Conductor Kit

This is an old idea I came across. I remember testing it before and it looked really, really awesome so I think as a small little pet project, I will try to make it live! this is the old details of the Conductor, as from previous forums, but its definitely too powerful and will have to be revised.

CONDUCTOR

Advantages
- +10% Electrical Resistance every 4 levels
5 : Bard Song damages nearby opponents for 10 electrical damage for failed Save vs Spells
15 : Bard Song damages nearby opponents for 10 electrical damage and 10 fire damage for failed Save vs Spells at -1

HLAs
- Conductivity - Bard Song now does damage at Save vs Spells -3
- Explosive Discharge (requires Conductivity) - Bard Song now does 15 electrical and 15 fire damage
- Lightning Fury (requires Explosive Discharge) - Ability, cannot be targeted, centred around the Bard, does 5d10 each of Lightning and Fire, and on enemies failing a save (at -4) it does an additional 5d10 each of Lightning and Fire and Stuns them for 6 seconds. The Conductor loses 4d5 life each to Lightning and Fire damage

Disadvantages
(based on the idea that a conductor needs a stick to conduct an orchestra, lol, and requires a free hand for that)
- may not have Proficiency Points in any Two-Handed Weapons (Bows, Crossbows), Non-Sword-like Weapons (Warhammers, Axes, Maces, Flails, Darts)
- may not have Proficiency Points in Two Handed Weapon Style, Sword and Shield style

Here's what I have in mind

CONDUCTOR

Advantages
- +10% Electrical Resistance every 4 levels
- auto-learns special Lightning Spells* at various levels (see next topic)
5 : Bard Song damages nearby opponents for 1d5 electrical damage for failed Save vs Spells
9 : Bard Song damages nearby opponents for 2d5 electrical damage for failed Save vs Spells
14 : Bard Song damages nearby opponents for 2d5 electrical damage and 2d5 fire damage for failed Save vs Spells at -1

HLAs
- Conductivity I : Bard Song now does damage at Save vs Spells -3
- Explosive Discharge (requires Conductivity I) : Bard Song now does 2d10 electrical and 2d10 fire damage
- Conductivity II (requires Conductivity I) : Bard Song now does damage at Save vs Spells -5
- Lightning Fury (requires Explosive Discharge and Conductivity II) : Ability, cannot be targeted, centred around the Bard, does 5d10 Lightning and 5d10 Fire, on enemies failing a save (at -5) it does an additional 5d10 Lightning and 5d10 Fire and Stuns them for 6 seconds. The Conductor automatically takes damage of 5d5 Lightning and 5d5 Fire, no Saves allowed.

Disadvantages
- Bard Song disables the Conductor's spellcasting and bardsong (ie prevents multiple untap-tap in the same round to spam damage)
- Bard Song sets the Conductors movement speed to half of normal. This effect overrides Haste of any sort
- Bard Song requires Conductor to make a successful Save vs Spells at +3 bonus or he takes equal damage from his song
- may not use any weapons except Short Sword and Daggers
- may not have Proficiency Points in any weapon style except Single Weapon Style

Conductor Special Spells
- these are mainly for flavor, I don't think they're really all that overpowered
- not all may be implemented, but frankly they shouldn't be difficult at all to implement

Level 1 - Electric Surge : basically Magic Missile that does Lightning Damage, +1 damage per missile over magic missile (will be skipped if right graphics cannot be found)
Level 2 - Electric Beam : basically Aganazzar's Scorcher doing Lightning Damage and lasts a bit longer
Level 2 - Lightning Glyph : identical to Cleric spell Glyph of Warding
Level 3 - Lightning Shock : single target Lightning Bolt, target requires a Save vs Spells or stun for 12 seconds
Level 4 - Conducting Chain : same as normal Chain Lightning, but 2 levels lower.
Level 5 - Lightning Storm : same as Druid spell Call Lightning but fires bolts twice as fast and is usable indoors
Level 6 - Conductive Surge : single target spell. -4 to Save vs Spells, -x% Lightning Resist, -x% Fire Resist. in some sense, similar to a specialised spell trigger with 1 Greater Malison and 2 Lower Resistance

If the spells work as designed, you should find your Conductor using predominantly Lightning-based damage spells.

This looks really promising! I am looking forward to seeing this and the cleric-thief!

Interesting! I'm not usually a fan of bards, but this is definitely something different. When I was reading the disadvantages, I was thinking that these were some pretty stiff disadvantages, but the extra spells are pretty powerful, all in all, I'd say the balance was good. And I don't say that about a lot of kits.

If I were to make a suggestion, though, I might consider expanding the available weapon proficiencies a bit, maybe to include other one-handed weapons and implement an armor restriction. Putting a chainmail-wearing bard in the middle of all that electricity is just asking for trouble. Studded leather, regular leather, and hide would all be non-conductive.

Glad you like the idea if this were not BG2, I'd readily implement what you suggest, because I totally agree with most of the stuff you said, especially about the Studded Leather.

However, in BG2 there's a lot of powerful weapons already available in BG2, not least in Short Swords and Daggers. Allowing proficiencies in other would actually open up a good amount of power, especially in areas like Long Swords, Katanas, etc.

Likewise, unfortunately, BG2 has the most "bardic" pieces of armor in the game being Chainmail. So I mean, I dislike throwing away those armor on a regular basis (because frankly, I think the original bard is fairly useles...) , but seriously it would totally irritate me to throw away Bard armor when I have a Bard in the group, know what I mean? ^^;;

Off the side note, the main draw of the class should not be the spells. The Bardsong should become more and more incredibly useful at higher levels

Edited by Zyraen, 14 June 2010 - 09:00 AM.

First round of testing this is the level 14 version btw, doing 2d6 fire and 2d6 lightning.

Edited by Zyraen, 14 June 2010 - 10:41 AM.

I have given some thought and decided Conductor should be a separate installation from Hidden Kits. I think it deserves that much
On playtesting, have found that the lightning effect triggers after 6 seconds, so there's no fear for the tap-untap abuse.
However, there is a need to implement a "break invisibility" effect so the Conductor will be revealed when he sings his bardsong, otherwise its too cheesy.

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I was fiddling about with ideas for 2 upgrades to Lightning Fury... this is what I got. Its pretty nifty I think, and it might not look powerful initially, basically it is a self-propagating version of Chain Lightning :

Lightning Wrath
Lightning Wrath releases a surge of lightning at every enemy within the caster's sight.
For every target struck by Lightning Wrath, they take lightning damage and have a certain
chance of casting Lightning Wrath at every enemy of the Caster within their sight.
The first strike has a chance of stunning a target for 12 seconds that fails a Save vs Spells.
The first strike does 4d6 damage and has 75% chance of spawning another wave,
the second strike does 2d6 damage and has 50% chance of spawning another wave,
the third strike does 1d6 damage and has 25% chance of spawning another wave,
the fourth strike does 1d3 damage and has no chance of spawning another wave.
Note that the Caster takes 5d6 damage immediately and is stunned for 6 seconds.

Lightning Tempest
Lightning Tempest releases a surge of lightning at everyone within the caster's sight.
For every target struck by Lightning Tempest, they take lightning damage and have a certain
chance of casting Lightning Tempest at everyone (inclusive the Caster) within their sight.
The first strike has a chance of stunning a target for 12 seconds that fails a Save vs Spells.
The first strike does 4d6 damage and has 75% chance of spawning another wave,
the second strike does 2d6 damage and has 50% chance of spawning another wave,
the third strike does 1d6 damage and has 25% chance of spawning another wave,
the fourth strike does 1d3 damage and has no chance of spawning another wave.

Note : it applies to "within the Caster's Sight" as opposed to "visible to the Caster"

==========

Now, it may not look like much, but check out these numbers based on Excel Spreadsheet (yes the math is that complex)

Lightning Wrath
vs 3 opponents : 12 - 68 damage per target, avg 40 damage
vs 5 opponents : 26.5 - 136.5 damage per target, avg 81.5 damage
vs 10 opponents : 128.69 - 544.5 damage per target, avg 336.5 damage
(Assuming all opponents are within sight of each other, have 0% Electrical Resistance, do not die, and the 75/50/25 works exactly as it is stated.
Actual results may vary TREMENDOUSLY due to the 75/50/25, and of course, enemy death)

The strongest ability, Lightning Tempest, is much the same, with one difference - your party members are targeted, and the Conductor takes no (immediate) damage on casting. So, why should anyone in their right mind upgrade from Lightning Wrath to Lightning Tempest?
Simple - it "transforms" your own party members (and the Conductor himself) into basically, Enemies.
Yes they take damage, but the net result is that more Lightning goes off, and more damage is dealt (to everyone).

I will go home and try to create and fiddle this abillity "live" into a scroll, that'll be technical implementation.

But feedback, thoughts? I'm considering making the 2 HLA upgrades an optional installation with Conductor.

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For those wondering at the Math, it works like this (based on Lightning Wrath)

Conductor with 10 opponents casts LW, each opponent takes 4d6 damage from the LW cast at them.
Out of 10 LWs cast at 75% propagation, 7.5 (statistically) re-cast LW.
Since they can all see each other, 9 LWs are created from each re-caster, 1 at each opponent.

Each opponent is now struck by 7.5 LWs, each doing 2d6 damage, approx 15d6 damage.
Since 9 x 7.5 = 67.5 LWs created, at 50% propagation, there are now 33.75 LWs recast.

Each opponent is now struck by 33.75 LWs, each doing 1d6 damage, approx 33.75d6 damage.
Since 9 x 33.75 = 303.75 LWs created, at 25% propagation, there are now 75.94 LWs recast.

Each opponent is now struck by 75.94 LWs, each doing 1d3 damage, approx 75.94d3 damage.

So that's 4d6 + 15d6 + 33.75d6 + 75.94d3 for 10 person.

Of course, if it works properly, the ability should "propagate" across the battlefield ( say Oasis) and damage most of the enemy before you ever see them.

The beauty of Lightning Tempest is that by increasing the number of "enemies", the damage done is increased tremendously (if your party doesn't die...) especially in Boss Fights where there are relatively few opponents. On other hand, Abazigal might be an ub3r cakewalk, except of course he has Lightning Resistance.