'll add the correction to the mod.
Comments
I'll probably release by the end of next week.is available in the OP now. This will feature lower damage output especially at early levels, bugfixes and rebalanced spells/kit overall (some are really too good, like Poison Blast being so very OP in BG1).Thank you for these reports. I'm on it, should be a fairly easy fix. Both will now be dispellable and won't stack anymore. Eldritch Blast will also be of a level equal to that of the max spell level a mage of the same level would be able to cast.
By the way, is there a way to mass edit that? I have 16 Eldritch Blast derivatives, with 15 spell abilities and up to 16 effect per spell ability, so editing it manually will take a super long time. Edit: Nevermind it's fairly fast with the Hex editor in NI.
I think that at-will warlock abilities should be fun to spam without being overpowered. The best way to do this, as you have done with Retributive Invisibility and Dark Foresight, is to make their abilities shorter but give them a more powerful effect.
Here's a cool warlock lesser invocation I came up with, which I give you total permission to add to your mod if you ever feel up to the extra work:
Most Twisted Strength:
The warlock temporarily gains titanic strength, but body becomes sluggish and terribly malformed. For 1 round per 3 levels, the warlock's Strength is set to 25 but Dexterity and Constitution are set to 1.
Concerning your invocation, well thank you for the suggestion. I like the idea but I'm afraid setting CON to 1 would cause issue with the various con-draining HLAs. I might adapt that somehow though.
EDIT: Should the Warlock go up in levels at the thief rate or should it be a slower progression?
EDIT: The bonus to DEX from leaps and bounds is wearing off after about 1 hour. However, the icon for Draw Upon Holy Might is still present. So the icon and bonus are not synced and I lose the bonus much quicker then the invocation says I should.
EDIT 2: The invocations per day keep going up after rest. It is like it is keeping track on how often I use the invocations (Eldritch Blast, Leaps & Bounds, Dark Ones Own Luck) and when I rest it inrements my uses per day by that amount.
Concerning the experience progression, well this is something that I have been pondering on for a while. It is mechanically normal considering I made this a thief kit, but at first it appeared to be too fast which is why I nerfed the blasts by removing the flat damage. I haven't updated the descriptions yet though, I have been quite busy lately, but I'll probably be doing that at some point during my upcoming holidays
I know about that, and it won't cause any particular issue gameplay-wise as you have unlimited uses anyway. The thing is, back when I made the mod, I really was a beginner and there is something I must not have gotten right with the add/remove ability thing, and I couldn't fix it then. Same as the rest, it should be patched with the patch I'll make during my holidays.
EDIT: I am only getting 3 lore per level and not 5.
EDIT 2: Cloak of Shadows says I should get +10/level for Pick Pockets, Hide in Shadows, and Move silently. I don't get a bonus to Pick Pockets at all (I do for the other two).
If you meant for the Warlock to be a supreme stealth kit, you did it. If you did not mean it, then dropping to 5/level would be better.
Same thing as Weavescale Sorcerer, I'll update it by the end of next week. I have a long train trip tomorrow and will spend most of it fixing things on my mods
I just one shotted the chromatic demon with it. I know its an HLA, and I know it has a cost(-5 con malus) but it seems a little extreme to be able to do something like that. Not really sure what a good fix would be...I'd hate it to be magic resistance because its so overused in this game. Perhaps some kind of character based HD cap?(like the spell revisions sleep spell, where it functions now on any mob at your level or below). Maybe even, since it IS an HLA, character level +4 HD?
In a related note, the Balor it summons in the mobs place is kind of mean. When no enemies are present he constantly casts death spells at my party. Doesn't seem to have any effect, just thought I'd let you know.
Thanks again
EDIT: I used EEKeeper to give myself 250k XP in BGEE to see what happens (I was 5th level prior to the XP boost). When selecting the greater invocation Devour Magic, it gives me the description for Tenacious Plague and when selecting Tenacious Plague it gives me the description for devour magic.
That's because the game uses the Replace Creature opcode to remove critters during cutscenes and so forth. It's designed to be an instant death effect that nothing is immune to.
Weird, I don't have that issue in my game... I'll make it spawn a bit further from the character then, since you probably won't be the only one getting this issue.
Well I'm probably going to change the replace self effect with a disintegrate/imprisonment+summon creature combination. That should do the trick, and it won't work on the creatures that are immune to death (or imprisonment) anymore, which should prevent one-shotting bosses such as the Chromatic Demon. Probably gonna go for the imprisonment version. I feel like the ability should work on vampires but they are immune to death, for example.
A level limit would balance it regarding the Chromatic Demon and other bosses.
@Necromanx2 actually I also had that Imoen bug early in BG2, the reason why I never caught it is because I always skip the cutscene with escape and when you do that the door opens by itself and imoen doesn't try to open it
EDIT: new version now available in the OP
1) Lore is now 5/level.
2) Leaps & Bounds does not stack anymore
3) During invocation selection process, the Devour Magic and Tenacious Plague still are swapped
4) Still get incrementing of the special abilities after sleeping by how many uses I do
EDIT: I did do a proper uninstall with this.
Concerning the other issue, well it will take more work to sort out, so this will be for another patch, probably soon, but I didn't have enough time today to change it all. Like I said, besides the increasing numbers, it effectively has no influence over gameplay.
Did notice that leaps & bounds now lasts 24hrs though the description says 5 turns.
I travel the map invisible (one of my invocations). When I get waylayed I move out of sight, summon my tanks and send them in. I can send in a Tenacious Plague and go invisible and watch. Works very well in first half of game.
Might want to add an XP penalty to this kit.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't have Eldritch Blasts and Beam as a toggled ranged magic weapon with set 1 APR and a to-hit bonus to represent their being a touch spell? MR could still be applied to non-vitriolic blasts, and it seems like that would be a lot more user friendly than having to spam the ability over and over every round (and allow targeting invisible opponents naturally without being gimped by I.Invisibity).
Besides, at the time I wasn't really satisfied by a flat on-hit bonus that would be the same against everyone. Both a fighter and a monk have a very low AC, but the former has it because they wear heavy armors, while the monk has it because it's expert at dodging.
One of the alternatives I envision, now that I have a bit of experience, would indeed be to use a weapon with 1 APR, and give that weapon a to-hit bonus based on the enemy class and your level (e.g. Against a rogue you would have a low bonus to THAC0 because their AC comes from their ability to dodge, but also from having a light armor that offers some protection. Against monks you would have no bonus because their AC is only natural. Against a fighter, you would have a huge bonus because their AC comes mostly from their armor. But specifically against a Kensai for example, the THAC0 bonus would be 0). Since every creature in the game has a class that's either one of the base classes or one unique to its species, it would be possible to tailor it and make it as close to a real touch attack as possible.
It's quite a shift from the current state, and I'll probably offer both alternatives in the install process. It's
quite a nice amount of work, too, but clever implementation should make it doable. Most of the work was making the spells anyway.
I just checked, however, and it turns out that these summons wear a ring called ring95, that provides its wielder with many immunities that undeads typically have (level drain, panic etc...). And it turns out that this ring does give Petrification immunity in SoD and BG2 but not in IWD or BG.
So the bug is not yet another of my mistakes
I'll make a bug report on redmine for it to be patched for v2.5. If they don't correct it I'll add the correction to the mod.