@Ulkesh: I haven't finished yet, but I'm working on some simple ways to implement new HLAs. The Demonic Avatar is now an equippable token, modeled after the ever-convenient SCS shapeshifting tokens. You can switch to and from demonic form at will, though I did increase the casting speed penalty to +2. There is also an HLA to briefly empower the demonic form, giving it better combat abilities and granting berserker-style immunities for a short time.
Here are some of the other HLA's I've been making. There is no spell to summon a patron (creating the new scripts would be time-consuming), but there are now two paths. Good-aligned characters can get special immunities and bonuses for resisting temptation, and can charm extraplanar critters. Evil-aligned characters grant combat bonuses to summoned demons, and can create extra tokens to let other party members transform into demonic form. Neutral-aligned characters can choose either.
---Aura of Protection from Evil---
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner's allies are Protected from Evil as long as they are within 15 feet.
---Demonic Rage---
Upon activating this ability, a shapeshifted mage may adopt the frenzied mindset of a raging demon, empowering their attacks and shielding their mind and body. The effects are powerful but gradually fade over time:
- For 2 rounds, the caster gets +50% resistance to physical damage.
- For 3 rounds, the caster becomes immune to charm, confusion, fear, feeblemind, hold, imprisonment, level drain, maze, stun, and sleep.
- For 4 rounds, the caster's attacks per round are set to 5.
- For 5 rounds, the caster gets +50% fire resistance, +25% cold resistance, +25% electricity resistance, and +15% magic resistance.
- For 6 rounds, the caster gets a +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage.
If the caster is in natural form when they activate this ability, Demonic Rage has no effect beyond granting +2 to hit and damage. If they are in demonic form or are shapeshifted into another large creature, Demonic Rage will apply its full effects.
---Demonic Fealty---
With this ability, the caster establishes a new pact with each demon they summon, forming genuine bonds and loyalties to their demonic allies. Good-aligned spellcasters would refuse such a bond on principle, but evil- and neutral-aligned characters may find it prudent.
Upon choosing this ability, all allied demons gain +1 attack per round and +2 to hit and damage so long as they remain within 15 feet of the caster. The caster's aura does not affect non-demon characters that are shapeshifted into a demonic form.
The aura is permanent and requires no activation; allied demons are affected automatically. This ability is mutually exclusive with Purity of Heart.
---Purity of Heart---
Dealing with demons is dangerous business, and an unwise or unlucky mage can lose their life, their soul, and their identity, all in pursuit of power. Casters with an element of good in their hearts and a measure of humility, however, can resist these temptations and emerge stronger for it.
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner becomes permanently immune to fear, charm, confusion, poison, and disease. The caster also gets a +25% bonus to acid, fire, cold, and electricity damage, as well as a +1 bonus to all saving throws.
This ability is mutually exclusive with Demonic Fealty.
---Corruption---
Ambitious Demon Summoners may opt to sacrifice not just their life force, but even their identity and purpose, in the pursuit of power. Such mages gain a new understanding of extraplanar pacts, allowing them to become a demonic patron in their own right. The Demon Summoner may bestow a boon on their own comrades as a reward for their service.
Upon choosing this ability, the caster permanently creates a token akin to a Demonic Avatar token, with two distinctions. First, any character, regardless of class, may use the token to adopt a demonic form at will. Second, the token requires a sacrifice from the user: while in demonic form, their maximum Hit Points are reduced by 15 points.
This ability may be chosen any number of times, and a new token will be created each time, though a character may only equip one token at a time.
Prerequisite: Demonic Fealty
---Conversion---
Demon Summoners who resist the temptations of their craft gain a greater understanding of how demonic pacts function, learning to understand demons and devils as if they were the mage's own kind.
This ability allows the Demon Summoner to permanently charm any extraplanar being once per day, bypassing immunities to conventional charms. Demons and devils are affected automatically, while other extraplanar creatures may attempt a save vs. spell at -8 to resist the effect.
Creatures that are affected by this spell include demons, devils, imps, mephits, elementals, celestials such as devas and planetars, djinn, feyrs, and salamanders, as well as plane-shifting creatures such as rakshasas, mind flayers, and githyanki.
Just out of curiosity... Is it possible to create not a single class but a multiclass, with experience divide like in the vanilla version, with access to HLA for each of the classes (also like in vanilla version), with their bonuses derived from high intelligence, charisma, etc.? The mix I'm thinking of is Sorc(classic version)/Druid/Psionicist Monk/Archer Paladin? Or, if Sorc were an issue, then Mage(generalist)/Druid/Thief/Psionicist Monk/Archer Paladin?
With as few disadvantages as possible - after the current campaign, I plan to try another run on the highest difficulty level, with mods that add cosmically difficult enemies, such as Neverwinter in BG with mages harder than Irenicus, or the Planar Sphere Mod with its magical elementals that kill off weaker team members in one shot, and with demilishes, fallen planetars, Vecna and other similiar monsters.
@Gniady: As in, four different classes, monk and druid and paladin and sorcerer? Without some elaborate coding or extra utility mods (maybe EEex?), there are some limits to what mods can do. I would have to create an entirely new kit to partially emulate the ones you describe, and balancing it without lots of disadvantages would not be possible.
Monks and sorcerers are very hard-coded. It's not possible to give monks a spellbook or thieving skills, and sorcerers only get the one spellbook. It's possible to give extra unarmed attacks to non-monks, but they will only ever deal 1d2 base damage; only monks can get stronger, enchanted fists.
As for a mage/druid/thief/paladin, you could probably emulate it partially with EEKeeper. If you created a fighter/cleric/druid/mage/thief using this mod, you could then tweak it to be a little closer to what you want:
-You can remove the cleric spells that kit gives you, or simply not use them.
-If you go to the effects tab, you can change the XP penalty from 25% to 15% or 20%, which would roughly imitate a four-class combo rather than a three- or give-class combo.
-Give it Use Any Item and you can use all the correct items, though this will also enable you to use non-druid items like longswords.
You can also install the druid multiclasses from this mod, create a regular sorcerer, and then use EEKeeper to give your sorcerer druid spells (that component adds mage versions of them). EEKeeper can also give you Archer bonuses, Called Shot, and whatever psionics you want.
You might also look into some of subtledoctor's class mods, I believe on Gibberlings3. His mods are very sophisticated and can do a few things most mods can't when it comes to class combinations. The downside is that his mods are also hyper-balanced, so making an overpowered kit would be difficult.
These options might not behave exactly the way you want, but the engine can support part of it, and EEKeeper can help give you a more customized character.
@semiticgoddess Hmm.. So four different classes nope and there is a problem with combining a monk with sorc, and a thief.. What about three different classes, e.g. Druidic Sorcerer/Archer Paladin/Psionicist Fighter? I really love your work xD
@Gniady: I might have said it a bit weird. To be clear, the only character that can get monk fists are single-classed monks, which cannot have any spellbook. Likewise, the only character that can get a sorcerer spellbook is a single-classed sorcerer. Both of these classes cannot have stealth or thieving skills. Likewise, only bards and shamans can dance/sing (it's the same button).
The key is the toolbar. Normal WeiDU stuff cannot change the toolbar, and the toolbar is hardcoded to vanilla classes. You can't recombine them.
The reason I was able to create illegal druid multi-classes is because I can port druid spells to the cleric or mage spellbooks. The druid/mage, for example, is just a cleric/mage with different spells, the turn undead button disabled (you can disable buttons that exist, but can't add others), and Beastmaster-style item restrictions. It's a close approximation, but the engine still sees it as a cleric/mage, and gives it that toolbar.
In a word, many things can be approximated or imitated, but the toolbar must be legal in vanilla.
Aaaach.. So sorcerer and monk cannot be in any multiclass options.. Paladins and rangers can't be part of it either? It must be something from the vanilla option - mage/cleric/fighter and mage/fighter/thief? Some variants of those, like for example Mage(generalist)/Psionicist Fighter/Archer Thief?
Sorry for bombarding you with questions, I'm an idiot when it comes to modding and what's possible and what's not
@Gniady: Yeah, fighter/mage/thieves are the base class for the Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief kit. All of the spells are tossed into the mage spellbook.
Paladins and rangers are also kinda wonky. They get spellbooks, but they don't get any slots until level 8, and tweaking the tables to give them earlier spells will apply to all paladins or rangers; not just a given kit.
No worries about the questions, friend. This game is very old and very wonky, and it very much was not designed to undergo modding this extensive. To this day, veterans like me are still learning new things about the game engine. It took 20 years before anyone knew mage specializations affected saving throws! We spent so much time puzzling over why saves vs. death seemed to behave differently from saves vs. spell.
Thankee. I tested the Seducer-only version of the kit many months ago and was annoyed at how many times I had to click/push buttons to ensure the unit joined me out of combat. Since this is noncombat and, thus, normally not a challenge for most people, that's why I requested there simply be no save if used out of combat.
My intent was that the recruitment ability simply work with no save, kinda like how talking to a recruitable NPC with no recruitment quest just lets you add them to your team.
The last option I can think of regarding multiclass is 3 different classes (Mage/Fighter/Thief), all of your own creations:
1. Fighter/Cleric/Druid/Mage/Thief - if I understand correctly, this kit is marked as a mage class? It has added spells and some options from other classes, but it learns spells from the mage book normally, has intelligence bonuses, and the game recognizes it as a mage? So, if we remove the experience reduction and the inability to use metal items, it could be treated as a mage in this multiclass?
I only don't know how HLA works here - I'm an moron and haven't installed this class in my current build And I don't want to destroy it now.. This kit has normal mage HLA + some other as innate abilities, or it's something else?
2. Psionicist Fighter as a fighter in this multiclass.
3. And Archer Thief as a thief.
Would the game allow for such a multiclass set? I know it would be a little OP, especially if we throw out some of the disadvantages, but in this case that's exactly what it's about..
@Ulkesh: I haven't finished yet, but I'm working on some simple ways to implement new HLAs. The Demonic Avatar is now an equippable token, modeled after the ever-convenient SCS shapeshifting tokens. You can switch to and from demonic form at will, though I did increase the casting speed penalty to +2. There is also an HLA to briefly empower the demonic form, giving it better combat abilities and granting berserker-style immunities for a short time.
Here are some of the other HLA's I've been making. There is no spell to summon a patron (creating the new scripts would be time-consuming), but there are now two paths. Good-aligned characters can get special immunities and bonuses for resisting temptation, and can charm extraplanar critters. Evil-aligned characters grant combat bonuses to summoned demons, and can create extra tokens to let other party members transform into demonic form. Neutral-aligned characters can choose either.
---Aura of Protection from Evil---
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner's allies are Protected from Evil as long as they are within 15 feet.
---Demonic Rage---
Upon activating this ability, a shapeshifted mage may adopt the frenzied mindset of a raging demon, empowering their attacks and shielding their mind and body. The effects are powerful but gradually fade over time:
- For 2 rounds, the caster gets +50% resistance to physical damage.
- For 3 rounds, the caster becomes immune to charm, confusion, fear, feeblemind, hold, imprisonment, level drain, maze, stun, and sleep.
- For 4 rounds, the caster's attacks per round are set to 5.
- For 5 rounds, the caster gets +50% fire resistance, +25% cold resistance, +25% electricity resistance, and +15% magic resistance.
- For 6 rounds, the caster gets a +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage.
If the caster is in natural form when they activate this ability, Demonic Rage has no effect beyond granting +2 to hit and damage. If they are in demonic form or are shapeshifted into another large creature, Demonic Rage will apply its full effects.
---Demonic Fealty---
With this ability, the caster establishes a new pact with each demon they summon, forming genuine bonds and loyalties to their demonic allies. Good-aligned spellcasters would refuse such a bond on principle, but evil- and neutral-aligned characters may find it prudent.
Upon choosing this ability, all allied demons gain +1 attack per round and +2 to hit and damage so long as they remain within 15 feet of the caster. The caster's aura does not affect non-demon characters that are shapeshifted into a demonic form.
The aura is permanent and requires no activation; allied demons are affected automatically. This ability is mutually exclusive with Purity of Heart.
---Purity of Heart---
Dealing with demons is dangerous business, and an unwise or unlucky mage can lose their life, their soul, and their identity, all in pursuit of power. Casters with an element of good in their hearts and a measure of humility, however, can resist these temptations and emerge stronger for it.
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner becomes permanently immune to fear, charm, confusion, poison, and disease. The caster also gets a +25% bonus to acid, fire, cold, and electricity damage, as well as a +1 bonus to all saving throws.
This ability is mutually exclusive with Demonic Fealty.
---Corruption---
Ambitious Demon Summoners may opt to sacrifice not just their life force, but even their identity and purpose, in the pursuit of power. Such mages gain a new understanding of extraplanar pacts, allowing them to become a demonic patron in their own right. The Demon Summoner may bestow a boon on their own comrades as a reward for their service.
Upon choosing this ability, the caster permanently creates a token akin to a Demonic Avatar token, with two distinctions. First, any character, regardless of class, may use the token to adopt a demonic form at will. Second, the token requires a sacrifice from the user: while in demonic form, their maximum Hit Points are reduced by 15 points.
This ability may be chosen any number of times, and a new token will be created each time, though a character may only equip one token at a time.
Prerequisite: Demonic Fealty
---Conversion---
Demon Summoners who resist the temptations of their craft gain a greater understanding of how demonic pacts function, learning to understand demons and devils as if they were the mage's own kind.
This ability allows the Demon Summoner to permanently charm any extraplanar being once per day, bypassing immunities to conventional charms. Demons and devils are affected automatically, while other extraplanar creatures may attempt a save vs. spell at -8 to resist the effect.
Creatures that are affected by this spell include demons, devils, imps, mephits, elementals, celestials such as devas and planetars, djinn, feyrs, and salamanders, as well as plane-shifting creatures such as rakshasas, mind flayers, and githyanki.
@Ulkesh: I'm looking at subtledoctor's (the mod creator's) files and honestly I don't know how to copy them over. Subtledoctor's code organization is very advanced, and he organizes his files differently (he uses both TPA and TP2 files; I only ever used TP2). Mine is largely spaghetti code. I actually can't even tell what files and what lines of code I'd need to copy from Refinements, even if I got his permission to use them. I'm sorry; I don't think I can do that one.
@Gniady: I think I have a simple workaround that can get you the character you want. Rather than trying to code a new version of a kit, I just threw together the class abilities tables for Psionicists, Archers, and the Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief. Attached is a .zip file with a folder in it and 2 files in it, USCD0X.spl and CLABUSCX.2da. They're both altered versions of files from the mod, which I tweaked today.
Here's what you can do:
1. Install the Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief kit.
2. Unzip the folder and copy and paste "USCD0X.spl" and "CLABUSCX.2da" into your override folder in your BG1/BG2 directory.
3. Create a new character as a Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief.
The character's class will still be named as just an FDCMT on your Record screen, but it should gain the abilities of Psionicists and Archers as it gains levels; it should have access to both cleric and druid spells in the mage book; and it should have triple the spell slots of a generalist mage, to make room for the priest spells. I also removed the XP penalty for convenience's save. I think this should give you a character with the abilities you're looking for.
Comments
Here are some of the other HLA's I've been making. There is no spell to summon a patron (creating the new scripts would be time-consuming), but there are now two paths. Good-aligned characters can get special immunities and bonuses for resisting temptation, and can charm extraplanar critters. Evil-aligned characters grant combat bonuses to summoned demons, and can create extra tokens to let other party members transform into demonic form. Neutral-aligned characters can choose either.
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner's allies are Protected from Evil as long as they are within 15 feet.
---Demonic Rage---
Upon activating this ability, a shapeshifted mage may adopt the frenzied mindset of a raging demon, empowering their attacks and shielding their mind and body. The effects are powerful but gradually fade over time:
- For 2 rounds, the caster gets +50% resistance to physical damage.
- For 3 rounds, the caster becomes immune to charm, confusion, fear, feeblemind, hold, imprisonment, level drain, maze, stun, and sleep.
- For 4 rounds, the caster's attacks per round are set to 5.
- For 5 rounds, the caster gets +50% fire resistance, +25% cold resistance, +25% electricity resistance, and +15% magic resistance.
- For 6 rounds, the caster gets a +2 bonus to THAC0 and damage.
If the caster is in natural form when they activate this ability, Demonic Rage has no effect beyond granting +2 to hit and damage. If they are in demonic form or are shapeshifted into another large creature, Demonic Rage will apply its full effects.
---Demonic Fealty---
With this ability, the caster establishes a new pact with each demon they summon, forming genuine bonds and loyalties to their demonic allies. Good-aligned spellcasters would refuse such a bond on principle, but evil- and neutral-aligned characters may find it prudent.
Upon choosing this ability, all allied demons gain +1 attack per round and +2 to hit and damage so long as they remain within 15 feet of the caster. The caster's aura does not affect non-demon characters that are shapeshifted into a demonic form.
The aura is permanent and requires no activation; allied demons are affected automatically. This ability is mutually exclusive with Purity of Heart.
---Purity of Heart---
Dealing with demons is dangerous business, and an unwise or unlucky mage can lose their life, their soul, and their identity, all in pursuit of power. Casters with an element of good in their hearts and a measure of humility, however, can resist these temptations and emerge stronger for it.
Upon choosing this ability, the Demon Summoner becomes permanently immune to fear, charm, confusion, poison, and disease. The caster also gets a +25% bonus to acid, fire, cold, and electricity damage, as well as a +1 bonus to all saving throws.
This ability is mutually exclusive with Demonic Fealty.
---Corruption---
Ambitious Demon Summoners may opt to sacrifice not just their life force, but even their identity and purpose, in the pursuit of power. Such mages gain a new understanding of extraplanar pacts, allowing them to become a demonic patron in their own right. The Demon Summoner may bestow a boon on their own comrades as a reward for their service.
Upon choosing this ability, the caster permanently creates a token akin to a Demonic Avatar token, with two distinctions. First, any character, regardless of class, may use the token to adopt a demonic form at will. Second, the token requires a sacrifice from the user: while in demonic form, their maximum Hit Points are reduced by 15 points.
This ability may be chosen any number of times, and a new token will be created each time, though a character may only equip one token at a time.
Prerequisite: Demonic Fealty
---Conversion---
Demon Summoners who resist the temptations of their craft gain a greater understanding of how demonic pacts function, learning to understand demons and devils as if they were the mage's own kind.
This ability allows the Demon Summoner to permanently charm any extraplanar being once per day, bypassing immunities to conventional charms. Demons and devils are affected automatically, while other extraplanar creatures may attempt a save vs. spell at -8 to resist the effect.
Creatures that are affected by this spell include demons, devils, imps, mephits, elementals, celestials such as devas and planetars, djinn, feyrs, and salamanders, as well as plane-shifting creatures such as rakshasas, mind flayers, and githyanki.
Prerequisite: Purity of Heart
With as few disadvantages as possible - after the current campaign, I plan to try another run on the highest difficulty level, with mods that add cosmically difficult enemies, such as Neverwinter in BG with mages harder than Irenicus, or the Planar Sphere Mod with its magical elementals that kill off weaker team members in one shot, and with demilishes, fallen planetars, Vecna and other similiar monsters.
Monks and sorcerers are very hard-coded. It's not possible to give monks a spellbook or thieving skills, and sorcerers only get the one spellbook. It's possible to give extra unarmed attacks to non-monks, but they will only ever deal 1d2 base damage; only monks can get stronger, enchanted fists.
As for a mage/druid/thief/paladin, you could probably emulate it partially with EEKeeper. If you created a fighter/cleric/druid/mage/thief using this mod, you could then tweak it to be a little closer to what you want:
-You can remove the cleric spells that kit gives you, or simply not use them.
-If you go to the effects tab, you can change the XP penalty from 25% to 15% or 20%, which would roughly imitate a four-class combo rather than a three- or give-class combo.
-Give it Use Any Item and you can use all the correct items, though this will also enable you to use non-druid items like longswords.
You can also install the druid multiclasses from this mod, create a regular sorcerer, and then use EEKeeper to give your sorcerer druid spells (that component adds mage versions of them). EEKeeper can also give you Archer bonuses, Called Shot, and whatever psionics you want.
You might also look into some of subtledoctor's class mods, I believe on Gibberlings3. His mods are very sophisticated and can do a few things most mods can't when it comes to class combinations. The downside is that his mods are also hyper-balanced, so making an overpowered kit would be difficult.
These options might not behave exactly the way you want, but the engine can support part of it, and EEKeeper can help give you a more customized character.
The key is the toolbar. Normal WeiDU stuff cannot change the toolbar, and the toolbar is hardcoded to vanilla classes. You can't recombine them.
The reason I was able to create illegal druid multi-classes is because I can port druid spells to the cleric or mage spellbooks. The druid/mage, for example, is just a cleric/mage with different spells, the turn undead button disabled (you can disable buttons that exist, but can't add others), and Beastmaster-style item restrictions. It's a close approximation, but the engine still sees it as a cleric/mage, and gives it that toolbar.
In a word, many things can be approximated or imitated, but the toolbar must be legal in vanilla.
Sorry for bombarding you with questions, I'm an idiot when it comes to modding and what's possible and what's not
Paladins and rangers are also kinda wonky. They get spellbooks, but they don't get any slots until level 8, and tweaking the tables to give them earlier spells will apply to all paladins or rangers; not just a given kit.
No worries about the questions, friend. This game is very old and very wonky, and it very much was not designed to undergo modding this extensive. To this day, veterans like me are still learning new things about the game engine. It took 20 years before anyone knew mage specializations affected saving throws! We spent so much time puzzling over why saves vs. death seemed to behave differently from saves vs. spell.
My intent was that the recruitment ability simply work with no save, kinda like how talking to a recruitable NPC with no recruitment quest just lets you add them to your team.
1. Fighter/Cleric/Druid/Mage/Thief - if I understand correctly, this kit is marked as a mage class? It has added spells and some options from other classes, but it learns spells from the mage book normally, has intelligence bonuses, and the game recognizes it as a mage? So, if we remove the experience reduction and the inability to use metal items, it could be treated as a mage in this multiclass?
I only don't know how HLA works here - I'm an moron and haven't installed this class in my current build
2. Psionicist Fighter as a fighter in this multiclass.
3. And Archer Thief as a thief.
Would the game allow for such a multiclass set? I know it would be a little OP, especially if we throw out some of the disadvantages, but in this case that's exactly what it's about..
The spell is Divine Intervention. Although such a summoning puts the evil demon summoner ahead of good
@Gniady: I think I have a simple workaround that can get you the character you want. Rather than trying to code a new version of a kit, I just threw together the class abilities tables for Psionicists, Archers, and the Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief. Attached is a .zip file with a folder in it and 2 files in it, USCD0X.spl and CLABUSCX.2da. They're both altered versions of files from the mod, which I tweaked today.
Here's what you can do:
1. Install the Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief kit.
2. Unzip the folder and copy and paste "USCD0X.spl" and "CLABUSCX.2da" into your override folder in your BG1/BG2 directory.
3. Create a new character as a Fighter/Druid/Cleric/Mage/Thief.
The character's class will still be named as just an FDCMT on your Record screen, but it should gain the abilities of Psionicists and Archers as it gains levels; it should have access to both cleric and druid spells in the mage book; and it should have triple the spell slots of a generalist mage, to make room for the priest spells. I also removed the XP penalty for convenience's save. I think this should give you a character with the abilities you're looking for.