Slayer Revisions: Revised Bhaalspawn Powers, Slayer Change, Hell Rewards, and Pocket Plane Bonuses
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
I've always felt that the Slayer form was pretty underwhelming. It does good damage and it grants lots of resistances, but at the end of the day, it's just a shapeshifting spell that kills you a few rounds into its duration--very inconvenient, and not very novel--or, for many characters, even useful.
This mod is designed to create a more balanced and interesting Slayer form that all classes can benefit from (notably, you can now use any weapon while in Slayer form). In addition, this mod revises the Bhaalspawn powers you get in BG1, making them more thematically appropriate for a child of Bhaal. This mod also makes the Nine Hells bonuses more interesting and more flexible: your alignment is no longer changed by your actions in Hell, and you get a more diverse array of bonuses... and penalties as well. Blackrazor is also revised: among other changes, it can now be used by any character, no matter their class.
Finally, if you have the Ascension mod installed, Slayer Revisions will also change the rewards from the Pocket Plane trials. They now empower the Slayer form, which gets increasingly scary and powerful as time goes on. While Ascension abilities will still depend on player responses during dialogs with the Solar, the player's reputation in BG1 or alignment in BG2 will not change which innate abilities they gain; all player characters will get a single copy of 6 different spells.
All of the changes are geared towards making the Bhaalspawn's powers thematically match Bhaal's portfolio and origins: the god of murder, risen from an adventuring assassin. On the whole, they will make Charname stronger, though almost entirely in terms of how good they are at stealth and murder.
List of new spells and bonuses:
This mod is designed to create a more balanced and interesting Slayer form that all classes can benefit from (notably, you can now use any weapon while in Slayer form). In addition, this mod revises the Bhaalspawn powers you get in BG1, making them more thematically appropriate for a child of Bhaal. This mod also makes the Nine Hells bonuses more interesting and more flexible: your alignment is no longer changed by your actions in Hell, and you get a more diverse array of bonuses... and penalties as well. Blackrazor is also revised: among other changes, it can now be used by any character, no matter their class.
Finally, if you have the Ascension mod installed, Slayer Revisions will also change the rewards from the Pocket Plane trials. They now empower the Slayer form, which gets increasingly scary and powerful as time goes on. While Ascension abilities will still depend on player responses during dialogs with the Solar, the player's reputation in BG1 or alignment in BG2 will not change which innate abilities they gain; all player characters will get a single copy of 6 different spells.
All of the changes are geared towards making the Bhaalspawn's powers thematically match Bhaal's portfolio and origins: the god of murder, risen from an adventuring assassin. On the whole, they will make Charname stronger, though almost entirely in terms of how good they are at stealth and murder.
List of new spells and bonuses:
Innate abilities:
- Fade: Turns the caster invisible for 3 rounds and, at level 4, grants a +1 bonus to their backstab multiplier.
- Ichor: Poisons the target on a failed save vs. death and, at level 6, also diseases and slows them.
- Terror: Imposes fear on all targets for 3 rounds and, at level 8, also paralyzes them for 1 round on a failed save vs. death.
- Summon Skeletal Fiend: Summons a level 6 skeletal minion for 8 hours, or a level 8 monster at level 10.
- Enervation: Reduces enemy THAC0 by 2 and saves vs. death by 4 with a save vs. spell for half, increasing to a -6 penalty to saves vs. death at level 12.
- Finger of Death: Kills the target on a failed save vs. death. Enemies that are higher in level than the caster, or are above level 20, get a +5 bonus to their saving throw.
Slayer Change:
- Reduces reputation by 1 point
- The main character can use any weapon in Slayer form, but cannot cast spells, talk, sing, or shapeshift
- Increases Strength and Dexterity by 2 (or sets to 18/00 and 18, if Strength or Dexterity are 17 or below)
- Grants 1 extra attack per round and doubles all attacks (stacks with Improved Haste; can bypass the 10 APR cap)
- Base Armor Class 1
- +10% to physical damage resistance, +15% to energy resistance, +20% to magic resistance, and +1 to THAC0, damage, AC, and saving throws; each bonus increases at levels 20 and 30
- +1 to backstab multiplier
- Melee hits deal 1 poison damage per second for 1 round on a failed save; poison damage increases by 1 at levels 20 and 30
- Lasts 10 rounds (grants no immunities in its base form and does not kill the player when it ends)
Hell Rewards:
Fear Trial, Good Reward:
Spell Immunity once per day
Fear Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 Intelligence, Mislead once per day
Selfishness Trial, Good Reward:
Divine Sanctuary once per day (immunity to damage for 3 rounds on another character); same penalties as vanilla
Selfishness Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 to backstab multiplier, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, +2 to saves vs. death and polymorph
Wrath Trial, Good Reward:
+1 to Wisdom and saves vs. spell and wand
Wrath Trial, Evil Reward:
+2 to critical hit rolls and +10% bonus to all magical and elemental damage dealt
Pride Trial, Good Reward:
+1 Charisma, +5% to all resistances
Pride Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 to caster level, THAC0, damage, AC, and saves vs. breath
Greed Trial, Good Reward:
Wish once per day
Greed Trial, Evil Reward:
Blackrazor, 10% bonus to current XP (e.g., a character with 3 million XP gains 300,000 XP)
All good rewards grant +1 reputation, while all evil rewards reduce reputation by 1.
Pocket Plane abilities are only available if Ascension is installed, and only apply when in Slayer form:
- First trial:
Good reward: Regenerates 2 HP/second
Evil reward: Drains 2d6 HP in magical cold damage on melee hits on a failed save vs. death
- Second trial:
Good reward: Immunity to level drain, intoxication, poison, blindness, deafness, disease, petrification, finger of death, and Power Word, Kill; +3 to saves vs. death and polymorph; cannot die of ability score drain
Evil reward: No chance of critical misses; +5 to critical hit chances
- Third trial:
Good reward: Immunity to imprisonment, maze, stun, charm, sleep, confusion, hold, paralysis, fear, berserk, feeblemindedness; +3 to saves vs. spell and wand
Evil reward: Drains 1 level for 10 rounds on melee hits on a failed save vs. death
- Fourth trial:
Good reward: Immunity to damage for 4 rounds after entering Slayer form
Evil reward: Lowers saving throws by 1 point for 6 seconds on melee hits
NOTE #1: If you want to use the new innate abilities in a new BG2 game (as opposed to one that is imported from BG1), you MUST let the opening cutscene in the starting dungeon play out, or else the new spells will not be assigned and you will begin the game with the vanilla spells.
NOTE #2: If you have the Expanded Classes mod installed, the Dancer kits will not double attacks per round in Slayer form (Slayer form will actually reduce them), but it will restore their damage output to that of a typical character (they will do 100% of normal physical damage per hit instead of 20%).
The mod has yet to undergo serious playtesting. Feedback is very welcome. - Fade: Turns the caster invisible for 3 rounds and, at level 4, grants a +1 bonus to their backstab multiplier.
- Ichor: Poisons the target on a failed save vs. death and, at level 6, also diseases and slows them.
- Terror: Imposes fear on all targets for 3 rounds and, at level 8, also paralyzes them for 1 round on a failed save vs. death.
- Summon Skeletal Fiend: Summons a level 6 skeletal minion for 8 hours, or a level 8 monster at level 10.
- Enervation: Reduces enemy THAC0 by 2 and saves vs. death by 4 with a save vs. spell for half, increasing to a -6 penalty to saves vs. death at level 12.
- Finger of Death: Kills the target on a failed save vs. death. Enemies that are higher in level than the caster, or are above level 20, get a +5 bonus to their saving throw.
Slayer Change:
- Reduces reputation by 1 point
- The main character can use any weapon in Slayer form, but cannot cast spells, talk, sing, or shapeshift
- Increases Strength and Dexterity by 2 (or sets to 18/00 and 18, if Strength or Dexterity are 17 or below)
- Grants 1 extra attack per round and doubles all attacks (stacks with Improved Haste; can bypass the 10 APR cap)
- Base Armor Class 1
- +10% to physical damage resistance, +15% to energy resistance, +20% to magic resistance, and +1 to THAC0, damage, AC, and saving throws; each bonus increases at levels 20 and 30
- +1 to backstab multiplier
- Melee hits deal 1 poison damage per second for 1 round on a failed save; poison damage increases by 1 at levels 20 and 30
- Lasts 10 rounds (grants no immunities in its base form and does not kill the player when it ends)
Hell Rewards:
Fear Trial, Good Reward:
Spell Immunity once per day
Fear Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 Intelligence, Mislead once per day
Selfishness Trial, Good Reward:
Divine Sanctuary once per day (immunity to damage for 3 rounds on another character); same penalties as vanilla
Selfishness Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 to backstab multiplier, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, +2 to saves vs. death and polymorph
Wrath Trial, Good Reward:
+1 to Wisdom and saves vs. spell and wand
Wrath Trial, Evil Reward:
+2 to critical hit rolls and +10% bonus to all magical and elemental damage dealt
Pride Trial, Good Reward:
+1 Charisma, +5% to all resistances
Pride Trial, Evil Reward:
+1 to caster level, THAC0, damage, AC, and saves vs. breath
Greed Trial, Good Reward:
Wish once per day
Greed Trial, Evil Reward:
Blackrazor, 10% bonus to current XP (e.g., a character with 3 million XP gains 300,000 XP)
All good rewards grant +1 reputation, while all evil rewards reduce reputation by 1.
Pocket Plane abilities are only available if Ascension is installed, and only apply when in Slayer form:
- First trial:
Good reward: Regenerates 2 HP/second
Evil reward: Drains 2d6 HP in magical cold damage on melee hits on a failed save vs. death
- Second trial:
Good reward: Immunity to level drain, intoxication, poison, blindness, deafness, disease, petrification, finger of death, and Power Word, Kill; +3 to saves vs. death and polymorph; cannot die of ability score drain
Evil reward: No chance of critical misses; +5 to critical hit chances
- Third trial:
Good reward: Immunity to imprisonment, maze, stun, charm, sleep, confusion, hold, paralysis, fear, berserk, feeblemindedness; +3 to saves vs. spell and wand
Evil reward: Drains 1 level for 10 rounds on melee hits on a failed save vs. death
- Fourth trial:
Good reward: Immunity to damage for 4 rounds after entering Slayer form
Evil reward: Lowers saving throws by 1 point for 6 seconds on melee hits
NOTE #1: If you want to use the new innate abilities in a new BG2 game (as opposed to one that is imported from BG1), you MUST let the opening cutscene in the starting dungeon play out, or else the new spells will not be assigned and you will begin the game with the vanilla spells.
NOTE #2: If you have the Expanded Classes mod installed, the Dancer kits will not double attacks per round in Slayer form (Slayer form will actually reduce them), but it will restore their damage output to that of a typical character (they will do 100% of normal physical damage per hit instead of 20%).
Post edited by semiticgoddess on
3
Comments
The changes to hell bonuses I find less appealing simply because forced stat loss feels incredibly unsatisfying by design and it disproportionately affects specific classes. A good-aligned fighter loses 1 STR and CON. That could be gamechanging especially if it's a drop from 19 STR to 18 (you don't even get exceptional strength!). RP-ers are going to have to take a pretty big hit to justify their alignment.
I know the vanilla game already has a few cases of stat drain. I don't like it there either, and at least the Spellhold dream sequence gives a choice of which stat you lose.
EDIT: Updated to remove the penalties.
I like the rework of the innate abilities. It never made sense that even a good-aligned Charname would be able to invert Bhaal's taint so completely as to use it for healing instead, at least not before their ultimate ascension.
My suggestion for the slayer form itself would be to tweak the way the stat bonus works a bit further. I agree it makes sense to increase stats by percentage proportionally to the class so that the slayer is useful for fighters too, but this way it becomes almost useless to mages - who would otherwise be most tempted to give in to the slayer. How about increasing Strength & Dexterity to 18 if under and by percentage if >= 18? And raise HP to 100 (or whatever they were in vanilla) if under, otherwise leave them as is?
I changed the STR and DEX bonuses so they'd be +2 if they're at 18 already, or set to 18 (with 100 exceptional STR on top) if they're 17 or below. There's no HP bonus right now, so some classes will be sturdier than others in Slayer form.
If there are preferences for other types of bonuses, I'm open to changing them up.
EDIT: Also fixed an issue with Ascension scripts removing the updated Slayer change spell, and fixed a bug with the Sword Dancer kit.
Also, there's no reputation changes during the Hell Trials.
Slayer Change is working fine.
Edit - Another thing is that, contrary to what you said about the alignment change dodge, my alignments still got changed for Evil choices, while there's no reputation change instead.
@semiticgoddess After doing more comprehensive testing. I found that in general, you don't get any of the spells. I took a quick look and couldn't find any innate ability with those spells in my override folder. Not sure if my installation was bugged or something.
For the Evil Reward of Fear Trial (+1 INT), and the Good Reward of Wrath (+1 WIS), I noticed that it wasn't implemented via spell effect, unlike the rest of the modifiers.
Also, for the Good Reward of Wrath, I ended up getting a combo of the original and your reward, getting +1 WIS, +1 CHA and the +1 to Saves vs spell and wand.