I checked and it is due to the tra encoding. I did a very brief test with UTF-8 files and it works now. I will convert the files and send you a pack gathering the Bodyguard and the Mercenary new tra files, maybe Monday or Tuesday.
I checked and it is due to the tra encoding. I did a very brief test with UTF-8 files and it works now. I will convert the files and send you a pack gathering the Bodyguard and the Mercenary new tra files, maybe Monday or Tuesday.
So @Raduziel, as you know I've played through most of BG1EE with a Charlatan Charname. There's a lot that I like about the mod:
- unique abilities that really fit the concept of a Charlatan,
- perfect fit for Eldoth,
- a very role-playable kit for a Charlatan Charname too,
- good descriptions of the kit itself and of its abilities (in terms of content as well as grammar/spelling),
- everything works as described,
- beautiful ability icons, as @Zaghoul remarked,
- Truth Perception is very nicely implemented with perfect scaling with levels.
Honestly this could have been an original kit, and that's about the biggest compliment I could give you for a mod kit!
There are two things that could be handled slightly differently.
First, you mention a minimum Charisma score of 16 as a kit disadvantage, conform the 2nd ed Complete Bard's Handbook. Of course, in PnP having to roll a 16 is a disadvantage, but in Baldur's Gate it's quite the opposite: you automatically get a minimum CHA score of 16 instead of 15 like other Bards.
If you wanted to add a disadvantage, you could consider limiting lore progression. The Handbook says the following with regard to masquerading: "Unlike the True Bard, the Charlatan only appears to be a jack-of-all trades. He does not study skills to use them, but for the sake of conning others into believing he has them." You could argue that a Charlatan just picks up bits of useful information that suit their needs for the moment and isn't as thorough in the pursuit of knowledgeable as true Bards. Another option would be to look into weapons restrictions. According to the Handbook "Charlatans must take dagger, short sword, or long sword as one of their initial weapon proficiencies, as these weapons are used in so many roles that they shouldn't be passed over. At least every second weapon proficiency gained must be one of these three until they are all selected." Not sure if this or a similar weapon proficiency restriction at lower levels that loosens up as the Charlatan gains levels could be coded though.
Second, while I'm by no means fond of "uber" kits, I think the Charm and Impersonation abilities could use a little boost. As it stands the kit seems to work best for BG1 and maybe SoD.
Although I haven't played through SoD and BG2 yet (though writing this makes me want to continue my run), Charm seems to quickly become obsolete in BG2. It only works on targets with 10 HD or less and the save penalty stops progressing after reaching -3 in BG1. In BG2 the more interesting targets for a Charm will have more than 10 HD and they will be more and more likely to make their save as BG2 advances. I know it's an at will ability, which is something that shouldn't be made too powerful. But we should also keep in mind that the Charlatan's Charm can only be used on (1) blue-circled, (2) humanoid targets, (3) disables the bard song and spell-casting for one turn, and (4) has a 5% risk of failure causing the target to go hostile. I'd say that the ability will still be only situationally useful even if you remove the HD restriction and/or allowed for a slightly steeper penalty (for example -1 every five levels up to - 5 at level 20). The fact that it only works on neutral targets is a huge limitation imo.
For the Impersonation ability it would make sense to me if the probability of successful Impersonation continued to increase after level 10, where it now halts at 50%. I wouldn't consider the ability overpowered even with the likelihood of success progressing all the way to 95% (retaining the 5% of failure). After all it's only a once-per-day ability, has a very short duration of five rounds, can fail to work resulting in serious penalties for the Charlatan, and is dispellable (despite being a non-magical ability). You could consider making it available more often, say once every ten levels after level 5. Not sure if you've considered doing something with HLAs, but it would be fun if the Charlatan could obtain a "Master of the Art" type HLA that removes the 5% failure risk of the Charm and the Impersonation abilities. And if you're not fond of my suggestion to make the Charlatan gain uses of the Impersonation skill once every X levels, you could also make Impersonation a HLA that can be picked multiple times. Three unique HLAs to replace the traps would pretty cool.
Ok that's all for now. I'm sorry that the wordy part is about suggestions for improving the kit, because the main conclusion I draw from playing my Charlatan is that it's a great kit. Thanks for your work!
Comments
I checked and it is due to the tra encoding. I did a very brief test with UTF-8 files and it works now. I will convert the files and send you a pack gathering the Bodyguard and the Mercenary new tra files, maybe Monday or Tuesday.
And my mistake : the install ran OK. But the screen froze when you selected the Charlatan Kit in chargen.
Version 2.4 is up with an awesome text revision by @fluke13 . Thanks!
Now you can play this kit without having the feeling that an ape wrote it!
* Russian translation (by @Saigon1983 )
* Integration with Project Infinity
- unique abilities that really fit the concept of a Charlatan,
- perfect fit for Eldoth,
- a very role-playable kit for a Charlatan Charname too,
- good descriptions of the kit itself and of its abilities (in terms of content as well as grammar/spelling),
- everything works as described,
- beautiful ability icons, as @Zaghoul remarked,
- Truth Perception is very nicely implemented with perfect scaling with levels.
Honestly this could have been an original kit, and that's about the biggest compliment I could give you for a mod kit!
There are two things that could be handled slightly differently.
First, you mention a minimum Charisma score of 16 as a kit disadvantage, conform the 2nd ed Complete Bard's Handbook. Of course, in PnP having to roll a 16 is a disadvantage, but in Baldur's Gate it's quite the opposite: you automatically get a minimum CHA score of 16 instead of 15 like other Bards.
If you wanted to add a disadvantage, you could consider limiting lore progression. The Handbook says the following with regard to masquerading: "Unlike the True Bard, the Charlatan only appears to be a jack-of-all trades. He does not study skills to use them, but for the sake of conning others into believing he has them." You could argue that a Charlatan just picks up bits of useful information that suit their needs for the moment and isn't as thorough in the pursuit of knowledgeable as true Bards. Another option would be to look into weapons restrictions. According to the Handbook "Charlatans must take dagger, short sword, or long sword as one of their initial weapon proficiencies, as these weapons are used in so many roles that they shouldn't be passed over. At least every second weapon proficiency gained must be one of these three until they are all selected." Not sure if this or a similar weapon proficiency restriction at lower levels that loosens up as the Charlatan gains levels could be coded though.
Second, while I'm by no means fond of "uber" kits, I think the Charm and Impersonation abilities could use a little boost. As it stands the kit seems to work best for BG1 and maybe SoD.
Although I haven't played through SoD and BG2 yet (though writing this makes me want to continue my run), Charm seems to quickly become obsolete in BG2. It only works on targets with 10 HD or less and the save penalty stops progressing after reaching -3 in BG1. In BG2 the more interesting targets for a Charm will have more than 10 HD and they will be more and more likely to make their save as BG2 advances. I know it's an at will ability, which is something that shouldn't be made too powerful. But we should also keep in mind that the Charlatan's Charm can only be used on (1) blue-circled, (2) humanoid targets, (3) disables the bard song and spell-casting for one turn, and (4) has a 5% risk of failure causing the target to go hostile. I'd say that the ability will still be only situationally useful even if you remove the HD restriction and/or allowed for a slightly steeper penalty (for example -1 every five levels up to - 5 at level 20). The fact that it only works on neutral targets is a huge limitation imo.
For the Impersonation ability it would make sense to me if the probability of successful Impersonation continued to increase after level 10, where it now halts at 50%. I wouldn't consider the ability overpowered even with the likelihood of success progressing all the way to 95% (retaining the 5% of failure). After all it's only a once-per-day ability, has a very short duration of five rounds, can fail to work resulting in serious penalties for the Charlatan, and is dispellable (despite being a non-magical ability). You could consider making it available more often, say once every ten levels after level 5. Not sure if you've considered doing something with HLAs, but it would be fun if the Charlatan could obtain a "Master of the Art" type HLA that removes the 5% failure risk of the Charm and the Impersonation abilities. And if you're not fond of my suggestion to make the Charlatan gain uses of the Impersonation skill once every X levels, you could also make Impersonation a HLA that can be picked multiple times. Three unique HLAs to replace the traps would pretty cool.
Ok that's all for now. I'm sorry that the wordy part is about suggestions for improving the kit, because the main conclusion I draw from playing my Charlatan is that it's a great kit. Thanks for your work!
The abilities can and will be redesigned. The Charlatan was one of my first kits and many of its features are poorly coded.
Again, thank you.