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[v3.4] Aura, a gnome artificer NPC for BG:EE + SoD

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  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @RVNS

    *cringe*

    I forgot to remove a reference to Drake’s dialogue file from copy pasting. Install Drake before her until I can fix it.
  • RVNSRVNS Member Posts: 285
    Will do.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @RVNS

    Fixed it now.
  • RVNSRVNS Member Posts: 285
    Running Sirene, Imoen, Garrick, Drake and Aura as my crew. Let us see what kind of mischief we can get into.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @RVNS Sirene is definitely the designated driver of that party.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    my planned party is neera, imoen, aura, drake, and, sirene.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    I intend a party with Dorn, Quayle, Aura, Xan or Neera and a BG1 version of a Totemic Druid I did play Shadows of Amn with named Amniralda.

    A mix of characters Aura likes, is bemused by and is afraid of. With the (mischievous?) intention of finding out how Aura'd react to a Totemic Druid's bear summons.

    I still have to think of a roleplaying rationale why a Druid would take an Artificer in a party.

    Testing is not my thing though, like mikeman15 I want to wait till a bug-free finished version.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @Son_of_Imoen

    Ooh, I did not think of coding Aura's fear of bears with Totemic summons. I will have to keep that in mind for the next update.

    Neera is a cross between bemused/likes, and she gets a decent item if the two are together long enough to finish their talks.
  • CaszidyCaszidy Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 311
    I plan a playthrough with Verr'sza, Drake, Aura, Imoen (later Yeslick) and Valerie (i know, no crossmod banters for her, but I hear, that she is really amazingly written mod, too shame, that BG2 part was never finished)
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Update to v0.4. At this point I think the mod is fully playable as I've completed a playthrough and haven't seen any glaring issues. This version:
    • Changes the rune descriptions
    • If installed after Spell Revisions, runes cast SR-versions of spells
    • Fixes a few timers causing some SoD talks to fire too quickly
    • Disables banters in dungeons
    • Adds a few ambient comments in SoD
    • Fixes kicking out dialogue in SoD
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    :)


  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    is it supposed to be the same room as the one from lava's mod i shell not forget or is it just a coincidence.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @megamike15

    It is based off Ragefast's home as was Orion's home from ISNF. This one's a bit more furnished though.
  • RVNSRVNS Member Posts: 285
    For her to banter with Drake, Verzaa and Sirene do I need to install the crossmod banter pack or is it included in their individual installs?
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @RVNS

    Crossmod auto-installs. You don't have to do anything with it.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    are the crossmod banters the same. say i install aura last would it be the same if i installed Verzaa last?
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @megamike15

    The content is the same. However, the mod that supports crossmod must be installed second. If both support the same mod NPCs (as Verr and Aura do) then the order doesn't matter. However outdated content like the current version of Sirene must be installed first.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    The inevitable conflict.



    This is a joke conflict. Either way, they'll both decide to stay for various reasons regardless of who you favor. Wilson, like NPC bears, will also cause Aura to lose morale if he gets too close.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    If anyone can help Aura get over her fear, its Wilson. He is a beary good friend.
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137
    Playing 0.5:

    1: Flirt menu eventually appears regardless of gender, her responses appear the same either way. If that's just because my gentlegnome was packing a 20 Charisma under the hood then fine.
    2: After progressing through all her various talks, on the next scheduled conversation she then enters into a state of constantly initiating PIDs with the player until you ask her to stop talking to you.
    3: Sunshooter makes 5, instead of 2, lightning arrows per day, at odds with the description.
    4: After the scouting mecha died in Firewine Ruins far away from the party, Aura could no longer make golems because it didn't register that her last one died.

    Potions making much better balanced with a gold cost attached.
    While I'm trying very hard to appreciate her as a specialised Mage/Thief, and be tolerant of her capabilities in that light, I have to say that even without abusing rest at all it's trivially easy to produce more Magic Missile runes per day than you use, and 17.5 guaranteed magic damage per round on top of her (AOE) arrows, grenades, snares, and elemental snares is sort of imbalancing.

    Oh, and for the record, an invisible ninja spawning on top of CHARNAME in the Undercellar for an instant backstab is a jerk move. Also rather nonsensical considering they're supposed to be targeting Aura, not the rando she travels with who happens to give a gameover on their hardcore run.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited January 2018
    @Pantalion
    1: Flirt menu eventually appears regardless of gender, her responses appear the same either way. If that's just because my gentlegnome was packing a 20 Charisma under the hood then fine.

    Intentional, as they are not intended to be super-romantic flirts.
    2: After progressing through all her various talks, on the next scheduled conversation she then enters into a state of constantly initiating PIDs with the player until you ask her to stop talking to you.
    3: Sunshooter makes 5, instead of 2, lightning arrows per day, at odds with the description.

    Will be fixed.
    4: After the scouting mecha died in Firewine Ruins far away from the party, Aura could no longer make golems because it didn't register that her last one died.

    Never had this happen to me, but it’s possible sometimes the death check script doesn’t work for whatever reason. I’ll have to see if I can reproduce it.
    While I'm trying very hard to appreciate her as a specialised Mage/Thief, and be tolerant of her capabilities in that light, I have to say that even without abusing rest at all it's trivially easy to produce more Magic Missile runes per day than you use, and 17.5 guaranteed magic damage per round on top of her (AOE) arrows, grenades, snares, and elemental snares is sort of imbalancing.

    Runes will have a total cap of five runes per day in the next version.
    Oh, and for the record, an invisible ninja spawning on top of CHARNAME in the Undercellar for an instant backstab is a jerk move. Also rather nonsensical considering they're supposed to be targeting Aura, not the rando she travels with who happens to give a gameover on their hardcore run.

    Ugh. Okay, that fight was supposed to be unfair to an extent, but I’ll concede that the implementation is probably too much. I’ll probably tone down the spawn rate and maybe reduce the ninjas’ level in the next version. They also won’t all spawn on top of the PC as well.
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137

    Ugh. Okay, that fight was supposed to be unfair to an extent, but I’ll concede that the implementation is probably too much. I’ll probably tone down the spawn rate and maybe reduce the ninjas’ level in the next version.

    I'm fine with brutal unfair fights, but this was literally:
    Conversation Ends -> I instantly start trying to cast shadeskins on conversation finish -> Backstabbed for 2 more than CHARNAME's HP before he finished casting. No time to do anything, instant game over, time to roll up a fresh character.

    Short of gaming the quest/combat with Snares/pre-buffing, that's pretty harsh for an even remotely squishy CHARNAME.

    Oh, and before I forget, the idol and blast orbs were usable by Ishlilka the Wizard Slayer. I assume a few other things may be too, like runes (not that I'd be against a 19 int wizard slayer gnome dropping dakka with Aura).
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited January 2018
    @Pantalion Egads. I think I messed up the timer - they’re not supposed to spawn that quickly. There’s another thing I’ll have to fix.

    The Burst Orb is (sort of) not a ‘magical item’ so that’s intentional. The idol is not. I’m pretty sure runes are flagged to be unusable by wizard slayers, but being usable by anyone with 19 intelligence is intentional. It’s mentioned in a dialogue with Baeloth.
    Post edited by TheArtisan on
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited January 2018
    Updated to v0.6.
    • Added extra bear-related dialogue
    • Fixed repeating dialogue bug
    • Fixed rank III Sunshooter creating five Lightning Arrows instead of two
    • Added hard cap to number of runes per session
    • Added optional mage/thief and cleric/thief alternates (read: below)
    • Added restrictions to upgraded Idol of Kozah
    • Made the Undercellar battle easier
    I did the multi-class thing as a favor to a friend. I was convinced that Aura's background provides a little bit of leeway for a mage/thief and cleric/thief class to still be fitting, although I've had to make some minor tweaks to certain dialogue for the mage alternate. Both are multi-class kits, meaning they will continue to gain artificer abilities through thief levels. In my opinion, multi-class isn't strictly an improvement as the artificer depends on levels to get its better items, but this component may be useful for people having trouble with building balanced parties.

    The Priestess / Artificer is actually a dual-kit. The priestess kit's details are below:
    PRIESTESS: Priestesses of the Way, a Kozakuran faith, are believers in harmony and seek to understand how to manipulate the forces that keep the world in balance, gaining powers similar to that of divine magic in the process. Many dedicate themselves to wandering the land for knowledge, tending to sacred shrines, or becoming philosophers.

    Advantages:
    - May cast Protection from Evil as an innate ability.
    - From 6th level onwards, may cast Protection from Evil 10' Radius as an innate ability.
    - From 11th level onwards, may cast True Seeing as an innate ability.

    Disadvantages:
    – May only be proficient in clubs, quarterstaves, short bows and slings.
    – May not wear armor heavier than studded leather.
    - May not be chaotic or evil-aligned.

    Some may think this is a pretty awful kit that's deliberately handicapped, and I'll admit it - it is. The item restrictions are there purely for thematic purposes and to make up for the fact that the d4 hit points doesn't work for multiclass kits, meaning C/T Aura gets more hit points and this was meant to compensate for that.

    The Illusionist / Artificer has no such handicaps and is probably overpowered. I don't care. For whatever ridiculous reason, gnomes are hardcoded to always be illusionists (if you give them a second kit they will have two kits) so I cannot do anything short of removing the extra spell slot, which I don't want to. If you think this turns her into Jan on steroids (or if C/T outclasses Tiax too greatly to be reasonable) and brings her over the line then don't install it. I wouldn't.

    But wait - what about the Sunshooter for C/T-Aura? Well, I've flagged all arrows as usable by cleric/thieves. Since Aura's locked into the Sunshooter and bows are still unusable by clerics, this changes very little gameplay-wise while making the class function with the item.

    Just bear in mind that I'm not sure if everything works as intended. And DO NOT update if you're currently in a game unless you're willing to respec the Aura currently in your party from the ground up (even for plain old thief-Aura). This is not compatible on games using older versions of the mod.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Yep, don't test the version immediately before release and it has an install bug. That's me. Fixed.
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137

    The Illusionist / Artificer has no such handicaps and is probably overpowered. I don't care. For whatever ridiculous reason, gnomes are hardcoded to always be illusionists (if you give them a second kit they will have two kits) so I cannot do anything short of removing the extra spell slot, which I don't want to. If you think this turns her into Jan on steroids (or if C/T outclasses Tiax too greatly to be reasonable) and brings her over the line then don't install it. I wouldn't.

    This isn't a gnome trait to my knowledge. The extra spell slot applies to any multiclass mage with a kit, whether or not that kit is a mage specialist kit (and if that kit is "Swashbuckler" on a Fighter/Mage, there will be no other traits). A gnome mage with a multiclass kit instead of illusionist can scribe necromancy spells, doesn't get the save adjustments, and doesn't get the scribe bonus/malus.

    They do get a school bonus to spells in the "NONE" school, but I believe that's "fixed" in 2.5.

    Likewise, if you remove Illusionist from the gnome and set them to base class in Keeper then they'll have the standard 4 level 1 spell slots at level 7 as a normal generalist.

    More importantly for both kits is that Aura will be gaining the D6 hitdie, 25 skill points and full backstab progression of a standard thief unless you implement a multiclass progression table for her to correct that.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited January 2018
    @Pantalion

    After testing, it appears the Illusionist/2nd Kit display is a visual thing only.


    Displays 2 kits but can scribe Necromancy. The Illusionist / Artificer is a multiclass kit though, so it applies the proper restrictions (no backstab, 20 skill points). The only thing that doesn't work even if I add it to the .tp2 is the hit die. Thinking about it I don't think a mage/artificer has great synergy anyway, given the Artificer is very level dependent and lacks some of the cheese tactics a mage/thief can do. Mislead backstabs come to mind.

    The bigger issue that took me ages to fix was preventing her abilities from duplicating when she gets kicked out (and this is a prevalent issue in all multiclass kits). I've made a kind of workaround, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happens anyway for whatever reason.

    Edit: I'm going to add restriction against Necromancy to the mage/thief kit in the next update, as the display is hardcoded and it will be highly misleading otherwise.
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137
    edited January 2018


    I'm assuming this conversation should be happening in Chapter 6, rather than in Chapter 2?

    Also, seems odd that the invisowand should be unidentified on receipt.



    This conversation happened instantly after.
  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,858
    What is that portrait you're using? :)
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