Hello. I'm planning on making a small mod to address some issues I have with spell balance in BG:EE. My primary goals are to:
1.) Standardize casting times. They're currently all over the place, and there is seemingly no logic behind why one spell casts faster than another spell of the same level. Mage spells roughly follow SPELL LEVEL = CASTING TIME, but there are many exceptions for apparently no reason and I plan to address that. Priest spells? Madness and chaos all around.
So, what I'm going to do is have most spells follow the casting time = spell level rule, with the exception of "Power Word: X" type spells (always casting time 1) and some long term buffs (full round casting time) such as Armor. Priest spells generally seem to have longer casting times, so I am considering having them have casting time = spell level + 2. Then again, I don't really see a pressing balance concern to have priest cast slowly, so I would appreciate feedback on this point.
2.) Buff touch spells (and others that create magical weapons). They're terrible, nobody uses them, especially after the BG:EE fixes to them. All touch spells get +4 To Hit -bonus and Chill Touch gets its 1-8 cold damage back without a save. I don't think this will make them great, but useful enough to occasionally consider. Shillelagh/Flameblade/Spirit Hammer - I have no idea what to do with these, actually. I don't want to radically change them, but I must admit they're very nearly useless right now. Feedback, please.
3.) Adjust Cleric/Druid spell selection, ie. give druids some not-shit choices for level 1&2 slots. This probably means giving druids access to Remove Fear and Magical Stone at level 1. Level 2? I don't know, I guess I'll buff Goodberries (+1 morale bonus to luck for 1 round after eating?).
4.) Figure out a way to sneak in immunity to the Berserk effect in some spell or item because goddammit I want to be able to use Kiel's morningstar/Cursed Sword of Berserking and not have my party gibbed!
Additional things I would like to do but probably lack the means to implement:
5.) Darkness penalties to THAC0 (-1 to hit rolls). Activates whenever infravision does. Creatures with infravision do not suffer from this. Infravision becomes moderately useful, yay!
6.) Detect Evil/Know alignment does... something?
Problems? I'm a complete newbie modder. I *think* I can use DLTCEP to make most of my changes. I'm fairly sure I'm going to struggle with making a WeiDU installer that correctly patches the dialog.tlk without fucking everything up in the process. Links to relevant tutorials or other resources would be much appreciated.
Would there be any interest in a small mod like this?
1.) Standardize casting times. They're currently all over the place, and there is seemingly no logic behind why one spell casts faster than another spell of the same level. Mage spells roughly follow SPELL LEVEL = CASTING TIME, but there are many exceptions for apparently no reason and I plan to address that. Priest spells? Madness and chaos all around.
So, what I'm going to do is have most spells follow the casting time = spell level rule, with the exception of "Power Word: X" type spells (always casting time 1) and some long term buffs (full round casting time) such as Armor. Priest spells generally seem to have longer casting times, so I am considering having them have casting time = spell level + 2. Then again, I don't really see a pressing balance concern to have priest cast slowly, so I would appreciate feedback on this point.
2.) Buff touch spells (and others that create magical weapons). They're terrible, nobody uses them, especially after the BG:EE fixes to them. All touch spells get +4 To Hit -bonus and Chill Touch gets its 1-8 cold damage back without a save. I don't think this will make them great, but useful enough to occasionally consider. Shillelagh/Flameblade/Spirit Hammer - I have no idea what to do with these, actually. I don't want to radically change them, but I must admit they're very nearly useless right now. Feedback, please.
3.) Adjust Cleric/Druid spell selection, ie. give druids some not-shit choices for level 1&2 slots. This probably means giving druids access to Remove Fear and Magical Stone at level 1. Level 2? I don't know, I guess I'll buff Goodberries (+1 morale bonus to luck for 1 round after eating?).
4.) Figure out a way to sneak in immunity to the Berserk effect in some spell or item because goddammit I want to be able to use Kiel's morningstar/Cursed Sword of Berserking and not have my party gibbed!
Additional things I would like to do but probably lack the means to implement:
5.) Darkness penalties to THAC0 (-1 to hit rolls). Activates whenever infravision does. Creatures with infravision do not suffer from this. Infravision becomes moderately useful, yay!
6.) Detect Evil/Know alignment does... something?
Problems? I'm a complete newbie modder. I *think* I can use DLTCEP to make most of my changes. I'm fairly sure I'm going to struggle with making a WeiDU installer that correctly patches the dialog.tlk without fucking everything up in the process. Links to relevant tutorials or other resources would be much appreciated.
Would there be any interest in a small mod like this?