@Firecrow "IRL snakes creeps quite slowly."In fact, the Black Mamba can get up to around 12 miles an hour at top speed. Not to mention that many snake strikes are actually faster than the human eye can follow.
@Firecrow: The vanilla Pain Touch spell can also be used for that exploit, as can scrolls of Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Ghoul Touch, Vampiric Touch, Phantom Blade, Darts of Bone, Ball Lightning, Melf's Minute Meteors, Mordenkainen's Sword, and Black Blade of Disaster. These are limited resources except for Pain Touch, but Pain Touch is now replaced by Soothing Touch and will no longer work for that purpose. A party member's Dispel Magic should also be able to do it.
I know about Illmater's Pain Touch and Ghoul/Vampiric Touch bottles, which can be casted from druidic form, but how could you cast other spells during druid transformation? Magic inducted weapons dismissed in transformation process and don't work like cursed weapons. Also usual dispel from party members don't dispel druid nature weapons. I don't sure about mobs dispel, bcs right druid builds has great will saving throw. Also I don't sure about Arrows of Dispelling becouse this. Some traps dispel even with successful saving throw.
@Firecrow: You could cast a spell Mordenkainen's Sword while shapeshifted by using the potion swap glitch from the inventory screen.
The Dispel Magic thing is news to me. I thought it worked the same way as in vanilla BG2 and IWD. Good!
I don't see how the Dispel Magic traps and the Potion of Magic Dispelling you mentioned in a previous post could have removed the items, though, if normal Dispel Magic cannot. They use the same opcodes and spells; most sources of Dispel Magic work by casting the spell files EFFDM1.spl and EFFDM2.spl.
I don't see how the Dispel Magic traps and the Potion of Magic Dispelling you mentioned in a previous post could have removed the items, though, if normal Dispel Magic cannot. They use the same opcodes and spells; most sources of Dispel Magic work by casting the spell files EFFDM1.spl and EFFDM2.spl.
I don't know really. I did't cheak opcodes and other deep mechanics. Just used experimental way ingame, after one trap in Dragon's Eye dispeled my nature weapon first time.
@Firecrow "IRL snakes creeps quite slowly."In fact, the Black Mamba can get up to around 12 miles an hour at top speed. Not to mention that many snake strikes are actually faster than the human eye can follow.
@Firecrow: The potion swap glitch is one of the oldest tricks in the Infinity Engine.Here's how you would use it to cast Mordenkainen's Sword:
1. Put a Potion of Healing and a scroll of Mordenkainen's Sword next to each other in your inventory. 2. While paused (or when your aura is clouded), right-click the Potion of Healing and click "Drink Potion." 3. Take the scroll and the potion and switch their places. 4. Un-pause the game or wait for your character's aura to clear.
The character will attempt to drink the potion, but the game only checks the inventory slot; not the item itself. This means that the character will instead use the scroll, casting it on self.
This can also be used to duplicate gems in all pre-EE games: just use a gem instead of a scroll, and the number of gems will hit zero and then roll back up to 65,535.
This can also be used to duplicate quick slot items that target a point on the ground (as opposed to a single target or the caster) in IWD2, vanilla IWD, and BG1:
1. Put a scroll of Haste or Fireball in a quick slot. 2. Use the scroll on a point on the ground. 3. Before the character begins casting from the scroll, move the scroll from one quick slot to the next. 4. The character will cast the spell and reduce the scroll count from 1 to 0. 5. Use the scroll on a point on the ground. 6. Before the character begins casting from the scroll, go to the inventory screen while the game is unpaused, click the scroll to pick it up (as if you were going to move it to another slot), and wait. 7. The character will cast the spell and the scroll count will wrap around from 0 to 65,535.
I believe this can be used to duplicate potions and other types of scrolls as well, but I've not done it before. In IWD2, a bottle of Burning Oil can be duplicated using this trick, as can a Potion of Explosions.
Gem duplication is possible in all pre-EE games. Scroll duplication (and I believe also potion duplication) is only possible in BG1, IWD, and IWD2.
@semiticgod, did't you rebalance Control Undead somehow? In vanilla it works against undeads like Mass Dominate and can affect much more then four mobs from one cast, despite the description.
You're not going to release a new patch in coming few days? If not, I want to try rebalanced spells in a field conditions during weekend.)
@Firecrow: No changes to Control Undead. I can fix the description, though.
I've actually just posted a new version a few minutes ago. It has some minor fixes and some new item changes, but most importantly, it now has a revised XP progression system.
When poking around Near Infinity, I discovered that the reason why characters get so little XP in the second half of Icewind Dale 2 is because many late-game critters have their challenge ratings set artificially low. An endgame critter might be level 17, yet only have a challenge rating of 9, whereas an early game critter would be level 5 with a challenge rating of 5.
All enemies now have their challenge rating set to be equal to their total level. I don't know exactly how much this is going to change game balance, but players should now get a LOT more XP than they used to in the second half of the game, making late-game combat much more rewarding.
When poking around Near Infinity, I discovered that the reason why characters get so little XP in the second half of Icewind Dale 2 is because many late-game critters have their challenge ratings set artificially low. An endgame critter might be level 17, yet only have a challenge rating of 9, whereas an early game critter would be level 5 with a challenge rating of 5.
@semiticgod, i think this is just for some limit of difficulty from below. Normal mode full party should not outgrow 17-18 levels even by the end of the game, bcs it will make final very easy. Max levels only for HoF or solo players. And this must encourage people to try HoF.
@Firecrow: That component will definitely decrease the difficulty for the late game. But I think it's worth it. One of the main reasons I personally find the midgame and especially the endgame to be unsatisfying is because players experience so little growth in the process.
After playtesting, I might actually change that component so that it sets the challenge rating of critters to be slightly below their total level. The code I've got allows me to tweak it fairly easily.
I could always tweak the XP tables so that leveling becomes slower after level 20. This way, people could still get lots of XP, which feels rewarding, without gaining lots of levels, which would make the game too easy.
There's also the level 40 mod, which I might incorporate into semiOverhaul, or even extend it to level 50. A HoF party might never reach level 40, and level 50 would be out of reach for anyone but a solo HoF character.
One way to get around the issue of difficulty not scaling properly to character level in IWD2, would be to tone down the immense amount of super-duper mega high powered magic items in the game. I mean, it's almost ridiculous how many high powered items you can accumulate even without playing in HoF mode. In HoF it's sort of more balanced because the enemies are that much more powerful, but it's still pretty over the top IMO.
Then again, I really just prefer lower magic scenarios, where magic items don't just fall into your backpack while you're standing around, picking your nose. So I dunno, hehe.
I've posted the next update after testing a bunch of things in-game:
1. Various items have had their prices tweaked and their effects changed, making a lot of normal mode items worth buying. 2. Righteous Wrath of the Faithful is now nerfed, lasting only 5 rounds but imposing no fatigue penalty. This is because the original opcode wasn't working properly; the fatigue only lasted a few seconds before inexplicably vanishing. This also makes the spell more user-friendly. 3. Elemental resistance spells have been buffed. Minor Elemental Barrier is now worth casting regularly. 4. Mirror Image has been nerfed. Mages will no longer make spectacular tanks, and enemy mages won't be remotely as frustrating to fight. 5. Books have now been revamped. The "How to Be an Adventurer" books now can be used 6 times, though they cost more and can't be recharged. 6. Numerous items with charges are rigged to be usable a set number of times per day instead. The Necklace of Missiles, for example, can launch 3 fireballs a day, instead of 50 static charges. This gives the player an incentive to use these items regularly instead of saving them up for big fights and then spamming them round after round. 7. Animal Rage now offers a saving throw when cast on enemy spellcasters. This means enemy druids from Tactics won't get a guaranteed disabler on you, and you won't be able to shut down enemy spells without a saving throw (the "Fewer Immunities for Bosses" makes boss critters vulnerable to Animal Rage). 8. Bugfixes. 9. Rebalances.
So far, the classes are behaving as intended. Fighters are absolute monsters but still are easily charmed, sorcerers get lots of powerful spells but can't land guaranteed kills on everything with Chromatic Orb, clerics and druids are better at healing than dealing damage, and shapeshifting makes druids competent fighters but not the equals of warriors. One of the nice things I've found is that Tactics enemies also get rebalanced by the spell changes: enemy Chromatic Orbs are no longer death sentences.
I think the buffs to fighters have also impacted enemy stats. I've noticed some really high attack bonuses from regular enemies, and I think it's because most enemies are coded as fighters. It balances out the changes to AC spells like Mage Armor and Defensive Harmony. If class changes are affecting enemies, that means enemy clerics won't be as powerful as they used to be, but most enemy grunts will hit harder and more often than they used to.
Added a few bugfixes, an option to skip the Wandering Village questline, and rebalanced a few more spells. Animate Dead is now split into Animate Skeleton and Animate Zombie so you can choose which one you get, and Maximized Attacks (which fighters no longer get automatically) should be much stronger. Plus, deafness now grants immunity to Power Word spells and blindness grants immunity to Symbol spells, just so Blindness and Deafness have a neat late-game use.
I've also added an extra option to the "Better XP Progression" component. The basic version, which sets all critters' challenge rating equal to their level, turned out to be a little too generous with XP and ran the risk of breaking the difficulty. The alternative option is a more moderate change, making late-game critters give more XP but not so much that you completely outclass the enemy.
I'm very pleased with how it's going so far. The game is SO much faster and so much smoother now. Fighters are very efficient now, but since enemies also get buffs to their attack rolls and APR, spellcasters still play a valuable support role with their buffs, healing spells, and crowd control options.
@semiticgod, I somewhat delayed with testing your mod becouse my work and some other little problems.( But maybe it's for the best, becouse i can try latest patch. By the way, you fixed robe using for monk (blocking insight bonus to AC) in semiOverhaul, or I need to use separated twik? And how exactly are you nerfed bosses immunites?
@Firecrow: I did not fix the monk robe bug because I didn't know how. The only mod that fixes it that I know of is "Custom DLL Fixes & Changes v1.5.0 by MindChild" on Sorcerers.net. That mod works by patching the actual IWD2.exe file, which I cannot do myself (it's basically a patch that changes hardcoded stuff).
There are two different boss items that grant immunities, BOSSRNG1.itm and BOSSRNG2.itm. The revised immunities component removes immunity to animal rage, hopelessness, and beltyn's burning blood from the following critters:
Sherincal Limha Harshom Majrash Mirabel Atalaclys the Lost Inhein-Who-Was-Taken Cedra Iselore Jaiger of the Fanged Seasons Kaervas Death's Head Veddion Kairne Broken Khree Prisoner (Dragon's Eye) Thorasskus Saablic Tan Dracein Ormis Dohor Vese Nejj Yxbudur'zmutkimdu Tyrannar Brutai Mar Lich T'rsosl Malign
It also removes regeneration and immunity to deafness, disease, enfeeblement, and stun from Malavon, Chahopek the Guardian, M'darfein, Isair, Madae, and Iyachtu Xvim. Demons are now vulnerable to petrification, ray of enfeeblement, and death magic, undead are vulnerable to stun, and liches are vulnerable to hold undead.
To compensate for the lost immunities, all bosses now get +5 to all saving throws. So it's possible to stun critters like Limha and Saablic Tan, but it's much harder than it would be for a normal critter.
Also, Animal Rage now offers a saving throw for enemies, so it's not a guaranteed shutdown on enemy spellcasters, bosses or otherwise.
@Firecrow: I did not fix the monk robe bug because I didn't know how. The only mod that fixes it that I know of is "Custom DLL Fixes & Changes v1.5.0 by MindChild" on Sorcerers.net. That mod works by patching the actual IWD2.exe file, which I cannot do myself (it's basically a patch that changes hardcoded stuff).
It also removes regeneration and immunity to deafness, disease, enfeeblement, and stun from Malavon, Chahopek the Guardian, M'darfein, Isair, Madae, and Iyachtu Xvim. Demons are now vulnerable to petrification, ray of enfeeblement, and death magic, undead are vulnerable to stun, and liches are vulnerable to hold undead.
To compensate for the lost immunities, all bosses now get +5 to all saving throws. So it's possible to stun critters like Limha and Saablic Tan, but it's much harder than it would be for a normal critter.
I think you little overdone with immunity nerf.) Not in terms of difficulty relief, but in terms of roleplay. Undeads (including M'darfein and maybe the Six) must have immune to stun becouse lack of living brains. Immune to stun for undeads no problem actually, becouse many other ways of undeads control. Also M'darfein must have immune to disease becouse he is undead and hasn't metabolism. Chahopek must has immune to stun, just becouse he is huge and somehow unnatural. Stun him must be something like to stun a quarry excavator. I don't sure about Iyachtu Xvim, but even minor divine beings usually has immune to stun, deseases and ability damage.
@Firecrow: M'darfein already has immunity to disease from another item, actually. I removed immunity to stun from undead because there are so few ways of disabling them... but I only just now realized that I've completely failed to factor in Halt Undead and Control Undead. That's enough, really. I'll re-institute immunity to stun for undead critters.
What I'd really like to do is make Chahopek partially resistant to stun, so stun effects could faze him, but not nearly as much as they'd affect a smaller critter. But that would require patching a whole bunch of spells and items and it seems like a lot of work. Maybe I'll just rig some high-end stunning spells to have a lesser effect on huge critters, or even just Chahopek specifically. It would also be nice to rig Disintegrate to only do a bunch of magic damage to Chahopek on a failed save instead of instant death.
Now that I think about it, maybe Chahopek could get some SCS-style HP boosts in place of his damage resistances.
Iyachtu Xvim should probably be immune to stun and disease.
@Firecrow: I don't know. I dimly remember hearing that it worked on him, and my edited files give him no such immunity. Since I bumped up Disintegrate to a level 8 spell so it wouldn't take the same spell level as Flesh to Stone, I'm thinking I should restore his immunity to the opcode, but also make Disintegrate deal extra damage to Chahopek specifically.
Or I might just rig Disintegrate so it works like @Demivrgvs's Spell Revisions mod, and make it deal a whole bunch of magic damage with a save for 5d6. I'd still have to make it scale better with levels for HoF mode:
Level 15-19: 2d8 slashing damage per level Level 20-24: 2d10 slashing damage per level Level 25-29: 2d12 slashing damage per level Level 30: 2d20 slashing damage per level
This would make it deal about enough damage to one-shot almost anything that fails its saving throw regardless of difficulty, and I'm guessing a 500-damage hit would be a lot more satisfying than just seeing an enemy slowly fade away over 3 seconds.
@Firecrow: Currently, all it does is make mind flayers hideously dangerous. Their Mind Blast and Ultrablast abilities have much higher save DCs and now bypass spell resistance, and their melee attacks have a 25% chance of instantly killing the target on a failed Fortitude save (DC 30!). IWD2 mind flayers always seemed kind of weak to me and I wanted to make them a little closer to their scary BG2 counterparts.
I might include some buffs to Chahopek as part of that component, but currently I'm pretty satisfied with how enemies are turning out. Enemy fighters are pretty wicked, enemy clerics no longer get near-instantaneous Heal spells (which now have a casting speed of 5!), and enemy mages are no longer invincible tanks due to the severe nerfs to Mirror Image. Mirror Image still scales with level, but does so much more slowly: it starts out at 1 image, then increases by 1 every seven levels.
It also has a duration of 1 round per level, but I think I'll bump it up, since it's actually slightly weaker than Minor Mirror Image until you hit level 7.
I might need to slow down high-level rogues' luck bonuses, because I ran some numbers and apparently the best damage dealer in HoF mode would be a rogue with a bow instead of a fighter with an axe, simply due to the critical hit bonuses from rogue luck.
@Firecrow: Currently, all it does is make mind flayers hideously dangerous. Their Mind Blast and Ultrablast abilities have much higher save DCs and now bypass spell resistance, and their melee attacks have a 25% chance of instantly killing the target on a failed Fortitude save (DC 30!). IWD2 mind flayers always seemed kind of weak to me and I wanted to make them a little closer to their scary BG2 counterparts.
This really good. Becouse even in Tactics4IWD2 Illithids nothing more then brain snacks for zombies.
Now that I think about it, maybe Chahopek could get some SCS-style HP boosts in place of his damage resistances.
I think Guardian must have very hard resistances, at least for phisical damage. Simply by comparison with baffed sOh barbarian's natural resistance. I think demonic black dragon must have much more thick and hard scales then any barbarian's skin, plastered with petrified bearish shit.) Also I surprisingly easily killed Guardian in HoF Tactics even without cheesy tricks like sunctuared summon on stairs. Just by stacking Calls Lighting, Static Charges and with little help of Mezro Warriors, protected with Remove Fear. I think Guardian must be buffed somehow.
@Firecrow: He should be able to see through Sanctuary. He has the same invisibility detection that mind flayers have, and I believe mind flayers have attacked my characters under Sanctuary in the past. Either way, I think Otiluke's Resilient Sphere is a better choice for using, say, a Rhinoceros Beetle's huge circle to block a passageway, since the beetle could break the Sanctuary by attacking someone. That said, I've seen Tactics Chahopek teleport past that kind of wall, so apparently that tactic won't work on him.
I ended up killing him in my test no-reload run by buffing one character and giving him lots of Arrows +4 to land high-damage hits to get past the dragon's damage reduction. The dragon chased my archer for a moment, but then got entangled by a shambling mound! That entanglement kept Chahopek in place until we finally shot him down.
I was never very fond of damage resistances, at least not blanket damage resistances that can't be bypassed by switching weapons or the like. It's just not very satisfying to deal scratch damage to a big critter. It's more fun to deal 50 damage to a 5000-HP monster than to deal 1 damage to a 100-HP monster.
He should be able to see through Sanctuary. He has the same invisibility detection that mind flayers have, and I believe mind flayers have attacked my characters under Sanctuary in the past.
Guardian can see through Sunctuary in vanilla and Tactics, but Chahopek can't physically attack sanctuared chars and summons, he can only use his acid breath (in vanilla) and other special abilities in Tactics, but all of it can be easy avoided. Druid, multiclassed with monk or rogue, can do damage to Guardian with Calls Lighting and Static Charges quite safe.
...even without cheesy tricks like sunctuared summon on stairs.
Actually i mean vanilla in this example.
I use "guard mode" for my drowned dead and it don't try to attack Guardian. But Guardian just standing and spits becouse blocked stairway. I can easely protect my chars from acid and missile Guardian to death. Very cheasy and stupid. But this little dirty trick works even better in Tactics4IWD. I ran away from the platform with cutscene moving glitch and throw a skeleton under Guardian feet. Guardian stumbled and this caused a script failure. Guardian don't do nothing, becoming sitting duck. He even don't retaliate to skeleton.
It's just not very satisfying to deal scratch damage to a big critter. It's more fun to deal 50 damage to a 5000-HP monster than to deal 1 damage to a 100-HP monster.
I am not sure.) It sounds good for monsters like this. Huge, tenacious, dangerous, but very vulnerable for almost any damage.
But Black Serpent must be something more than just huge mountain of meat and bones. This is great magical beast with many demonic and some divine traits, it must be very difficult even to scratch Chahopek. I think killing Guardian must be optional, require special preparation during game and maybe even available only for some special party setups.
@semiticgod, it is possible to do a summing of caster level and/or spell list for multiclass druid/ranger and cleric/paladin somehow? Similarly with turn undead level for paladin/cleric and uncunny dodge for barbarian/rogue. Some idea for Guardian buff. If Chahopek will be able to constantly spread poison (regardless of his acid attacks), or just release poison clouds with each wound and retaliate with poison on melee attackers (like Spiny Black Urchin shield), it can seriously complicate fight with him. Also i remembered another old vanilla bug. Fists attacks (exept monk) can bypass damage resistance (not damage reduction). Do you know, why is this happening?
@Firecrow: I'm not changing turn undead or uncanny dodge stuff. As for Chahopek, what I've got right now is that he has lower damage reduction, 700 HP instead of 300, he should have 5 attacks per round instead of 4, and his breath attack has been bumped up to 12d12 damage. Turns out he's already immune to stun. I'd rather not use a poison backlash effect when there are so few ways to get poison immunity. All the poison damage would clog up the dialogue box. Maybe he could cast Dispel Magic to add some randomness to the fight.
Everyone should be vulnerable to Disintegrate, which now does slashing damage. This means it'll be very nasty against bosses, but shouldn't be able to instantly kill anyone. It'll take a big chunk out of Chahopek if you have access to it (level 8 spell, but the scroll is available earlier), but it'll be very hard to land it due to his excellent saves.
Fists do nonlethal damage. There's no opcode to grant resistance to nonlethal damage. I could rig fists to deal crushing damage, but I think it's kind of cool to bypass damage resistance using bare fists, even if it doesn't make much conceptual sense. After all, fists only deal 1d2 damage and have no other effects or bonuses--only in very narrow cases would they be more useful than available weapons.
Writing down all the spells would involve a massive amount of work. Here's a list of all the spells who have been given to new classes or moved to a different level:
Cleric:
Death Armor, level 2 Ray of Enfeeblement, level 2 Remove Fatigue -> Expeditious Retreat, level 3 Animate Dead -> Animate Skeleton and Animate Zombie, level 3 Spell Shield, level 3 Holy Smite, level 4 Mental Domination, level 4 Shield of Lathander, level 4 Call Lightning, level 5 Giant Vermin, level 5 Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, level 5 True Seeing, level 5 Aegis, level 9 Executioner's Eyes, level 9 Mind Blank, level 9
Fighters: Fighters get Maximized Attacks every 5 levels, and now the fighter-exclusive Weapon Specialization feats give +5 to hit and damage. All warriors get better saving throws and stronger attacks.
@semeticgod, anouther little bug report. I got only one use of MA for my 17 lelel fighter and only with feat selection. This is bug or you changed number of MA uses back to one becouse added Executioner Eyes effect? Do not forget to fix description in final patch.
Also RWotF in sOh works like in IWD:EE, or needs full aligment consilience? Old vanilla mistake with castig time in discription.
Comments
The Dispel Magic thing is news to me. I thought it worked the same way as in vanilla BG2 and IWD. Good!
I don't see how the Dispel Magic traps and the Potion of Magic Dispelling you mentioned in a previous post could have removed the items, though, if normal Dispel Magic cannot. They use the same opcodes and spells; most sources of Dispel Magic work by casting the spell files EFFDM1.spl and EFFDM2.spl.
Also, since Cheetah is your standard of speed, being the fastest land animal, then EVERYTHING is slow.
1. Put a Potion of Healing and a scroll of Mordenkainen's Sword next to each other in your inventory.
2. While paused (or when your aura is clouded), right-click the Potion of Healing and click "Drink Potion."
3. Take the scroll and the potion and switch their places.
4. Un-pause the game or wait for your character's aura to clear.
The character will attempt to drink the potion, but the game only checks the inventory slot; not the item itself. This means that the character will instead use the scroll, casting it on self.
This can also be used to duplicate gems in all pre-EE games: just use a gem instead of a scroll, and the number of gems will hit zero and then roll back up to 65,535.
This can also be used to duplicate quick slot items that target a point on the ground (as opposed to a single target or the caster) in IWD2, vanilla IWD, and BG1:
1. Put a scroll of Haste or Fireball in a quick slot.
2. Use the scroll on a point on the ground.
3. Before the character begins casting from the scroll, move the scroll from one quick slot to the next.
4. The character will cast the spell and reduce the scroll count from 1 to 0.
5. Use the scroll on a point on the ground.
6. Before the character begins casting from the scroll, go to the inventory screen while the game is unpaused, click the scroll to pick it up (as if you were going to move it to another slot), and wait.
7. The character will cast the spell and the scroll count will wrap around from 0 to 65,535.
I believe this can be used to duplicate potions and other types of scrolls as well, but I've not done it before. In IWD2, a bottle of Burning Oil can be duplicated using this trick, as can a Potion of Explosions.
Gem duplication is possible in all pre-EE games. Scroll duplication (and I believe also potion duplication) is only possible in BG1, IWD, and IWD2.
You're not going to release a new patch in coming few days? If not, I want to try rebalanced spells in a field conditions during weekend.)
I've actually just posted a new version a few minutes ago. It has some minor fixes and some new item changes, but most importantly, it now has a revised XP progression system.
When poking around Near Infinity, I discovered that the reason why characters get so little XP in the second half of Icewind Dale 2 is because many late-game critters have their challenge ratings set artificially low. An endgame critter might be level 17, yet only have a challenge rating of 9, whereas an early game critter would be level 5 with a challenge rating of 5.
All enemies now have their challenge rating set to be equal to their total level. I don't know exactly how much this is going to change game balance, but players should now get a LOT more XP than they used to in the second half of the game, making late-game combat much more rewarding.
After playtesting, I might actually change that component so that it sets the challenge rating of critters to be slightly below their total level. The code I've got allows me to tweak it fairly easily.
I could always tweak the XP tables so that leveling becomes slower after level 20. This way, people could still get lots of XP, which feels rewarding, without gaining lots of levels, which would make the game too easy.
There's also the level 40 mod, which I might incorporate into semiOverhaul, or even extend it to level 50. A HoF party might never reach level 40, and level 50 would be out of reach for anyone but a solo HoF character.
In HoF it's sort of more balanced because the enemies are that much more powerful, but it's still pretty over the top IMO.
Then again, I really just prefer lower magic scenarios, where magic items don't just fall into your backpack while you're standing around, picking your nose. So I dunno, hehe.
1. Various items have had their prices tweaked and their effects changed, making a lot of normal mode items worth buying.
2. Righteous Wrath of the Faithful is now nerfed, lasting only 5 rounds but imposing no fatigue penalty. This is because the original opcode wasn't working properly; the fatigue only lasted a few seconds before inexplicably vanishing. This also makes the spell more user-friendly.
3. Elemental resistance spells have been buffed. Minor Elemental Barrier is now worth casting regularly.
4. Mirror Image has been nerfed. Mages will no longer make spectacular tanks, and enemy mages won't be remotely as frustrating to fight.
5. Books have now been revamped. The "How to Be an Adventurer" books now can be used 6 times, though they cost more and can't be recharged.
6. Numerous items with charges are rigged to be usable a set number of times per day instead. The Necklace of Missiles, for example, can launch 3 fireballs a day, instead of 50 static charges. This gives the player an incentive to use these items regularly instead of saving them up for big fights and then spamming them round after round.
7. Animal Rage now offers a saving throw when cast on enemy spellcasters. This means enemy druids from Tactics won't get a guaranteed disabler on you, and you won't be able to shut down enemy spells without a saving throw (the "Fewer Immunities for Bosses" makes boss critters vulnerable to Animal Rage).
8. Bugfixes.
9. Rebalances.
So far, the classes are behaving as intended. Fighters are absolute monsters but still are easily charmed, sorcerers get lots of powerful spells but can't land guaranteed kills on everything with Chromatic Orb, clerics and druids are better at healing than dealing damage, and shapeshifting makes druids competent fighters but not the equals of warriors. One of the nice things I've found is that Tactics enemies also get rebalanced by the spell changes: enemy Chromatic Orbs are no longer death sentences.
I think the buffs to fighters have also impacted enemy stats. I've noticed some really high attack bonuses from regular enemies, and I think it's because most enemies are coded as fighters. It balances out the changes to AC spells like Mage Armor and Defensive Harmony. If class changes are affecting enemies, that means enemy clerics won't be as powerful as they used to be, but most enemy grunts will hit harder and more often than they used to.
I've also added an extra option to the "Better XP Progression" component. The basic version, which sets all critters' challenge rating equal to their level, turned out to be a little too generous with XP and ran the risk of breaking the difficulty. The alternative option is a more moderate change, making late-game critters give more XP but not so much that you completely outclass the enemy.
I'm very pleased with how it's going so far. The game is SO much faster and so much smoother now. Fighters are very efficient now, but since enemies also get buffs to their attack rolls and APR, spellcasters still play a valuable support role with their buffs, healing spells, and crowd control options.
There are two different boss items that grant immunities, BOSSRNG1.itm and BOSSRNG2.itm. The revised immunities component removes immunity to animal rage, hopelessness, and beltyn's burning blood from the following critters:
Sherincal
Limha
Harshom
Majrash
Mirabel
Atalaclys the Lost
Inhein-Who-Was-Taken
Cedra
Iselore
Jaiger of the Fanged Seasons
Kaervas Death's Head
Veddion Kairne
Broken Khree
Prisoner (Dragon's Eye)
Thorasskus
Saablic Tan
Dracein
Ormis Dohor
Vese Nejj
Yxbudur'zmutkimdu
Tyrannar Brutai Mar
Lich
T'rsosl Malign
It also removes regeneration and immunity to deafness, disease, enfeeblement, and stun from Malavon, Chahopek the Guardian, M'darfein, Isair, Madae, and Iyachtu Xvim. Demons are now vulnerable to petrification, ray of enfeeblement, and death magic, undead are vulnerable to stun, and liches are vulnerable to hold undead.
To compensate for the lost immunities, all bosses now get +5 to all saving throws. So it's possible to stun critters like Limha and Saablic Tan, but it's much harder than it would be for a normal critter.
Also, Animal Rage now offers a saving throw for enemies, so it's not a guaranteed shutdown on enemy spellcasters, bosses or otherwise.
What I'd really like to do is make Chahopek partially resistant to stun, so stun effects could faze him, but not nearly as much as they'd affect a smaller critter. But that would require patching a whole bunch of spells and items and it seems like a lot of work. Maybe I'll just rig some high-end stunning spells to have a lesser effect on huge critters, or even just Chahopek specifically. It would also be nice to rig Disintegrate to only do a bunch of magic damage to Chahopek on a failed save instead of instant death.
Now that I think about it, maybe Chahopek could get some SCS-style HP boosts in place of his damage resistances.
Iyachtu Xvim should probably be immune to stun and disease.
Or I might just rig Disintegrate so it works like @Demivrgvs's Spell Revisions mod, and make it deal a whole bunch of magic damage with a save for 5d6. I'd still have to make it scale better with levels for HoF mode:
Level 15-19: 2d8 slashing damage per level
Level 20-24: 2d10 slashing damage per level
Level 25-29: 2d12 slashing damage per level
Level 30: 2d20 slashing damage per level
This would make it deal about enough damage to one-shot almost anything that fails its saving throw regardless of difficulty, and I'm guessing a 500-damage hit would be a lot more satisfying than just seeing an enemy slowly fade away over 3 seconds.
I might include some buffs to Chahopek as part of that component, but currently I'm pretty satisfied with how enemies are turning out. Enemy fighters are pretty wicked, enemy clerics no longer get near-instantaneous Heal spells (which now have a casting speed of 5!), and enemy mages are no longer invincible tanks due to the severe nerfs to Mirror Image. Mirror Image still scales with level, but does so much more slowly: it starts out at 1 image, then increases by 1 every seven levels.
It also has a duration of 1 round per level, but I think I'll bump it up, since it's actually slightly weaker than Minor Mirror Image until you hit level 7.
I might need to slow down high-level rogues' luck bonuses, because I ran some numbers and apparently the best damage dealer in HoF mode would be a rogue with a bow instead of a fighter with an axe, simply due to the critical hit bonuses from rogue luck.
I ended up killing him in my test no-reload run by buffing one character and giving him lots of Arrows +4 to land high-damage hits to get past the dragon's damage reduction. The dragon chased my archer for a moment, but then got entangled by a shambling mound! That entanglement kept Chahopek in place until we finally shot him down.
I was never very fond of damage resistances, at least not blanket damage resistances that can't be bypassed by switching weapons or the like. It's just not very satisfying to deal scratch damage to a big critter. It's more fun to deal 50 damage to a 5000-HP monster than to deal 1 damage to a 100-HP monster.
I use "guard mode" for my drowned dead and it don't try to attack Guardian. But Guardian just standing and spits becouse blocked stairway. I can easely protect my chars from acid and missile Guardian to death. Very cheasy and stupid.
But this little dirty trick works even better in Tactics4IWD. I ran away from the platform with cutscene moving glitch and throw a skeleton under Guardian feet. Guardian stumbled and this caused a script failure. Guardian don't do nothing, becoming sitting duck. He even don't retaliate to skeleton.
Much more stupid then in vanilla.( I am not sure.) It sounds good for monsters like this. Huge, tenacious, dangerous, but very vulnerable for almost any damage.
But Black Serpent must be something more than just huge mountain of meat and bones. This is great magical beast with many demonic and some divine traits, it must be very difficult even to scratch Chahopek. I think killing Guardian must be optional, require special preparation during game and maybe even available only for some special party setups.
Paladin caster level has only half of actual level as before?
Paladins and rangers always cast at half level; that's vanilla behavior.
Some idea for Guardian buff. If Chahopek will be able to constantly spread poison (regardless of his acid attacks), or just release poison clouds with each wound and retaliate with poison on melee attackers (like Spiny Black Urchin shield), it can seriously complicate fight with him.
Also i remembered another old vanilla bug. Fists attacks (exept monk) can bypass damage resistance (not damage reduction). Do you know, why is this happening?
Everyone should be vulnerable to Disintegrate, which now does slashing damage. This means it'll be very nasty against bosses, but shouldn't be able to instantly kill anyone. It'll take a big chunk out of Chahopek if you have access to it (level 8 spell, but the scroll is available earlier), but it'll be very hard to land it due to his excellent saves.
Fists do nonlethal damage. There's no opcode to grant resistance to nonlethal damage. I could rig fists to deal crushing damage, but I think it's kind of cool to bypass damage resistance using bare fists, even if it doesn't make much conceptual sense. After all, fists only deal 1d2 damage and have no other effects or bonuses--only in very narrow cases would they be more useful than available weapons.
Writing down all the spells would involve a massive amount of work. Here's a list of all the spells who have been given to new classes or moved to a different level:
Cleric:
Death Armor, level 2
Ray of Enfeeblement, level 2
Remove Fatigue -> Expeditious Retreat, level 3
Animate Dead -> Animate Skeleton and Animate Zombie, level 3
Spell Shield, level 3
Holy Smite, level 4
Mental Domination, level 4
Shield of Lathander, level 4
Call Lightning, level 5
Giant Vermin, level 5
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, level 5
True Seeing, level 5
Aegis, level 9
Executioner's Eyes, level 9
Mind Blank, level 9
Druid:
Burning Hands, level 1
Ice Dagger, level 1
Magic Stone, level 1
Shocking Grasp, level 1
Bull's Strength, level 2
Cat's Grace, level 2
Eagle's Splendor, level 2
Gedlee's Electric Loop, level 2
Ice Blade, level 2
Luck, level 2
Moon Motes, level 2
Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, level 2
Icelance, level 3
Spider Spawn, level 3
Ice Storm, level 4
Magic Circle Against Evil, level 4
Stoneskin, level 4
Vitriolic Sphere, level 4
Ball Lightning, level 5
Cone of Cold, level 5
Protection from Acid, level 5
Shroud of Flame, level 5
Sunfire, level 5
Acid Fog, level 6
Acid Storm, level 6
Chain Lightning, level 6
Trollish Fortitude, level 6
Wyvern Call, level 6
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, level 7
Vipergout, level 7
Shambler, level 8
Sunbeam, level 8
Fiery Cloud, level 8
Paladin:
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, level 5
Ranger:
Invisibility, level 2
Sleep, level 2
Improved Invisibility, level 4
Stoneskin, level 4
Elemental Barrier, level 6
Bard:
Spook, level 1
Dimension Door, level 4
Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt, level 6
Heal, level 8
Sorcerer/Wizard:
Spook, level 1
Remove Fear, level 2
Blindness, level 3
Invisibility Purge, level 3
Rigid Thinking, level 3
Spider Spawn, level 3
Translocation Trick, level 3
Carrion Summons, level 4
Dimension Door, level 4
Skull Trap, level 4
Suffocate, level 4
Animate Dead -> Animate Skeleton and Animate Zombie, level 5
Flaying, level 5
Lutzaen's Frequent Jaunt, level 5
Protection from Magic Energy, level 6
Call Lightning, level 6
Spell Resistance, level 6
True Seeing, level 6
Death Ward, level 7
Disintegrate, level 8
Raise Dead, level 9
Bane, Domain:
Great Shout, level 8 (replacing Flaying)
Control Undead, level 7 (replacing Suffocate)
Oghma, Domain:
True Seeing, level 3 (replacing Dispel Magic)
I got only one use of MA for my 17 lelel fighter and only with feat selection. This is bug or you changed number of MA uses back to one becouse added Executioner Eyes effect?
Do not forget to fix description in final patch.
Also RWotF in sOh works like in IWD:EE, or needs full aligment consilience?
Old vanilla mistake with castig time in discription.
Small but annoying blot.
I ready to do some proofreading, if you wants.