P&P Grand Mastery: Possible?
AndreaColombo
Member Posts: 5,530
I would like to make a small P&P proficiency mod but I'm not sure whether P&P Grand Mastery is technically feasible. According to the AD&D Player's Option (Combat & Tactics) manual, Grand Mastery grants +1 attack compared to Specialization (which we know is possible from the un-nerfed Grand Mastery component in Tweaks Anthology) and increases the die size of the weapon by one (e.g. a long sword in the hands of a grand master would roll 1d10 for damage instead of 1d8.)
Is the die size increase something the engine supports (and if EE supports it, does vanilla)?
The flat +2 damage bonus currently granted sort of mimics the effect, but it's technically more powerful (as it also increases minimum damage) and frankly less flavorful.
High Mastery would also need changing to grant -2 Speed Factor and +1 Critical Range instead of what it is currently doing, but that's the same thing a pip in Two Handed Weapon style does so I know it can be done (what I don't know is whether High Master and Two Handed Weapon style would stack, which they should, but I assume yes.)
Is the die size increase something the engine supports (and if EE supports it, does vanilla)?
The flat +2 damage bonus currently granted sort of mimics the effect, but it's technically more powerful (as it also increases minimum damage) and frankly less flavorful.
High Mastery would also need changing to grant -2 Speed Factor and +1 Critical Range instead of what it is currently doing, but that's the same thing a pip in Two Handed Weapon style does so I know it can be done (what I don't know is whether High Master and Two Handed Weapon style would stack, which they should, but I assume yes.)
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Pity. Would have loved to have P&P High and Grand Mastery.
I disagree. Weapon mastery is indeed optional, but so is the entire weapon proficiency system in AD&D. As BioWare chose to implement it, a mod that aligns it to its P&P guidelines is about as legitimate as any other P&P mod, IMO.
Technically it is BioWare who embraced the optional system; I merely disagree with their choice to deviate from P&P for High Mastery and Grand Mastery (lesser proficiency levels pretty much abide by the P&P rules)
It is true, as you say, that the BG saga deviates from P&P often. Sometimes, that is necessary to make AD&D work in a RTwP cRPG. Others, it simply makes the game more fun to play (for example, Spell Immunity in P&P is borderline useless and would make BG's combat a lot less interesting and fun.) However there are times when deviation from P&P seems just plain gratuitous (e.g. racial bonuses to thieving skills, Short Sword of Backstabbing or, case in point, the effects of weapon high/grand mastery.)
Thank you for the pointers—that's actually a very creative solution!
I would prefer not to abandon weapon styles, however, as they too are part of the same optional rule (plus, having P&P High Mastery without P&P Grand Mastery would feel ... incomplete.) Hopefully EEex can modify WSPECIAL.2da to allow for crit chance and die size modifications; that'd simplify things quite a bit.
It's stackable in current version of EE games, IIRC...