Edwin is broken

FredN

.....Having a technical problem. When you have spells like minor sequencer, sequencer and spell trigger memorized, special ability buttons are supposed to appear so that you can utilize them. And that works for MC. But in Edwin's case, no buttons appear. Now he has both comtingencies in effect; that's not a problem bacause they are set to fire off under specific circumstances. But he cannot access the sequencers.
.....Nor can he memorize/cast new ones. So, my question is, can I somehow access the spells despite the absence of the ability buttons? I am not talking about erasing the spells from his spell book; that I know how to do. I want to be able to use the spells, or failing that, remove the spells from his memory so I can try memorizing them again and hope that this time buttons appear.

FredN

When I click on Edwin's spell book, and then on contingencies, those items do appear as active. I cannot however access them from that page. Rather annoying. I'm wondering if it's because Edwin is a Red Wizard; there are certain spells, like identify, that he cannot memorize or even cast from a scroll. That seems unlikely though. If that were the case, he shouldn't have been able to memorize those spells in the first place.

jmerry

That screen just exists to tell you what your sequencers and contingencies are at the moment.

To clarify, you have the sequencers on that screen but you don't have the "activate this sequencer" ability in your innates? Sounds like a familiar bug - resurrection used to do that whenever applied to a living party member - but patch 2.6 was supposed to fix that.
(And no, you couldn't avoid that bug by not using resurrection spells to heal. Some cutscenes resurrect the party, including both the entrance into the final Abyss area of SoA and the exit from it.)

At this point, it might require save-editing to fix it. And some detective work on how this happened. I could edit the save to either clear those sequencers or to add back the ability to cast them.

FredN

Patch 2.6? Dou you refer to the game version? I forget if I have 2.5 or 2.6. Have to check.

jmerry

Yes, I'm referring to the game version. It should be visible on the campaign selection screen when you open up the game.

FredN

OK, apparently I had been using v 2.5. I upgraded to V 2.6 and reloaded the game. Edwin, alas, still doesn't show any ability buttons. Everybody else is fine. However, this is a minor inconvenience. Edwin has so many other spell options he doesn't really need to access those.

FredN

Huh. I discovered, totally by accident, that Edwin's Spell Trigger is located in his group of memorized spells, and does not need an ability button to be used. The two sequencers are still among the missing, however. How odd.

jmerry

OK, so the explanation is easy. Known bug, already patched. Though of course, updating the game won't change what already happened.

And, actually, there's one fix that should work without needing save-editing: kill Edwin and then raise him. Death clears the opcode 256 "there's a sequencer with these spells" effect, so you should then be able to cast new sequencers.

FredN

>Known bug, already patched. Though of course, updating the game won't change what already happened.<
More weirdness. OK, does this mean that if I start a new game totally from scratch, when I recruit him in SoA, Edwin will then get ability buttons for his sequencers?

jmerry

It means that this bug won't reoccur. But once it's already happened, it's in the save. You have the marker effect that says you have a sequencer but not the actual "cast this sequencer" ability. Patching the game won't change that, because it doesn't go into the save and edit things.

If you start a new run (now that you're in patch 2.6), you'll be good. At least for this particular bug, Any mage will be able to "memorize" a sequencer, and they won't randomly lose that sequencer to a cutscene or a Mass Raise Dead.

On your current save? You have to deal with those effects on the character. Which leaves three choices.
- Edit the save.
- Kill Edwin and resurrect him. (Missile damage is a good choice, because it can't chunk people).
- Keep playing without sequencers,

FredN

For the moment, I'll do without the sequencers. I have no clue how to edit a save, and Edwin is already ridiculously OP due to his Chain Contingency spell. Not to mention that he has an astonishing number of spell slots. (In addition to his amulet, I gave him the Ring of Acuity, the Circlet of Netheril and the Reaching Ring). Yeah, yeah, I know ... gilding the lily and all that. And there's always a chance he will get whacked in combat anyway. It happens, especially in the lower reaches of Watcher's Keep. Those pesky dead magic rooms can be quite deadly, especially for squishy mages who depend on things like mirror image to help them survive.