Priest spell rebalance, viewpoints sought.
hybridial
Member Posts: 291
I am starting to figure out how to use Near Infinity to do some basic things. ANd from what I can tell, it's quite simple to modify spell availability. I'm looking for viewpoints on these potential changes, which for now I'm just planning to modify on my own install. I might take up real modding and learn Weidu one day, but, anyway, here's what I'm considering... and yes, the Druid selection is by far getting changed the most.
Druid:
Give access to
1 - Sanctuary
2 - Aid, Chant, Draw Upon Holy Might
3 - Remove Curse, Remove Paralysis
4 - Lesser Restoration, Holy Power
5 - Righteous Magic, Champion's Strength
6 - None
7 - Greater Restoration
Cleric:
Remove access to Animal Summoning 1-3 and Conjure Animals and Barkskin
Reasoning:
Animal summoning Spells: fits the Druid much better thematically and makes summoning a big aspect of them late game, the cleric being more about big anti-undead spells. Barkskin similarly seems like a better fit as Druid only for me
Buff spells: Druids utility is improved by being given better access to buff spells and it seems reasonable their gods would give them martial strength when fighting for nature.
Cure Spells: Raise Dead should remain cleric only, (Druids don't interfere with death) but see no reason to deny Druids restoration spells, Remove Curse and Remove Paralysis seem reasonable to give them also, as it is restoring someone to their natural state from magical interference.
Sanctuary: Well, its utility is obvious and considering Druids can specialise as healers it seems fairer to them to have access to it.
I don't have much more than passive knowledge of the AD&D 2nd ed lore, but this for me is kind of just about making playing Druids more interesting whilst trying to give them a specialisation that makes far less sense that Clerics can do to me. Icewind Dale definitely gave the Druid a better spell selection, but I would still maybe consider making these changes to IWDEE as well for parity's sake.
Just wondering how does this all sound, and if there's any other changes I should consider or ones I've said here I should reconsider for whatever reason.
Druid:
Give access to
1 - Sanctuary
2 - Aid, Chant, Draw Upon Holy Might
3 - Remove Curse, Remove Paralysis
4 - Lesser Restoration, Holy Power
5 - Righteous Magic, Champion's Strength
6 - None
7 - Greater Restoration
Cleric:
Remove access to Animal Summoning 1-3 and Conjure Animals and Barkskin
Reasoning:
Animal summoning Spells: fits the Druid much better thematically and makes summoning a big aspect of them late game, the cleric being more about big anti-undead spells. Barkskin similarly seems like a better fit as Druid only for me
Buff spells: Druids utility is improved by being given better access to buff spells and it seems reasonable their gods would give them martial strength when fighting for nature.
Cure Spells: Raise Dead should remain cleric only, (Druids don't interfere with death) but see no reason to deny Druids restoration spells, Remove Curse and Remove Paralysis seem reasonable to give them also, as it is restoring someone to their natural state from magical interference.
Sanctuary: Well, its utility is obvious and considering Druids can specialise as healers it seems fairer to them to have access to it.
I don't have much more than passive knowledge of the AD&D 2nd ed lore, but this for me is kind of just about making playing Druids more interesting whilst trying to give them a specialisation that makes far less sense that Clerics can do to me. Icewind Dale definitely gave the Druid a better spell selection, but I would still maybe consider making these changes to IWDEE as well for parity's sake.
Just wondering how does this all sound, and if there's any other changes I should consider or ones I've said here I should reconsider for whatever reason.
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Comments
2) My initial reaction is to disavow druidic sanctuary as well for similar reasons - literal sanctuaries are very much a clerical idea - but honestly a druid is more likely to invoke sanctuary in the spirit of a literal sanctuary than a cleric is since 2E Druids are supposed to be neutral unless something to damage nature is involved.
3) Better druid spells in general are needed, at least in the Baldur's Gate games. Without mods a Druid is just a cleric with worse spells that can use scimitars and shapeshift.
Removing Animal Summoning spells and Barkskin from clerics does make sense, though.
Both these points, being similar, are pretty much my motivation. Well, to better explain, Druids are *supposed* to be better at casting offensive spells, but, the spell selection for them doesn't really particularly give them much there. The Avenger is better, but basically stole mage spells for that purpose. I also already use Tweaks Anthology to give the Druid the same level and spell slots table as clerics and I have played with that for a while and I definitely prefer it that way. Also these changes would definitely make Shaman spell choice more interesting.
Yeah, I get it's not particularly lore friendly, and I was curious about the reasoning for that given in the source. That does make sense but I guess the issue for me is simply in the BG games the Druid spell selection is kinda weak, but I really like playing them, this would make doing that more enjoyable for me.
I see that Subtledoctor has updated it for 2.6, whilst I think these overhaul mods maybe do too much to the game in terms of changes, I will give it a proper look.
I recommend installing a mod that adds Icewind Dale spells to Baldur's Gate. There are several of those out there. Some really great offensive spells are added to druids.
Well, I did after some reflection decided to not make those changes for now, and in fact I reverted more tweaks from installed mods I had further back. That seems to be the case with me lately, when I started playing these games I kinda installed whatever seemed like a good idea at the time, but now having actually spent a lot more time playing these games, I generally appreciate many choices were made by the original designers with good reason.
I think your probably right in that I'd be better using one of the mods that adds the IWD spells to BG1 and 2, or consider using spell revisions which seems like a really good mod, for me I'm willing to wait till it's out of beta.
It also addresses an issue with the Beastmaster-Cleric Dual Class, doubling up on Animal summoning spells which feels like an oversight to me. Now I have to pick a Druid or Beastmaster to summon animals and I find that makes those choices more interesting now.