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Ramc posted:This. The game balance purist in me is screaming silently. Were wizards not powerful enough in Baldur's Gate for someone? Somewhere in its description, it says it was invented by somebody called Ettin. I'm guessing the modder goes by that.
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Jul 29, 2012 18:54
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Ettin also made a wand that casts Hold Person. I guess he was a wizard who wanted to be a cleric or something. Buddy... You should have waited until 3E, then you could have been a Mystic Theurge 
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Jul 29, 2012 20:21
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Yeah, just checked my monster manuals. Ettins are another miscellaneous giant-type critter with no fast healing or regeneration ability. Their only notable characteristic is that they're awesome dual-wielders because each head controls one arm.
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Jul 29, 2012 20:27
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Clearly you gain superior 'regeneration' because you grow second head, so you have a spare one every time yours gets cut off.
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Jul 29, 2012 23:50
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I want to make a .gif of Edwin flopping around like a fish under the effects of Cellular Regeneration. I'll have to see if I can get a video and convert it.
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Jul 30, 2012 03:46
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So, I've been playing a bit with my install of the BWP project, and I have a definite answer about something that raised some questions... and some eyebrows... way back when. The Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Flame of the North, and Serpant's Staff that Syv got from "Daddy" and "Mommy" back in Beregost? That's totally precisely what the mod put there. They aren't affected by the Loot Randomizer at all. And I took out both Daddy and Mommy with very little effort at level 1 (admittedly, I switched around kits and such of my party, but they're not exactly all that powerful even with that). So, just a little broken for a mod by itself. Granted, with all the Tactics stuff, they're handy items, but... Also, the stutter bug I ran into last time has returned and I'm not sure what's causing it. I don't have that much stuff and the AI hasn't been changed since the last time I played, dammit.
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Jul 30, 2012 03:49
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I kind of get this odd image in my head. Edwin: "No! NO! I'm at full health! You don't need to heal me!" Syvishtara: "Nope, I think I see a tiny scratch on your cheek. Mumbo Jumbo Cellular Regeneration"  Edwin: "Just kill me..."
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Jul 30, 2012 03:53
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B, and make him human while you're at it. I say stick him in your first pocket dimension to keep an eye on it, since you have a nice new one you're going to be using.
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Jul 30, 2012 04:11
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A, novelties are fun  and make him human.Also I am another person who joined mostly because of this thread, you're doing a fantastic job and this is one of my favorite things on the internet.
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Jul 30, 2012 07:19
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B If he doesn't have any dialogue he's just some dull high level mage without the really fun spells. But still make him human.
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Jul 30, 2012 12:36
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I made an avatar-sized gif of Edwin flopping around under the effects of Cellular Regeneration Its 50 kb though. I think avatars have to be 30 kb right? Vorgen fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 05:17
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If I can still vote, I vote for A
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Jul 31, 2012 05:56
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Definitely voting for A Let's see what our recently bribed friend can do. I thought he'd have some more spells, but I bet he'll be able to kick rear end none the less.
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Jul 31, 2012 06:48
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Vorgen posted:I made an avatar-sized gif of Edwin flopping around under the effects of Cellular Regeneration
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Jul 31, 2012 07:39
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Shei-kun posted:Sadly, yes, they have to be 30kb or less. Can you posterize in any way? I don't know gifs, but I sort of know photoshop.
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Jul 31, 2012 14:48
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That looks like a LOT of frames just to change color and back, and most of them look like very small increments. Could you drop half the frames in the color cycling, doubling the time of the other frames, so the overall change takes the same amount of time but goes through fewer steps? That might drop the total size below 30k.
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Jul 31, 2012 22:05
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Voting A. Let's see what the old man can do. (Other than apparently dress in elf drag, but hey, we're not here to judge.) Cythereal posted:At any rate, Enchanters are one of the weaker mage specializations, particularly in BG1 where the artillery function of mages is generally just as or more important than their support/debuff abilities. It's why Xan is usually considered the worst mage in BG1 bar mods - he's an Enchanter unmodded - and Firebead here is little different. It's hard to make a mage lackluster, but Firebead's specialization relegates him to the average pile. Not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou. Enchanters were pretty solid (as compared to other mages) - the low level cap in default Baldur's Gate meant that a lot of the basic crowd control spells like Sleep or Color Spray kept their usefulness for quite some time, and the need for fireballs on an enchanter is greatly lessened by the inclusion of Skull Trap. And when you get into Tales of the Sword Coast, over half the 5th level spells in the game are enchantments. As far as specializations go, it's definitely got its payoffs. Bobbin Threadbare posted:Can elves even grow beards in the Forgotten Realms? Drow are known for their predisposition toward luxurious, rockin' biker 'staches, however. Apparently crazy underdark radiation is good for more than just giving you magic resistance.
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Aug 1, 2012 21:06
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A new BG2 NPC mod was just released, so I downloaded and took a look through the files. It's, uh, poo poo. I'd take my formidable mate over this bimbo who only seems to have a mind for babies, periods, and shopping. I get that (spoil box just in case) Skie is in BG1 a moderately crap character no one ever uses, but did a modder have to do *that* to her for BG2?
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Aug 2, 2012 23:56
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Cythereal posted:but did a modder have to do *that* to her for BG2? If you have to ask...
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Aug 3, 2012 00:03
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Brainamp posted:If you have to ask... The modder in question, Lava del'Vortel, is... special. Most modders are either raging egomaniacs and their special snowflakes, completely normal people who write pretty reasonable stuff most of the time, or creeps. del'Vortel is one of the last category there, and has horrid Engrish problems as well. Do note that the first and third categories tend to overlap... just look at the readme for Romantic Encounters.
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Aug 3, 2012 00:19
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Cythereal posted:just look at the readme for Romantic Encounters. I'd honestly rather not, but it tends to be the same in all modding communities. As annoying as it is, these types will always show up.
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Aug 3, 2012 00:24
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I've been following this thread, then a while ago I discovered that two friends of mine made some NPCs which are in the pack. From some quick research they're BG2 rather than 1.
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Aug 3, 2012 03:07
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Whew finally caught up after losing track of this thread for a couple months. It's weird how coincidence happens, but the same day I got to the part where they announce BG:EE I connected with a guy on LinkedIn I used to work with at EA. He did art direction for the first BG and apparently they've hired him back on for the enhanced edition, so that's a good sign I guess?
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Aug 3, 2012 05:39
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I suspect Vorgen doesn't want to try dumping yet another BG1 mod on top of BWP, but I found another one, part of the BG1 NPC Project that was never completed and later released as a separate component - a quasi-romance track with Garrick. Don't know if it's part of BWP that Vorgen never mentioned, or if it was released after he got set up.
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Aug 9, 2012 21:11
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Cythereal posted:I suspect Vorgen doesn't want to try dumping yet another BG1 mod on top of BWP, but I found another one, part of the BG1 NPC Project that was never completed and later released as a separate component - a quasi-romance track with Garrick. Don't know if it's part of BWP that Vorgen never mentioned, or if it was released after he got set up. Should probably have some sort of statute of limitations on this stuff - the BG fan community is notoriously prolific, and will become yet more so next month when they start redoing their compatibility for BGEE.
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Aug 10, 2012 23:07
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Tithin Melias posted:Should probably have some sort of statute of limitations on this stuff - the BG fan community is notoriously prolific, and will become yet more so next month when they start redoing their compatibility for BGEE. I know. I'm a staff member at one of the main modding sites.  It's actually not that active. High-quality mods tend to take years to make (no, crap mods like Skie for BG2 are not high-quality). Many are stillborn. There's one more sizable BG1 mod in development to my knowledge, another NPC, but to my knowledge she probably won't be complete until this LP finishes BG1.
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Aug 10, 2012 23:34
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You see at this point if I was a modder I'd probably just wait till September and see what BGEE changes. I suppose you can still write script if your building an NPC though.
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Aug 11, 2012 08:25
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Miss Hime posted:You see at this point if I was a modder I'd probably just wait till September and see what BGEE changes. I suppose you can still write script if your building an NPC though. Well if you've been working for months to get something out, and then BGEE starts rolling out, you would probably want to get your poo poo out the door before it becomes obsolete.
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Aug 11, 2012 12:54
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Tithin Melias posted:Should probably have some sort of statute of limitations on this stuff - the BG fan community is notoriously prolific, and will become yet more so next month when they start redoing their compatibility for BGEE. Umm, I can't. I simply cannot add more mods to the game now that I'm playing it. I found the actual numbers behind Ettin's healing: 8 hit points per second for 60 seconds. That's huge. It is huge enough to still be useful in the fight at the end of the Throne of Bhaal. Dayum. Maybe I shouldn't use it much. Here are the final voting results: code:I'll start playing the new update. It should be finished sometime within the next 24 hours.
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Aug 12, 2012 13:32
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Vorgen posted:Ettin's healing: 8 hit points per second for 60 seconds. 
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Aug 12, 2012 13:38
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Just reapeat to yourself, "Modders have no balance".
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Aug 12, 2012 15:12
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Whatever, it's not like it's better than two trolls regenerating simultaneously without the acid/fire weakness...
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Aug 12, 2012 17:14
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How the devil are you supposed to kill trolls if they're not vulnerable to fire/acid? Save-or-die spells only?
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Aug 12, 2012 17:20
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V. Illych L. posted:How the devil are you supposed to kill trolls if they're not vulnerable to fire/acid? Save-or-die spells only? Chunking them?
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Aug 12, 2012 17:42
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 20 Hammer, 1370 "So Improved Invisibility is good to begin a fight with, but Shadow Door is better to escape?" Imoen asks Firebead Elvenhair, absolutely absorbed. Firebead nods enthusiastically and goes into a long, involved, yet thoroughly entertaining explanation of how he managed to trap an entire tribe of kobolds in extradimensional space with a clever use of both in the Spine of the World mountains one time. As Imoen listens to him, she seems to realize new implications about magic that she has never before. Gameplay note: I didn't show it last time, but Imoen leveled up from scribing all those scrolls. So lets take a look at her level up first thing.    At 10,000 xp in her new class she is already 25% of the way to regaining her lost abilities! And she can cast two level 2 spells now, so I assign her to cast Knock twice. She is supposed to be taking care of locks anyway. We talk long into the night, with Firebead telling us story after story of places far away, cities I've never seen. He's been to Amn, down south, but also Icewind Dale up north. He's even been far away to Saradush and southeast to Soubar. There are always little anecdotes that he keeps remembering, and he holds us spellbound with them. We might have talked straight on 'til morning, but I idly ask him if he's ever been to the Underdark, and it ruins the mood. His face shadows over. He says he's been, but he would rather not talk about it. He says he lost a good friend down there, a good mage of some renown. He looks old then, so old and so pressed down with old cares. Imoen pointedly says she's sleepy, yawns, and passes the yawn on to us all. We decide to retire for the night. Firebead won't let us leave, though. He insists on us staying with him in his house. That is no problem at all. We all sleep well and wake the next morning, refreshed.  In the morning Firebead asks us what we're doing. We tell him about Ulcaster and how we're trying to bring rest to the old mage's ghost there. His eyebrows shoot up, and he says that he's always planned to go out there to see what can be done, but just never quite got around to it. He insists on coming with us, and won't even listen to any objections. Not that I would object. Sitting there talking to him about far-off places and the esoteric minutiae of magic last night, I had never missed Gorion more. I hear no objections from the rest of the party, either. Yeslick seems especically impressed by the stories. Gameplay note: Yeslick leveled up too. Ha! I just now saw that.    Only one additional level 3 spell, which is another Cure Serious Wounds, but you can't have too many of them! After that, we get Firebead equipped with what weapons we have to spare. He says he prefers daggers, so I give him my boomerang dagger. I plan to be throwing Minute Meteors all the time anyway, so this is probably better. He prefers his own Traveler's Robe, but does pick up the Teddy Bear of Protection. Also, despite the fact that a lot of good characters don't seem to like the Ring of Dwarven Bone, Firebead takes a more neutral stance in life and doesn't have a problem with it. It raises his strength a bit. It is honestly not that much to give, but he seems content. He says the Weave will be sufficient for him. I think I love this guy. Then we set off, 4 mages and 2 fighters, ready to face the Ulcaster School again!  It is an 8 hour trip.  When we arrive, it is night, so we sleep until the next day. Then we head back down into the Ulcaster School tunnels. I let Yeslick lead this time.  In the room where we fought the skeleton warriors and wolfweres, Yeslick finds a passage we had not seen before, off to the right.  We inch our way around the corner. But Yeslick isn't worried.  'Tis just like the tunnels of my old clan.The next room we find is a bit of a dead end.  We press on. We find a few more empty halls. After our first experience with the place, we find the emptiness quite disconcerting.  But we needn't have worried. A few corners later Yeslick shouts out enemy sighted, and the battle is on with a wolfwere.  I rush into the room behind the melee guys and go to the corner to help them out. But the corner is trapped!  I am seriously burned, but nobody else seems to be hurt. At least only I suffered from my own stupidity. The wolfwere goes down in a few more seconds.  I look around the room and declare it yet another dead end. But Yeslick says something is off with the stone. He scuffles around for a bit and then points out a staircase I would never have found alone.  Gameplay note: Thanks to Tzarnal for this. I never knew this existed, and the stairs trigger area is incredibly small and offset from the wall. It was hard to find even after he told me where it was. The stairs open up to a huge, empty tiled area, and ghouls begin to rush out of the darkness. Yeslick kills one before I can even react.  Then a shade of some sort of mage begins to yell at me and I don't know what is more insane, the incoming undead or conversing while it happens.   I may leave if you answer my questions first. Why are you still here haunting this place? Why? Why you ask? We were needlessly attacked by cowards who thought of us as a threat and sought to steal our knowledge. For this we remain and our dead enemies we cursed them to serve us as protectors of our knowledge. Ironic isn't it? What they came to steal, they now end up protecting as will you. You will never leave here, destroy them!Uh oh. And she is a cutie too. I feel sad that I didn't memorize Fireball today - this wide-open space with a lot of enemies would be perfect for it. Instead, all of us mages just throw the quickest offensive magic we can at the shade before SHE fireballs US.  She counters with Stoneskin. But Firebead must have anticipated this, because he comes later to the party with Remove Magic.  Imoen still prefers shooting arrows, and her magic augments that.  Edwin casts another magic missile barrage, but Arias seems immune. Perhaps she has Shield up.  Sure enough, a Minor Globe of Invulnerability springs up around the mage, just as I finish my spell of Corporeal Instability. Will it penetrate?   Damnit! The four of us mages are taken up by the problem of defeating one arch mage, while Yeslick and Kagain are facing hordes of the undead all alone.  I sure hope they can hold out. Firebead Elvenhair finishes casting his answer to arch mages, and lets loose.  We all hold our breath.  Weaveshear! Firebead Elvenhair moves up close to Arias, and she hits him with something. Perhaps fire arrows?  Then Firebead casts Shadow Door.  Godsdamnit!! The only thing I can do is reach for divine intervention. I grasp the holy book of Rhialto and pray for something, anything. I close my eyes and wishwishwish.  FINALLY! EVERYBODY ATTACK! Arias hits Imoen with magic missiles even before anybody can react to my shout.  But my best friend and closest confidant ever narrows her eyes, keeps her concentration, sights down the arrow, and lets it loose straight and true. The shade dies.  Several things happen at once. Yeslick retreats from the front line to heal Firebead Elvenhair, which collapses our left front line. Imoen tries to keep things under control by casting Burning Hands at the undead horde. She's pretty effective. And I run behind the bad guys to plant my own solution to this problem.  I breathe a sigh of relief when Yeslick heals Firebead. I will not yet be responsible for getting an old man killed.  And when the Wild Horde comes to my call, I breathe another sigh of relief. Things are looking up!  I tell all the other mages to get as far away from the bunnies as possible. I also tell Yeslick and Kagain to retreat in front of us, but Kagain can't hear. He's in his berserker frenzy.  Then, just to make things a little more crazy, I cast Teleport Field into the undead-bunny crowd.  Nothing happens for a moment, but then the bunnies start going off. I have unleashed hell.  When the smoke clears, there is not an undead to be seen anywhere.  It is hard to tell one charred pile from another. And do spirits even leave charred piles? But anyways, there is a magical dagger on the floor. A Dagger of Disease.  There is nothing else worth looting. We decide to explore the great hall we find ourselves in, but Firebead tells us to wait. He says there might be traps, fireball or lightning bolt traps. This is a mage school, after all, he says. He volunteers to go first. We oblige him after we realize he will make himself immune to magic.  He goes, finds an alcove, and collects two magical weapons, all without setting off any traps. We rush to see what he has found.  The first battle axe is Frostreaver.  The second is a Throwing Axe +3.  Kagain drools over both of those axes, but he can't let go of the Axe +2 Enrager that he has now. It is cursed, I realize. We will have to separate it from him tomorrow. Yeslick will see to it. Firebead strides off again, unconcerned with magical or physical traps that he may find. He only calls us in to help when he finds the burning dead.  We all rush it and take it out before it can do much. And when we check out its corpse we are shocked and thankful that we did. The undead archer was carrying Arrows of Detonation!  Imoen takes them, but gingerly. Firebead continues his scouting ahead. He sees another Burning Dead and we rush it as well. It falls to Yeslick.  Imoen relieves the corpse of its arrows. We also find 300 gold in another alcove.  Could we not have hired some poor fools to do this for us? This is no place for a man of my stature.I guess Edwin vastly overestimates the amount of cash I have access to. I don't try to correct him on that, just tell him to be quiet. The rooms that the Burning Dead are standing in front of look like lecture halls. They are always empty of anything.  Firebead's shield runs out, so we all advance together. We find another Burning Dead, rush it also, and take it out.  In the next alcove we find 50 gold and a studded leather armor +1. We put it with the rest of the useless loot. At the opposite end of the vast hallway from where we came in, we see another mage backed up by two skeleton warriors. I rush him to try to get a hit in, but he Stoneskins himself before I get a chance to. We're going to have to do this the hard way.  Hard for them, I mean. Imoen lets loose with Arrows of Detonation.  Then I notice that one of the undead warriors isn't. Rather, it is a Death Knight. Um.... how bad is that?  Not bad enough to be immune to Arrows of Detonation! That's good enough for me.  Edwin lets loose with Grease, and I am almost ready to berate him for it. But then the Death Knight falls down and loses consciousness and I hold my tongue.  Then Anton Lavar pops his spell protections, and Imoen seems to only be hurting the Death Knight with her Arrows of Detonation. She switches to Arrows of Dispelling, and curses herself for not using them before. The magic missiles from Anton hit Kagain, and Yeslick is forced to heal him.  Firebead casts Chaos, but it has no effect.  There are more magic missiles flying out at Kagain the next round. He winces again. Yeslick moves in to heal again too.  I have my chaos shield, so I reach out through Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to try to overcome Anton's shield by magical strength. I try to cast Cone of Cold through it. Surely it can't stop such a powerful spell. But the Death Knight hits me hard as I move in to cast, and I lose my spell.  Anton throws a Stinking Cloud at Kagain. It is time to retreat.  We have miscellaneous undead coming in from two sides. We have a powerful mage throwing out magic missiles faster than should be possible. We are low on spells and Kagain is almost dead. We need refuge.  As the skeleton warrior raises his sword to strike Kagain down, I squeeze the Rod of Refuge. We are whisked away in the nick of time.  I feel like it is somehow cheap for me to do this, as if my experience down in the depths of the Ulcaster School would become too easy. Then I remember the three volleys of magic missiles that Kagain only survived because of constant healing from Yeslick and I don't feel so cheap no more. I call a conference between the mages. We need to coordinate our spells for anti-mage warfare. We talk for about an hour, receiving insights from Firebead. Then we rest and prepare for tomorrow. Gameplay note: I know this is a smaller update than normal, but I think if I produce smaller updates I can update more frequently too. So I'll stop here this time and give you something to read. Vorgen fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Aug 14, 2012 |
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Aug 12, 2012 18:46
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I never knew this area existed. No wonder Ulcaster felt like such a pointless place
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Aug 12, 2012 18:55
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Small update? That's plenty for me, considering the amount of action! Those axes will be great for Kagain. I'm surprised you didn't remove his curse sooner.
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Aug 12, 2012 19:09
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This whole place is full of really good loot. I'd say it overpowered loot but well, we've got tons of that stuff already so its hardly going to break the game more.
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Aug 12, 2012 19:36
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I knew there had to be more to Ulcaster but I could never find it! No wonder! Also, that's a lotta magic.
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Aug 12, 2012 19:38
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Tzarnal posted:This whole place is full of really good loot. I'd say it overpowered loot but well, we've got tons of that stuff already so its hardly going to break the game more. By this point the game is in more pieces than Narsil. I'd say by the time we reach Mr. Big Bad and Ugly, it'll be like dust.
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Aug 12, 2012 19:42
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