Okay, I fixed up some important bugs. The Ice Temple skip was causing a weird loop that sent the player back to the same spot over and over again. You could escape the area before you got warped back, but the loop made it impossible to do anything else in the area.
The ice wall is actually really easy to take down in HoF mode because undead critters are immune to the cold backlash and Apocalyptic Boneguards deal lots of damage. But in normal mode, it looks like undead would be insufficient. You'd need a level 9 spellcaster's Boneguard Skeletons to deal any damage at all, and even then it would be unreliable scratch damage. It would take forever to destroy the wall; attacking the wall directly with fully-buffed party members is more practical.
I've added skips for Targos, the Underdark, and the Black Raven Monastery. I also fixed up the Horde Fortress skip so that you can open it without Knock and access Guthma without the wardstones. Thanks to @Bubb, we now have correct descriptions for classes and races even on the level up and character creation screens, so you know what you're getting right off the bat.
Also fixed the bug about the level 30 cap. I've implemented most of the changes @Firecrow suggested.
@Firecrow: Darts of Bone impose a stacking -1 Fortitude save penalty for 5 rounds on hit, while the Siren's Yearning imposes a stacking -1 Will save penalty for 10 rounds, every round. But I don't have anything that penalizes Reflex saves. Do you have any ideas for what could penalize Reflex saves without being overpowered?
Currently, Darts of Bone are balanced by the fact that the darts only last 5 rounds and mages have terrible attack bonuses (and if the character is helpless, they're already largely doomed). Likewise, the Siren's Yearning is balanced by the fact that it takes time for the penalties to stack, party members also suffer the penalties, and party members also have a 25% chance of getting stunned on a failed Will save.
@Firecrow: Darts of Bone impose a stacking -1 Fortitude save penalty for 5 rounds on hit, while the Siren's Yearning imposes a stacking -1 Will save penalty for 10 rounds, every round. But I don't have anything that penalizes Reflex saves. Do you have any ideas for what could penalize Reflex saves without being overpowered?
@semiticgod, actually we already have Entangle, Web and Suffocate for lowering of Reflex save (dexterity damaging effect), apart from cleric's Prayer type spells. But if you think that it don't enough, maybe reflex penalty will be good for Acid Fog instead slowing effect?
I like this new morning star, this is very fitting for my favorite neutral banite-druid build.
But I think you must add other item instead of old Mountains of Selune, which will be grant immunity to blindness. For helm slot maybe.
And I think that will be good to add one item which grants deafness. If deafness now gives some protection from Words and Shouts, must be possibility just to plug ears. For sole fighters.)
Neutral Clerics now can cast both Holy Word and Blasphemy. And it both stun them. You did it on purpose of your new Spell Shield?
@Firecrow: I didn't consider the possibility that neutral clerics might stun themselves. I'll rig Holy Word and Blasphemy to not affect the caster.
I think I accidentally copied Star of Talona from Tactics or LoS or something. Part of semiOverhaul involves editing descriptions to include a mention of save DCs for on-hit effects on weapons, and the way I implemented that, I copied existing files into semiOverhaul. Part of that was intentional, like my copying of a modded Bastard Sword +2: Black Adder, but apparently some of that was also by accident, like the copying of Star of Talona. I'll leave those as they are (they're good modifications anyway, and semiOverhaul is already recommended to be installed on top of other mods) but maybe avoid copying stuff by accident in the future.
Do the DEX penalties from Entangle and Suffocate stack? If so, that would allow them to penalize Reflex saves as heavily as Darts of Bone penalize Fortitude saves and the Siren's Yearning penalizes Will saves, in which case I'll leave them as they are... but that might explain why Entangle has always been so incredibly overpowered: it's rigged to make itself harder to resist with every failed save, like a level 1 Siren's Yearning that can be boosted by Spell Focus and WIS, and can activate several times as often with a few castings.
I'd rather not give free deafness to fighters. The whole reason I made deafness grant immunity to shouts and Power Word spells was to make the level 2 Deafness spell good for something. Without it, Deafness is kind of mediocre. All it does is impose 20% spell failure, and clerics will often resist the spell thanks to their strong Fortitude saves, while mages will ignore the spell thanks to MGOI.
Do the DEX penalties from Entangle and Suffocate stack? If so, that would allow them to penalize Reflex saves as heavily as Darts of Bone penalize Fortitude saves and the Siren's Yearning penalizes Will saves, in which case I'll leave them as they are... but that might explain why Entangle has always been so incredibly overpowered: it's rigged to make itself harder to resist with every failed save, like a level 1 Siren's Yearning that can be boosted by Spell Focus and WIS, and can activate several times as often with a few castings.
@semiticgod, Dex penalties from Entangle, Web and Suffocate don't stacks right now, neither with itselfs or between. Look like only strongest Dex penalty from Suffocate applies. But I forgot about Cloud of Pestilense with cumulative Str/Dex penalty.
The next version of semiOverhaul will include a new component: Spell Focus feats will now apply to two spell schools instead of one. The new feats are:
This means that Symbol and Power Word spells benefit from Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination, so Symbol of Hopelessness has been reduced from 5 rounds to 4 rounds to balance this out. Symbol of Pain has also been buffed.
@semiticgod, I thought about your new Tremor and Sunbeam more. I fear that with reflex save Sunbeam became even more deadly against undeads.
And Sunbeam with reflex save will be more efficient control (and even damage too), than Tremor with fortitude save. Four Sunbeam strikes from one cast delivers more damage than one strike from Tremor and chance to blind from even one Sunbeam strike with reflex save much more good than from Tremor with Fortitude save (exept for some rare type of mobs such Air Elementals and Flamewalkers). Actually chance to blind from one Sunbeam cast will be more good even with fortitude save for Sunbeam. I think that my idea about fortitude save for Tremor was a mistake in terms of game balance.( If Sunbeam will remain with reflex save and Tremor with fortitude save, at least Sunbeam and Tremor should be swapped.
@Firecrow: I have no strong feelings about Sunbeam, since I barely ever use the spell, so... what do you think? Sunbeam at level 9, Tremor at level 7? Or Sunbeam with a Fortitude save for the blindness or the damage? I've considered making Tremor a level 9 mage spell, but I think druids should then be able to cast it as a level 7 or 8 spell... which leaves the question of what offensive spell a druid could cast at level 9. Meteor Swarm?
I think I'm gonna change Tremor's name to Earthquake, because Tremor is kind of a weak name for a level 9 spell.
I've considered making Tremor a level 9 mage spell, but I think druids should then be able to cast it as a level 7 or 8 spell...
Do you correct DC of spells (for standart formula 10 + spell level + ability bonus I mean), when you move its between levels? If so, druid's Tremor on level 7 or 8 becomes more weak then mage Tremor, but I see druid like expert in this kind of spells, druid's Tremor must be slightly more powerful then potencial mage one (when spell focus and caster ability score equal).
For Sunbeam and Tremor I see two more or less balanced options. First option, Sunbeam (with reflex save) becomes level 9 spell. Tremor with fort save becomes level 8 and we have two different controls on level 8, fort based Tremor and reflex based Whirlwind. I like this variant more. Second one, Sunbeam stay on level 8, but with fortitude save. Tremor get back reflex save.
Which leaves the question of what offensive spell a druid could cast at level 9. Meteor Swarm?
Actually I think that druid already has enough highlevel offensive fire spells without MS. Firestorm really good spell in IWD2, also you added Fiery Cloud for druid. And MS sounds little unfamiliarly for nature spells, I think it not very fitting for druid. Also I think that mage's Meteor Swarm must have half of fire, half of blunt damage. It makes MS more useful. Actually Firestorm more powerful than MS and spell resistance bypassing don't corrects the situation. With extra blunt damage MS becomes useful against Apocalyptic Boneguards, Slayer-Knights and Twins, at least MS becomes more universal then Firestorm.
I think I'm gonna change Tremor's name to Earthquake, because Tremor is kind of a weak name for a level 9 spell.
It can be third solution variant of Sunbeam/Tremor balance dilemma. Add extra fire damage (with reflex save) for Tremor, making a new level 9 druid complex spell. Fire and blunt damage with reflex save, knock with fort save, and name something like "Volcano's Eruption".
If so, druid's Tremor on level 7 or 8 becomes more weak then mage Tremor, but I see druid like expert in this kind of spells, druid's Tremor must be slightly more powerful then potencial mage one.
@semiticgod, by the way, similar situation with the Finger of Death too.) In vanilla druid's FoD was much more powerful than mage's FoD, becouse potentially higher wisdom score then int/cha that wizard or sorcerer can achieve and +1 DC from spell level (actually I did't cheaked it and not sure now). I liked to abuse druid OPed FoD in vanilla.) In sOh you reduced the difference between max wis and max int/cha, so druid's FoD no so strong compared with mage's FoD. But small advantage of druid's FoD now becomes very logical for me in sOh. Becouse now druid's FoD looks like a product of offensive nature/divine necromantic spells development (Contagion + Poison -> Dolorous Decoy, Dolorus Decoy + Harm -> Finger of Death, very powerful necromantic point strike). Mage tradition concentrated on mass necromantic spells: Soul Eater, Circle of Death and logical final of its development, the dreadful Wail of the Banshee (before you cnaged WotB from Necromancy to Transmutation school). Mages obtain FoD too, but they did not sharpened it so well as druids, becouse they developed Flesh to Stone and Disintegrate instead.)
Testing has found that save DCs do depend on spell level and can vary from class to class. If you give Power Word: Kill to a druid as a level 1 spell, it will have a save DC of 8 lower than the level 9 equivalent.
Becouse now druid's FoD looks like a product of offensive nature/divine necromantic spells development (Contagion + Poison -> Dolorous Decoy, Dolorus Decoy + Harm -> Finger of Death, very powerful necromantic point strike). Mage tradition concentrated on mass necromantic spells: Soul Eater, Circle of Death and logical final of its development, the dreadful Wail of the Banshee (before you cnaged WotB from Necromancy to Transmutation school).
@semiticgod, according to this "development tree" logic maybe you return WotB to Necromancy spells? For balance of spell schools Horrid Wilting must be Transmutation spell instead. Also "this spell evaporates moisture from the bodies of every living creature within the area of effect" sounds more like effect of Transmutation and looks somehow similar to Suffocate (Suffocate replaces oxygen in air with some inert gas, HW evaporates water from bodies).
Testing has found that save DCs do depend on spell level and can vary from class to class. If you give Power Word: Kill to a druid as a level 1 spell, it will have a save DC of 8 lower than the level 9 equivalent.
Thanks.) Becouse I can cheak it only with help of statistics.*>_<*
@Firecrow: I'm hesitant to take Wail of the Banshee back from Transmutation and return it to Necromancy. Transmutation has long been very useful to druids while being nearly useless to mages--overshadowed by other feats. By buffing Disintegrate and switching Wail of the Banshee to Transmutation, I make SF: Trans much more useful, especially in HoF mode. If WotB is Transmutation, SF: Trans is very little use to a mage or sorcerer.
Horrid Wilting and Suffocate could work either as Transmutation or as Necromancy. Making Horrid Wilting into Transmutation seems kind of weird though, since Horrid Wilting is basically THE Necromancy spell for BG2, along with Skull Trap and Animate Dead. That being said, now that Necromancy and Divination benefit from the same Spell Focus feat, that feat is a lot stronger--Power Word and Symbol spells belong to Divination now.
I actually need to strengthen Spell Focus Transmutation/Abjuration by giving mages some more interesting spells in those schools. These are the spell levels at which each feat has little of interest to offer:
I'm hesitant to take Wail of the Banshee back from Transmutation and return it to Necromancy. Transmutation has long been very useful to druids while being nearly useless to mages--overshadowed by other feats. By buffing Disintegrate and switching Wail of the Banshee to Transmutation, I make SF: Trans much more useful, especially in HoF mode. If WotB is Transmutation, SF: Trans is very little use to a mage or sorcerer.
@semiticgod, for vanilla Horrid Wilting and WotB value was almost same and exchange between schools would be almost equal. But I forgot that you changed both that spells and now its very different from originals.
Horrid Wilting and Suffocate could work either as Transmutation or as Necromancy. Making Horrid Wilting into Transmutation seems kind of weird though, since Horrid Wilting is basically THE Necromancy spell for BG2, along with Skull Trap and Animate Dead. That being said, now that Necromancy and Divination benefit from the same Spell Focus feat, that feat is a lot stronger--Power Word and Symbol spells belong to Divination now.
Actually I forgot that WotB was Necromancy spells in BG/IWD:EE. I thought that WotB was Conjuration in this games and therefore did not take traditional division by schools into account. I am not very good in arcane casters gameplay, you know.(
I actually need to strengthen Spell Focus Transmutation/Abjuration by giving mages some more interesting spells in those schools. These are the spell levels at which each feat has little of interest to offer:
You see arcane spells system much more comprehensively then me. I never thought about equal values of Spell Focuses in the application individually for each level of arcane spells before.
@Firecrow: Are you sure about making Sunbeam a level 9 spell? With 4 hits over 4 rounds with a 3-round blindness effect, that's basically just 7 rounds of area-effect blindness and 12d6 damage for everything that's not undead. The spell isn't even party-friendly. It's great for buying yourself a lot of time to cast other spells, but most level 9 spells are considerably stronger. Symbol of Stunning at level 8 can accomplish much the same thing; that's 2 rounds of stun per level on a failed Reflex save that also benefits from a Spell Focus feat, and it doesn't affect allies at all.
Are you sure about making Sunbeam a level 9 spell? With 4 hits over 4 rounds with a 3-round blindness effect, that's basically just 7 rounds of area-effect blindness and 12d6 damage for everything that's not undead. The spell isn't even party-friendly.
@semiticgod, I think no problem here. Sunbeam makes 80d6 for undeads and with new reflex save of Sunbeam it will be almost always break a saving throw of undead mobs. Six (four from them), animated dead subboses-minions of Tyrranar, many other undeads (exept Apocalyptic BGs) and some fungy/slimes (not all, actually only few types of slimes suffer from Sunbeam fire damage) will be nothing more than soot stains. Meteor Swarm or Firestorm much less effective against this mobs and this spells no party friendly too.
It's great for buying yourself a lot of time to cast other spells, but most level 9 spells are considerably stronger. Symbol of Stunning at level 8 can accomplish much the same thing; that's 2 rounds of stun per level on a failed Reflex save that also benefits from a Spell Focus feat, and it doesn't affect allies at all.
Your new Symbol of Stun effect dissolves from damage, Sunbeam blindness no. Sacrifice one summon I can cast several damaging spells on blinded sitting ducks or just begin a season of raccoons shooting. Symbol of Hopelessness has less duration, PW:B (against HoFed mobs) too. Sunbeam in experienced hands can control mobs little better than these spells. Unfriendliness to party is feature, Sunbeam can be protection against Symbols for summons or party members (ofc Symbols from mobs casters are very rare, I can't remember somebody exept Madae right now). Vanilla druid was depended from player skill very much. His spells was more difficult to apply then priest's or mage's (becouse party unfriendliness too), but some of his spells was very flexible and had many unexpected utilities. I think this trait should be kept. Your new WotB and PW:K looks more formidable then Sunbeam, but Sunbeam very strong spell too. Also if you not sure, you can return it original casting time, it will make Sunbeam even more useful. Or slightly increase duration.
I think I will buff the damage on non-undead critters for Sunbeam. As a player, I always gave Sunbeam short shrift due to the low base damage, deeming it inferior to Fire Storm, and if we're going to make Sunbeam into a level 9 spell, it should have some big numbers attached to it; blindness alone can be a very intangible benefit. The sun is a hydrogen-powered fireball; a Sunbeam should be more of a death ray than a blinding light.
Actually I like vanilla variant of Sunbeam with separated saves more. Reflex for damage (mob has managed to run into the shade or cover itself with cloak and not strongly browned) and fortitude save for blinding (good retina, rapid and plentiful lacrimation, fast eyes accommodation). Also this is one of iconic features of druid, mass fortitude save based control with Sunbeam.
Reread my posts, found an inaccuracy. I think I must do a little explanation for this. Most of my IWD2 gaming expirience was with patch v2.01 (091311). Sunbeam was with two separated saving throws in this old patch, reflex for damage, fortitude for blindness.
In patch v2.01 (101615), which later I used with Tactics4IWD2, Sunbeam has only one reflex save for damage and blindness.
I actually need to strengthen Spell Focus Transmutation/Abjuration by giving mages some more interesting spells in those schools. These are the spell levels at which each feat has little of interest to offer: Spell Focus: Transmutation/Abjuration: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
Spell Focus: Enchantment/Illusion: 2, 3, 7, 8
Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination 1, 5, 6
Spell Focus: Evocation/Conjuration All spell levels are useful.
SF: Trans/Abj just doesn't affect as many spells as the other feats.
I don't know about SF:E/I and SF:N/D, but you can try to add a few new "damage amplify" or "resistance cutting" spells to SF:T/A. For example spell, that adds to affected mobs a -5/- slashing resistance. Or the same thing for acid. Spike Growth, Spiked Stones, Acid Fog has quite weak damage right now, at least for HoF. With such amplifying spells this AoE DoT's becomes much stronger.
Also I think that few summon spells must be slightly rebalanced. But I must to do some "summon's gladiator battles" before.
@Firecrow: By sheer coincidence, I just finished adding an acid resistance penalty to Acid Fog, now called Death Fog as in IWD1, a couple hours ago! It now penalizes acid resistance by a cumulative -4 points (-2 on a successful Fortitude save) for 5 rounds, every round. Thus, the cloud does more and more damage with each passing round, and multiple clouds should stack the penalties. However, druids no longer have access to the spell; they only have Acid Storm. A party with multiple mages could layer on a bunch of clouds and just melt everything in sight--including themselves!
Tremor is now Earthquake and is a level 8 druid spell and level 9 mage spell that knocks out critters for 5 rounds instead of 3 on a failed Fortitude save. Mages should be able to learn it from the scroll just fine.
Meteor Swarm now deals 10d10 crushing and 10d10 fire damage, level 9 for both druids and mages.
Sunbeam, now at level 9 for druids, deals 4d6 damage per round and the description points out that it adds up to 16d6 magic damage, which should look more attention-grabbing to users.
Also, SF: Trans/Abj is now much more balanced. Color Spray and Prismatic Spray are now Transmutation spells, and the latter is a bit stronger than before. Death Fog is also a Transmutation spell.
Thanks to @subtledoctor, we now have a new component that tweaks enemy saving throws so they more closely resemble semiOverhaul's save progression for players. Enemy fighters will have stronger Reflex saves and clerics will have weaker Fortitude saves. There's some variation I couldn't account for, though, so each save might be 1 or 2 higher or lower than it's supposed to be.
I'm also working on a component that revises the racial enemy system. By turning all golems and kegs into ogres (after turning ogres into goblins) and changing a string, I should be able to create a whole new racial enemy for rangers: Constructs. However, this will screw with some immunities to certain spells and items. Making constructs into ogres means that a spell that's supposed to not work on constructs might still work. I can't stop that from happening without hunting down every single instance of a certain opcode, and there could be dozens of them scattered throughout the game.
It also has the Sudden Death Mode component, which sets both the enemy's and the party's HP to half their normal levels. Also, a new component will give enemies more appropriate saving throws that will make spells that force Reflex or Will saves more balanced compared to those with Fortitude saves. Finally, Creature Rebalancing will give Spell Focus to all enemy spellcasters, so enemy spells will be much deadlier than they've been in the past.
I've also given credit to @Firecrow, @subtledoctor, @bubb, and @Gwendolyne in the original post and readme for everything they've done to make this mod possible.
I've just posted a fix for the new mage schools. Specialists can now learn spells from the appropriate schools only.
This comes with a new feature: you can learn mage spells simply by casting them from scrolls, instead of scribing them. This means you don't have to worry about failing to scribe a scroll.
Potions of Mind Focusing are less important now that they're not needed for scroll scribing, but they're still great at temporarily empowering mage spells.
Wonderful work, and this mod is one of the most remarkable created until now for IWD2. But is the last version - v1.31 - definitive at present ? Or a new version will be available soon ?
@ProfErrata: A newer version is coming out at some point. Stay tuned!
@semiticgod, sorry, I'm a little behind the times becouse my work.( What main changes you did in v1.31 compared v 1.30? What do you want to change in v1.32?
@Firecrow: I believe v1.31 just rigs scrolls so that specialists can learn the right spells. Before, the original school restrictions applied. I had to make it so that casting a spell via scroll will give the spell to mages without needing to scribe them conventionally. Thus, scroll learning is a 100% chance each time.
Comments
The ice wall is actually really easy to take down in HoF mode because undead critters are immune to the cold backlash and Apocalyptic Boneguards deal lots of damage. But in normal mode, it looks like undead would be insufficient. You'd need a level 9 spellcaster's Boneguard Skeletons to deal any damage at all, and even then it would be unreliable scratch damage. It would take forever to destroy the wall; attacking the wall directly with fully-buffed party members is more practical.
I've added skips for Targos, the Underdark, and the Black Raven Monastery. I also fixed up the Horde Fortress skip so that you can open it without Knock and access Guthma without the wardstones. Thanks to @Bubb, we now have correct descriptions for classes and races even on the level up and character creation screens, so you know what you're getting right off the bat.
Also fixed the bug about the level 30 cap. I've implemented most of the changes @Firecrow suggested.
Currently, Darts of Bone are balanced by the fact that the darts only last 5 rounds and mages have terrible attack bonuses (and if the character is helpless, they're already largely doomed). Likewise, the Siren's Yearning is balanced by the fact that it takes time for the penalties to stack, party members also suffer the penalties, and party members also have a 25% chance of getting stunned on a failed Will save.
I like this new morning star, this is very fitting for my favorite neutral banite-druid build.
But I think you must add other item instead of old Mountains of Selune, which will be grant immunity to blindness. For helm slot maybe.
And I think that will be good to add one item which grants deafness. If deafness now gives some protection from Words and Shouts, must be possibility just to plug ears. For sole fighters.)
Neutral Clerics now can cast both Holy Word and Blasphemy. And it both stun them. You did it on purpose of your new Spell Shield?
I think I accidentally copied Star of Talona from Tactics or LoS or something. Part of semiOverhaul involves editing descriptions to include a mention of save DCs for on-hit effects on weapons, and the way I implemented that, I copied existing files into semiOverhaul. Part of that was intentional, like my copying of a modded Bastard Sword +2: Black Adder, but apparently some of that was also by accident, like the copying of Star of Talona. I'll leave those as they are (they're good modifications anyway, and semiOverhaul is already recommended to be installed on top of other mods) but maybe avoid copying stuff by accident in the future.
Do the DEX penalties from Entangle and Suffocate stack? If so, that would allow them to penalize Reflex saves as heavily as Darts of Bone penalize Fortitude saves and the Siren's Yearning penalizes Will saves, in which case I'll leave them as they are... but that might explain why Entangle has always been so incredibly overpowered: it's rigged to make itself harder to resist with every failed save, like a level 1 Siren's Yearning that can be boosted by Spell Focus and WIS, and can activate several times as often with a few castings.
I'd rather not give free deafness to fighters. The whole reason I made deafness grant immunity to shouts and Power Word spells was to make the level 2 Deafness spell good for something. Without it, Deafness is kind of mediocre. All it does is impose 20% spell failure, and clerics will often resist the spell thanks to their strong Fortitude saves, while mages will ignore the spell thanks to MGOI.
Spell Focus: Enchantment/Illusion
Spell Focus: Evocation/Conjuration
Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination
Spell Focus: Transmutation/Abjuration
This means that Symbol and Power Word spells benefit from Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination, so Symbol of Hopelessness has been reduced from 5 rounds to 4 rounds to balance this out. Symbol of Pain has also been buffed.
And Sunbeam with reflex save will be more efficient control (and even damage too), than Tremor with fortitude save. Four Sunbeam strikes from one cast delivers more damage than one strike from Tremor and chance to blind from even one Sunbeam strike with reflex save much more good than from Tremor with Fortitude save (exept for some rare type of mobs such Air Elementals and Flamewalkers). Actually chance to blind from one Sunbeam cast will be more good even with fortitude save for Sunbeam. I think that my idea about fortitude save for Tremor was a mistake in terms of game balance.( If Sunbeam will remain with reflex save and Tremor with fortitude save, at least Sunbeam and Tremor should be swapped.
I think I'm gonna change Tremor's name to Earthquake, because Tremor is kind of a weak name for a level 9 spell.
For Sunbeam and Tremor I see two more or less balanced options.
First option, Sunbeam (with reflex save) becomes level 9 spell. Tremor with fort save becomes level 8 and we have two different controls on level 8, fort based Tremor and reflex based Whirlwind. I like this variant more.
Second one, Sunbeam stay on level 8, but with fortitude save. Tremor get back reflex save. Actually I think that druid already has enough highlevel offensive fire spells without MS. Firestorm really good spell in IWD2, also you added Fiery Cloud for druid. And MS sounds little unfamiliarly for nature spells, I think it not very fitting for druid. Also I think that mage's Meteor Swarm must have half of fire, half of blunt damage. It makes MS more useful. Actually Firestorm more powerful than MS and spell resistance bypassing don't corrects the situation. With extra blunt damage MS becomes useful against Apocalyptic Boneguards, Slayer-Knights and Twins, at least MS becomes more universal then Firestorm. It can be third solution variant of Sunbeam/Tremor balance dilemma. Add extra fire damage (with reflex save) for Tremor, making a new level 9 druid complex spell. Fire and blunt damage with reflex save, knock with fort save, and name something like "Volcano's Eruption".
Horrid Wilting and Suffocate could work either as Transmutation or as Necromancy. Making Horrid Wilting into Transmutation seems kind of weird though, since Horrid Wilting is basically THE Necromancy spell for BG2, along with Skull Trap and Animate Dead. That being said, now that Necromancy and Divination benefit from the same Spell Focus feat, that feat is a lot stronger--Power Word and Symbol spells belong to Divination now.
I actually need to strengthen Spell Focus Transmutation/Abjuration by giving mages some more interesting spells in those schools. These are the spell levels at which each feat has little of interest to offer:
Spell Focus: Transmutation/Abjuration:
1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
Spell Focus: Enchantment/Illusion:
2, 3, 7, 8
Spell Focus: Necromancy/Divination
1, 5, 6
Spell Focus: Evocation/Conjuration
All spell levels are useful.
SF: Trans/Abj just doesn't affect as many spells as the other feats.
Most of my IWD2 gaming expirience was with patch v2.01 (091311).
Sunbeam was with two separated saving throws in this old patch, reflex for damage, fortitude for blindness.
In patch v2.01 (101615), which later I used with Tactics4IWD2, Sunbeam has only one reflex save for damage and blindness.
I think it must be rewritten to a standard form x/- in final version.
Also I think that few summon spells must be slightly rebalanced. But I must to do some "summon's gladiator battles" before.
Tremor is now Earthquake and is a level 8 druid spell and level 9 mage spell that knocks out critters for 5 rounds instead of 3 on a failed Fortitude save. Mages should be able to learn it from the scroll just fine.
Meteor Swarm now deals 10d10 crushing and 10d10 fire damage, level 9 for both druids and mages.
Sunbeam, now at level 9 for druids, deals 4d6 damage per round and the description points out that it adds up to 16d6 magic damage, which should look more attention-grabbing to users.
Also, SF: Trans/Abj is now much more balanced. Color Spray and Prismatic Spray are now Transmutation spells, and the latter is a bit stronger than before. Death Fog is also a Transmutation spell.
Thanks to @subtledoctor, we now have a new component that tweaks enemy saving throws so they more closely resemble semiOverhaul's save progression for players. Enemy fighters will have stronger Reflex saves and clerics will have weaker Fortitude saves. There's some variation I couldn't account for, though, so each save might be 1 or 2 higher or lower than it's supposed to be.
I'm also working on a component that revises the racial enemy system. By turning all golems and kegs into ogres (after turning ogres into goblins) and changing a string, I should be able to create a whole new racial enemy for rangers: Constructs. However, this will screw with some immunities to certain spells and items. Making constructs into ogres means that a spell that's supposed to not work on constructs might still work. I can't stop that from happening without hunting down every single instance of a certain opcode, and there could be dozens of them scattered throughout the game.
Giant Insects
Giant Arachnids
Demons
Goblinoids
Giants
Amorphous Beings
Constructs
Humans
Animals
Undead
Aberrations
Underdark Aberrations
Yuan-ti
Elementals
Trolls
Dragons
It also has the Sudden Death Mode component, which sets both the enemy's and the party's HP to half their normal levels. Also, a new component will give enemies more appropriate saving throws that will make spells that force Reflex or Will saves more balanced compared to those with Fortitude saves. Finally, Creature Rebalancing will give Spell Focus to all enemy spellcasters, so enemy spells will be much deadlier than they've been in the past.
I've also given credit to @Firecrow, @subtledoctor, @bubb, and @Gwendolyne in the original post and readme for everything they've done to make this mod possible.
This comes with a new feature: you can learn mage spells simply by casting them from scrolls, instead of scribing them. This means you don't have to worry about failing to scribe a scroll.
Potions of Mind Focusing are less important now that they're not needed for scroll scribing, but they're still great at temporarily empowering mage spells.
I might not be able to tweak the feats and other hardcoded stuff, but the mod is already very different from the vanilla game.