Red Soul Kit
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
There are two little-used opcodes in the IE games: the duration modifier, which increases or decreases mage or priest spell durations by a percentage, and the damage type modifier, which modifies the amount of damage dealt by each damage type by a percentage.
This mod uses those two opcodes to create a new pair of kits: the Red Soul, which deals 50% more spell damage but whose spells only have half duration, and the Green Soul, whose spells have 50% longer durations but deal half as much spell damage as a normal mage.
Red Soul Description:
Green Soul Description:
Both kits are available for both mages and sorcerers.
This mod uses those two opcodes to create a new pair of kits: the Red Soul, which deals 50% more spell damage but whose spells only have half duration, and the Green Soul, whose spells have 50% longer durations but deal half as much spell damage as a normal mage.
Red Soul Description:
Deeply passionate but with little control of their own emotions, a Red Soul is a mage who channels his or her feelings and desires into their spellcasting. Their emotions add power to damaging spells, but also render them highly unstable.
CLASS FEATURES:
50% bonus to fire, cold, electricity, acid, poison, and magical damage.
All arcane spells have one-half their normal duration
+1 bonus to Charisma
-1 penalty to Wisdom
Cannot be of lawful alignment
CLASS FEATURES:
50% bonus to fire, cold, electricity, acid, poison, and magical damage.
All arcane spells have one-half their normal duration
+1 bonus to Charisma
-1 penalty to Wisdom
Cannot be of lawful alignment
Green Soul Description:
A Green Soul is a mage who channels his or her life force into their spellcasting. A Green Soul must maintain tight control of his or her body and live a consistent and healthy lifestyle in order to maintain the stability of their magic. Tapping into one's own life force is dangerous, however, and Green Souls must hold back when attempting to use damaging magic, lest they harm themselves in the process.
CLASS FEATURES:
50% bonus to the duration of all arcane spells
All mage spells deal half their normal damage
+1 bonus to Constitution
-1 penalty to Dexterity
Cannot be of chaotic alignment
CLASS FEATURES:
50% bonus to the duration of all arcane spells
All mage spells deal half their normal damage
+1 bonus to Constitution
-1 penalty to Dexterity
Cannot be of chaotic alignment
Both kits are available for both mages and sorcerers.
Post edited by semiticgoddess on
7
Comments
I'll endorse any kit for sorcerers and wizards, they don't get much love from modders.
50% additional elemental damage will also affect wands, for example, and that will make the kit way too powerful in BG1, and the kit will retain a very high power level afterwards. On the other hand, Green Soul will be rather balanced throughout the game but will fall down really hard lategame, when significant enemies are mostly immune to CCs or with so low saving throws these hardly matter.
Do you not think that, say, 30% additional damage for halved duration on the Red Soul, and 30% less damage for 50% longer spells would be more balanced.
Mathematically, it's actually a loss. They cut one thing in half but don't double the other. Take a spell that deals 6 damage per round for 10 rounds. In the hands of a normal mage, it deals 60 damage total. A Red Soul or Green Soul, however, only deals 45. It's basically a 25% drop in overall efficacy.
But since a Red Soul won't be memorizing many disablers and a Green Soul won't be memorizing many damage spells, it balances out. Basically you're converting a mage's versatility to a specialization.
@Arunsun: I think that speaks more to the power of wands than the power of a Red Soul mage or sorcerer. Wands have always been capable of winning BG1 more or less on their own. In fact, I just finished a solo LoB run of BG1 that was basically just wands and Algernon's Cloak. I'm afraid there's no way to let mages deal more damage with their evocation spells without empowering wands as well.
Personally, I think the Green Soul actually has slightly more potential in the long run, since it will have longer-lasting Mordenkainen's Sword spells, PFMW, Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, and Summon Planetar, which I think are marginally more impactful than Horrid Wilting, Skull Trap, and Dragon's Breath. But since the Red Soul won't be using much of the former and the Green Soul won't be using much of the latter, their functions are too different to be very comparable.
Do they receive extra spell slots like other Mage specialisations?
What the modder can do is enforce a spell slot penalty to the kit, like I did on my Undead Slayer. Pretty simple, actually.
And what the player can do is just leave one empty slot.