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#1 -guest-

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Posted 12 May 2013 - 08:07 AM

Hey Kwiat,

 

Have been playing halfway through bgee with SCS installed, am extremely impressed with the mod. Very well integrated, and a lot of fun. So basically just wanted to say thx for the good work.

 

I noted a few things, which all seem to affect how the psion scales with levels. Adressing them would imo make the psion a more viable and fun option at later stages in the game, and more useful with tactical mods (which I assume a lot of the people who have installed the psionics unleashed are already using to some extent).

 

- psions have no way of dealing with mages. With no way of piercing protective magics, low hp and weak protection against spells, they are basically best hidden away out of sight in most mage fights - especially using mods such as SCS where all mages utilize protective spells intelligently. This problem will become worse in BG2 and ToB, making the psion less useful at higher levels.  

 

- there are a lot of single target powers, which are negated with save vs spell. These become more or less useless already at the end of bg ee, and will become completely obsolete in bg2 and ToB where all important enemies have high saving throws. Adding an option to augment the power of these spells, by for example penalizing saving throws with more pp spent, or letting some powers affect groups of targets will make them scale better with the progression of the game.  

 

- some higher level spells are obviously weaker than lower level alternatives. Cerebral phantasm for example is almost always an inferior choice to psionic charm, and since they both require a save vs spells, there is little reason to ever use the latter.

 

- the high level abilities seem somewhat gimped compared with those available to other classes. 1 int and 15 lore, or extra 15 pp is well ... underwhelming, compared with stuff such as dragons breath, use any item or whirlwind attack.

 

- there are no psionic items. As both mages and priests gain specific equipment throughout the game, this again makes the psion scale less well as the game progresses.

 

But else, very well done. Looking forward to the non-beta version :-)

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 



#2 Kwiat_W

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Posted 14 May 2013 - 09:57 AM

Thanks for feedback, you make some good points. I'll give more detailed respond tomorrow, I'm too tired to flex my brain cells now.

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA

 


#3 Kwiat_W

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Posted 19 May 2013 - 01:30 AM

I apologize for the delay.
- psions have no way of dealing with mages. With no way of piercing protective magics, low hp and weak protection against spells, they are basically best hidden away out of sight in most mage fights - especially using mods such as SCS where all mages utilize protective spells intelligently. This problem will become worse in BG2 and ToB, making the psion less useful at higher levels.  
This is partially by design. Psions are not mages, I don't want them to be able to do all the same things mages can do. Psions know little about maigc and so they shouldn't get anti-magic powers like Ruby Ray of Reversal or Spell Turning. I would like them to deal with mages like other non-magical classes. (By the way, how other classes do it?)
As far as I know psions don't get anti-magical powers in any edition of d&d, I wanted the same fo my mod. Ofcourse I don't want them to be useless in fight against mages, so If more players will tell me that they currently are I will think about changing it.
- there are a lot of single target powers, which are negated with save vs spell. These become more or less useless already at the end of bg ee, and will become completely obsolete in bg2 and ToB where all important enemies have high saving throws. Adding an option to augment the power of these spells, by for example penalizing saving throws with more pp spent, or letting some powers affect groups of targets will make them scale better with the progression of the game.  
I completely agree here. I have debated with myself many times what to do about this. Whether all powers should get penalties to ST with psion level or with power points spend? There are many spells in the game that do not get any similar upgrades, wouldn't that make psions too powerful? Maybe this should be seperate component? (rather not, to much work)
Currently I think about making all powers getting a ST penalty based on psion level, but -4 tops and if any power would need additional boost it would be dealt with separately.
 
- some higher level spells are obviously weaker than lower level alternatives. Cerebral phantasm for example is almost always an inferior choice to psionic charm, and since they both require a save vs spells, there is little reason to ever use the latter.
If there are powers that are obviously weaker than lower level powers (without augmenting them) than I would like to know which power are those and I will try to boost them to make them more competitive. However I do not think Cerberal Phantasm is one of those, charm is a telepath-only power, while Cerberal Phantasms is availeble to all psions. If a power requires specialization in psionic discipline it's OK if it is more powerful than other similar powers. Phantasms may need a boost thou, not because it's weaker than Charm, but because it may be useless at higher levels.
 
- the high level abilities seem somewhat gimped compared with those available to other classes. 1 int and 15 lore, or extra 15 pp is well ... underwhelming, compared with stuff such as dragons breath, use any item or whirlwind attack.
I always play with the Refitements mod, the "1 int and 15 lore" hla is equivalent to similar hla mages get in that mod. Exra 155pp is equivalent to the hla that gives mages and priests _1 spell slot. Psions indeed do not get anything similar to dragons breath or whirlwind attack and I do have plans to add more HLA for psions, however because so few players plays through tob in comparison to bg1/bg2 this is rather low on my priority list.
 
- there are no psionic items. As both mages and priests gain specific equipment throughout the game, this again makes the psion scale less well as the game progresses.
Abeir-Toril is supposed to be a low-psionic world, psions and psionic items should be rare, thus I want to add very few of them and make them feel special. I simply haven't figured out yet what items should I add and what they should do. (I'm open to suggestions)
 
Again, thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it . I ask anybody who is interested in the future of this mod to post you comments about anything that bothers you and to suggest changes or additions for the future.

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA

 


#4 -Guest-

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 04:34 AM

Hey again, thanks for your reply - some comments on each point: 

 

- Regarding mages) Fair point, and I agree with that reasoning. No antimagic does pose an interesting challenge. The self-buffs may be sufficient to enable the psion to survive a magic attack. There are two important exceptions though, which for me at least posed problems: magic energy attacks (magic missile, or especially abi dhalzims horrid wilting) and (ironically) mind affecting spells.

 

For the magic energy spells, all other classes have high enough hp to allow them to survive an attack, or in case of thieves, means to avoiding targetting. Psions have neither. This could maybe be adressed by giving the energy absorbtion spells an extra option to absorb "magic energy" in addition to electricity, cold or fire. It wouldn´t break the feel of the class or the spell imo, but would make the psion less prone to insta-death in key fights.

 

For the mind affecting spells, again other classes generally survive by toughing it out until the spell wears off. The psion generally dies to arrows or or magic missiles or some such while wandering around confused. I know that mind protecting spells become available at high levels, but they will not be avaiable until halfway through BG2. Adding a lower level option of enhancing saving throws versus mind affecting spells, or a protection against confusion would help. From an rp perspective it would also make a lot of sense.

 

2) The single target save vs spells: I think lowering saving throws by level would be a very sensible solution. Most of the other such spells in the game are aoe (chaos, emotion, confusion, hold person etc) and many of them already have saving throw penalties. As it is, the psionic crowd control powers are notably weaker than anything a mage can use. Making the psions single target spells harder to resist would definitely not overpower them by comparison, but maybe make them a little more on par.

 

3) some weak spells (not just because of single target save-vs-spell: 

 

serenity: Useless when you already have psionic charm.

 

psionic dominate: except for longer duration which is rarely needed, its again weaker than psionic charm.

 

Insanity: way inferior to low level mage alternatives such as confusion or chaos. The permanent duration is basically never relevant. 

 

psychic surgery: dispel magic or remove curse usually suffice for these purposes, and have casting times allowing for use in combat.

 

mental rage, brain lock and id insinuation: anything requiring your psion to stand still in the middle of a flock of enemies is a death sentence. Mental rage is mainly useful against kobolds, but since these guys shoot arrows at you, your psion never actually survives. The other two can be useful if you are facing one single tough opponent with low saving throws, but in practice this never happens.

 

4) The HLAs: In my opinion it would be very gratifying to complete a full run-through with a psion. I´m sure I won´t be the only one, once the mod is finished. The HLAs I mentioned accomplish an important thing - they change the feel of playing each class at very high levels. This significantly alters the way the game is played towards the end-stages, adding up to a completely new set of tactics to be employed in ToB. Not giving the psion any such end-game options would in my opinion be a pity, as it is one of the main things making ToB worth playing through despite its somewhat lackluster storytelling. I agree that you shouldn´t just add major damage aoe spells, just to keep the psion on par with mages. But some uniqe twist to employ that are not available to any of the other classes would be a very cool addition to an already great mod. Examples could be stuff such as single round mass charm or single round psionic blast with no save. Or a "confusion field" requiring save vs spell to stay focused as long as you are inside, or an ectoplasmatic cage working like the ectoplasmatic barrier but with much higher hp. Or a quadruble psionic clone. Don´t know, I´m sure you are better at coming up with this stuff than I am.   

 

5) items: good point. For a unique psionic item, something to lower casting times would be extremely useful. Else, it could simply be something to penalize saving throws, or improve the saving throws of the psion? 

 

6) a couple of other things I noticed:    

- the psion lacks a way to attack into a crowd without damaging your own team. Maybe this is by design? In any case, the single target damage spells are quite weak, and the powerful damage dealers all hurt your own people. Some intermediate option for crowded situations would be very useful. 

 

- the ectoplasmatic barrier is a very fun option, but feels a bit weird due to AI mechanics. Enemies tend to target it with spells, or attack it even if the way to party members is actually open. On the other hand, the hit points of a single spike are so low, that it wouldn´t really constitute a barrier if the AI didn´t insist on taking all of them down before proceeding. Maybe this can be fixed, but I don´t know how difficult it would be. 

 

Thats all. Hope it is helpful!

 

 

 



#5 -Guest-

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Posted 20 May 2013 - 05:45 AM

Uh and something else, now that I am already writing walls of text:

 

if psionic powers and magic are fundamentally different, maybe it would be fair to make the thing go in reverse - make psionic powers less susceptible to magic dispels? I don´t know how balanced this would be, or if it is even codable, but it would definitely make the psion-mage relationship less onesided and more unique... I am sure there is something in the pnp rules about psionic-magic transparency that you could chew off. 

 

Cheers, and keep up the good work!  



#6 Kwiat_W

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Posted 21 May 2013 - 03:51 PM

I'll go through D&D source books I have access to check if I can find more protection powers that could be useful. Unfortunately it is difficult in this game to give better protection from mind affecting powers without making characters completely immune to them (which for low level powers would be overpowered).
psychic surgery: dispel magic or remove curse usually suffice for these purposes, and have casting times allowing for use in combat. 
I'll shorten the casting time, I don't think there is anything else I can do to improve it. Does dispel magic remove negative levels? In D&D Psychic Chirurgery has additional usage, but it can't be implemented in BG.
serenity: Useless when you already have psionic charm.
Yes, but again not everybody can have charm.
psionic dominate: except for longer duration which is rarely needed, its again weaker than psionic charm.
I think that the main problem with all those mind-affecting powers is that Charm in BG is too powerful. According to D&D rules It shouldn't make enemies fight for you, but in BG it does. I think it needs a nerf. There are some mods that 'fix' it by changing how the charm spell works, if any of those mods is installed before Psionics Unleashed Psionic Charm will be affected by those changes.
Psionic domination is weak cause magical domination is weak, cause magic charm is to powerful.
mental rage, brain lock and id insinuation: anything requiring your psion to stand still in the middle of a flock of enemies is a death sentence. Mental rage is mainly useful against kobolds, but since these guys shoot arrows at you, your psion never actually survives. The other two can be useful if you are facing one single tough opponent with low saving throws, but in practice this never happens.
I think those powers are good to be used when your power point reserve has almost run out and you know your psion is not going to be much useful after he manifests his last power. This should happen more often when your characters are still on low levels and have small PP reserve. Targets of those power get a -3 penalty to saving throws to give those powers advantage over other with similar effects.
5) items: good point. For a unique psionic item, something to lower casting times would be extremely useful. Else, it could simply be something to penalize saving throws, or improve the saving throws of the psion?
Unfortunately lowering casting times for psions is not possible for technical reasons, to compensate psionic powers have already lower casting times in comparison to spells from the same levels.
Penalizing saving throws in this way is impossible in Infinity engine.
- the psion lacks a way to attack into a crowd without damaging your own team. Maybe this is by design? In any case, the single target damage spells are quite weak, and the powerful damage dealers all hurt your own people. Some intermediate option for crowded situations would be very useful.
Psions having limited number of AOE (area of effect) powers was intended, not only by me but also by the creators of psion class for the 3ed edition of D&D. AOE attacks should be specialty of mages and psions should focus more on single target abilities. (that is why psions get single target insanity and mages get aoe confusion as lower level spell), however because psionic power relay so much on saving throws, or attack rolls, they seam to weak and need a boost.
- the ectoplasmatic barrier is a very fun option, but feels a bit weird due to AI mechanics. Enemies tend to target it with spells, or attack it even if the way to party members is actually open. On the other hand, the hit points of a single spike are so low, that it wouldn´t really constitute a barrier if the AI didn´t insist on taking all of them down before proceeding. Maybe this can be fixed, but I don´t know how difficult it would be.
I'm thinking about increasing the HP but making it so that when at least 2 spikes get destroyed entire barrier will collapse. I hope this will make it less silly.
f psionic powers and magic are fundamentally different, maybe it would be fair to make the thing go in reverse - make psionic powers less susceptible to magic dispels? I don´t know how balanced this would be, or if it is even codable, but it would definitely make the psion-mage relationship less onesided and more unique... I am sure there is something in the pnp rules about psionic-magic transparency that you could chew off.
In theory possible, but at this stage of the mod implementing this would require lots and lots of work and could potentially mess up the power point system. I like the idea, but I hear it about 8 years to late. :)

Again, thanks for feedback. I will think more about the HLAs.

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA

 


#7 -guest-

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Posted 23 May 2013 - 07:10 AM

Haha ok, so obviously you have thought a lot more about these things than I have.

 

I'll go through D&D source books I have access to check if I can find more protection powers that could be useful. Unfortunately it is difficult in this game to give better protection from mind affecting powers without making characters completely immune to them (which for low level powers would be

overpowered).

 

I played a bit around with shadowkeeper to try out the remainder of the spells (I played a telepath up to 9th level). It seems like reddopsi and dispel buffer solve the protective problems I was complaining about, if only at higher levels and for kineticists.

 

In general it feels like the kineticist is better geared towards BG than the other classes. Probably because its easier to convert those powers from rp to computer game, but still something to consider.

 

>> I'll shorten the casting time, I don't think there is anything else I can do to improve it. Does dispel magic remove negative levels? In D&D Psychic Chirurgery has additional usage, but it can't be implemented in BG. <<

 

Dispel doesn´t remove negative levels, only restoration spells do that. But since you´ll need a priest of some type in your party, you´ll always have access to restoration long before Psychich Chirurgery comes into play. So yeah, shortening casting time would help, but it doesn´t really compare with the other 9th level spells without the added utility from pnp... 

 

>> I think that the main problem with all those mind-affecting powers is that Charm in BG is too powerful. According to D&D rules It shouldn't make enemies fight for you, but in BG it does. I think it needs a nerf. There are some mods that 'fix' it by changing how the charm spell works, if any of those mods is installed before Psionics Unleashed Psionic Charm will be affected by those changes.
Psionic domination is weak cause magical domination is weak, cause magic charm is to powerful.<<

 

Yeah, I agree charm is somewhat broken. Short duration of psionic charm feels good though.

 

f psionic powers and magic are fundamentally different, maybe it would be fair to make the thing go in reverse - make psionic powers less susceptible to magic dispels? I don´t know how balanced this would be, or if it is even codable, but it would definitely make the psion-mage relationship less onesided and more unique... I am sure there is something in the pnp rules about psionic-magic transparency that you could chew off.
In theory possible, but at this stage of the mod implementing this would require lots and lots of work and could potentially mess up the power point system. I like the idea, but I hear it about 8 years to late. :)
Again, thanks for feedback. I will think more about the HLAs.

 

Heh, well I haven´t looked at the game for at least 10 years :-) Maybe psionic resistance to magic could be emulated by giving universal access to dispell buffer, and labelling the protective powers as something other than protective/piercable effects. A bit of a hack, but it would create sort of the same effect... ah well, I´m sure you are on top of it. 

 

On a sidenote, if you want to stress test the psion, you should consider using the AI improvements from SCS. They really display the difference between tactics that work, and tactics that rely on the AI behaving like an idiot. For example unlike in vanilla, archers in SCS prefer to target unprotected mages. Thus standing around to cast mental rage usually ends unhappily. The psion-mage balancing thing is also quite obvious when using that mod.      

 

Peace out, I´ll check in once next update is ready :-)

 

 



#8 -guest-

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Posted 23 May 2013 - 07:11 AM

Haha ok, so obviously you have thought a lot more about these things than I have.

 

I'll go through D&D source books I have access to check if I can find more protection powers that could be useful. Unfortunately it is difficult in this game to give better protection from mind affecting powers without making characters completely immune to them (which for low level powers would be

overpowered).

 

I played a bit around with shadowkeeper to try out the remainder of the spells (I played a telepath up to 9th level). It seems like reddopsi and dispel buffer solve the protective problems I was complaining about, if only at higher levels and for kineticists.

 

In general it feels like the kineticist is better geared towards BG than the other classes. Probably because its easier to convert those powers from rp to computer game, but still something to consider.

 

>> I'll shorten the casting time, I don't think there is anything else I can do to improve it. Does dispel magic remove negative levels? In D&D Psychic Chirurgery has additional usage, but it can't be implemented in BG. <<

 

Dispel doesn´t remove negative levels, only restoration spells do that. But since you´ll need a priest of some type in your party, you´ll always have access to restoration long before Psychich Chirurgery comes into play. So yeah, shortening casting time would help, but it doesn´t really compare with the other 9th level spells without the added utility from pnp... 

 

>> I think that the main problem with all those mind-affecting powers is that Charm in BG is too powerful. According to D&D rules It shouldn't make enemies fight for you, but in BG it does. I think it needs a nerf. There are some mods that 'fix' it by changing how the charm spell works, if any of those mods is installed before Psionics Unleashed Psionic Charm will be affected by those changes.
Psionic domination is weak cause magical domination is weak, cause magic charm is to powerful.<<

 

Yeah, I agree charm is somewhat broken. Short duration of psionic charm feels good though.

 

f psionic powers and magic are fundamentally different, maybe it would be fair to make the thing go in reverse - make psionic powers less susceptible to magic dispels? I don´t know how balanced this would be, or if it is even codable, but it would definitely make the psion-mage relationship less onesided and more unique... I am sure there is something in the pnp rules about psionic-magic transparency that you could chew off.
In theory possible, but at this stage of the mod implementing this would require lots and lots of work and could potentially mess up the power point system. I like the idea, but I hear it about 8 years to late. :)
Again, thanks for feedback. I will think more about the HLAs.

 

Heh, well I haven´t looked at the game for at least 10 years :-) Maybe psionic resistance to magic could be emulated by giving universal access to dispell buffer, and labelling the protective powers as something other than protective/piercable effects. A bit of a hack, but it would create sort of the same effect... ah well, I´m sure you are on top of it. 

 

On a sidenote, if you want to stress test the psion, you should consider using the AI improvements from SCS. They really display the difference between tactics that work, and tactics that rely on the AI behaving like an idiot. For example unlike in vanilla, archers in SCS prefer to target unprotected mages. Thus standing around to cast mental rage usually ends unhappily. The psion-mage balancing thing is also quite obvious when using that mod.      

 

Peace out, I´ll check in once next update is ready :-)

 

 



#9 -Johs-

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Posted 01 June 2013 - 03:36 AM

Think i agree somewhat with OP - but in my opinion the problem is straight out, that the psion feels underpowered compared to other spellcasters. A lot of what he does, is done better by either priest or mage.

 

Examples:

Protection against fire,cold electricity: Priest spell gives immunity at spell level 3/4. Psion gets 30% max at 13th level. Simply better to protect him with priest spell than his own energy adaption. Maybe make psion spell convert damage to health to improve.

 

Bend space: mage and priest versions provide more layers + cast instantly.

 

Single target damage: Concussion blast, deals 3d6 at 3rd spell level up to a max of 9d6 (?) flame arrow deals 5d6 pr 5 caster levels, up to a max of 20d6. Magic missile deals 10-25 damage and removes 5 mirror images, etc... 

 

Area damage: mage wins, no competetition.

 

Touch spells: priest wins - harm (no save!) etc, + better ac to actually get close to enemy.

 

To make psion attractive choice, the class needs some area where it really excels compared with other casters. Stuff like schism/clone is fun, because its plays differently than other casters. Teleport is great addition. Self-buffs are cool and could be expanded on - shadow body, timeless body, iron body, etc are things not available to the others, but need to be quite powerful to make the psion stand out in this area. Timeless body is already, but shadow body (although awesome concept) not so much...   

 

Think it is important to remember that BG and BG2 are not balanced as pr pnp. In fact everything is quite unbalanced. Combat is very fast, enemies hit for 15-30 dmg/3 times a round at later levels etc. You are usually outleveled and/or outnumbered. OFten there is no time for more than 2-3 spells before a battle is decided. So the spells you use need to make an impact, especially high level ones. If psion is single target mainly (aka the kensai of spell casters?) he needs to hurt his targets reliably with a few castings. Protections need to really protect, not just lower damage by a small percent (50% reduced damage from magic weapons, eg. psionic clone, still means the psion will die in the blink of an eye if targetted by high level enemy fighter). Movement and casting speed very important, as standing still in front of enemies will kill you, at least in end BG2/ToB.

 

Important ofc to not make psion overpowered, but right now the scales clearly tip the other way :-)

 

Maybe check out spell revisions mod, demivrgvs has put a lot of thought into balancing UP and OP spells...

 

Thanks!

/Johs 

 

 

 

 

 



#10 Marcius Vetrack

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Posted 11 June 2013 - 01:43 AM

I have to say that this mod is that is missing in BG. Finaly, the Psion Class! Amazing! Sure it needs a lot of improvment, and I expect that the owner continues updating it.

Especially to make it compatible with the various mods, and the BWP installation.

 

I notice, however, that the mod is not compatible with the BG Subraces mod, as both iniciate a dialog in the first time you create a character, and the Subrace mode overwhelms the Psion mod, and you can't select your powers, for the dialog to select your discipline not start.

I have to uninstall the BG Subrace mod to use the psion mod, and now, it not working anymore. I reinstall, uninstall, and reinstall, without the BG Subrace, and it not work.

I'm thinking of reinstalling my BG, and the BWP again, to make it work.

If you guys have a hand to give me I be grateful.

Thanks in advance.



#11 Kwiat_W

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Posted 11 December 2013 - 03:08 AM

Half a year has passed without my response, I'm very sorry about that. Even thou I didn't post a replay I took all the feedback into careful consideration and some of the suggested changes made it to v.0.3.
 
Yeah, I agree charm is somewhat broken. Short duration of psionic charm feels good though.
I have been working on changes to charm for v.0.3 but because of some bugs it wasn't included. It will be an optional component in next version. Charm will still allow you to control your target (move it around) but it won't be fighting for you, only domination should be able to do that.
Maybe psionic resistance to magic could be emulated by giving universal access to dispell buffer, and labelling the protective powers as something other than protective/piercable effects.
Both changes made it to v.0.3

Oh, and psychic chirurgery has lower casting time in 0.3.
Protection against fire,cold electricity: Priest spell gives immunity at spell level 3/4. Psion gets 30% max at 13th level. Simply better to protect him with priest spell than his own energy adaption. Maybe make psion spell convert damage to health to improve.
Energy adaptation is weak, I knew that even when I was implementing it, but I thought 'just make it and adjust the numbers later'. the later didn't yet come. I think that 100% resistance for low level power would be too much but maybe something like 40-60 scaled with levels to 70-80 would be fine (with proper items you cold still achive 100). Converting damage to hp without 100% resistance doesn't make much sense, but it may be good idea for another power or HLA.
Bend space: mage and priest versions provide more layers + cast instantly.
It's just one layer less and with v.0.3 casting is quicker (minimum of 1)
Single target damage: Concussion blast, deals 3d6 at 3rd spell level up to a max of 9d6 (?) flame arrow deals 5d6 pr 5 caster levels, up to a max of 20d6. Magic missile deals 10-25 damage and removes 5 mirror images, etc...
There are other single target damage powers taht scale better, thou most are capped at 10dX. Does anybody use ranged powers that require character to make an attack roll (Crystal Shard and Energy Ray)??? I'll think about adding another power (or replacing one that already exists) more suited for taking down stoneskins and mirror images.
Touch spells: priest wins - harm (no save!) etc, + better ac to actually get close to enemy.
I would have to know to which powers are you referring, cause Harm is a 6 lvl spell so naturally some powers can't compete with it.
To make psion attractive choice, the class needs some area where it really excels compared with other casters. Stuff like schism/clone is fun, because its plays differently than other casters. Teleport is great addition. Self-buffs are cool and could be expanded on - shadow body, timeless body, iron body, etc are things not available to the others, but need to be quite powerful to make the psion stand out in this area. Timeless body is already, but shadow body (although awesome concept) not so much...

Think it is important to remember that BG and BG2 are not balanced as pr pnp. In fact everything is quite unbalanced. Combat is very fast, enemies hit for 15-30 dmg/3 times a round at later levels etc. You are usually outleveled and/or outnumbered. OFten there is no time for more than 2-3 spells before a battle is decided. So the spells you use need to make an impact, especially high level ones. If psion is single target mainly (aka the kensai of spell casters?) he needs to hurt his targets reliably with a few castings. Protections need to really protect, not just lower damage by a small percent (50% reduced damage from magic weapons, eg. psionic clone, still means the psion will die in the blink of an eye if targetted by high level enemy fighter). Movement and casting speed very important, as standing still in front of enemies will kill you, at least in end BG2/ToB.

Important ofc to not make psion overpowered, but right now the scales clearly tip the other way :-)
Balancing is a tough job to do and I know I still have much to do in that field.

@Marcius Vetrack I'll se what I can do about the subrace mod.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA

 


#12 -Noobacca-

-Noobacca-
  • Guest

Posted 31 May 2014 - 11:35 PM

Hey Kwiat, I downloaded this mod just last week and it blew my mind! I think you've done an awesome job of it. It's nice to play as something different.

I've experienced a few of the bugs that have been mentioned (the loss of certain spells if you load the game too quickly happens a bit) but one that I did notice was that when I imported my Psion from BG EE to BG EE2, my characters power points don't show up on the record sheet. Not a huge deal as it reminds me how much I have left after casting a spell but thought I'd point it out.

Hopefully you're still working on this and squishing bugs that pop up. If you are I'll try my best to bring them to your attention!

Thanks heaps for your hard work.

#13 Kwiat_W

Kwiat_W
  • Modder
  • 290 posts

Posted 01 June 2014 - 11:06 AM

I'm glad you like it. While I'm currently on a brake from moding, sooner or later I will definitely return to it, so please do report any other bugs you have noticed. Who knows, maybe it would motivate me to return to moding sooner. ;)

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA

 


#14 -JS82-

-JS82-
  • Guest

Posted 12 June 2014 - 08:05 AM

Well, if you release a full version with high level abilities included, I´ll promise to make a full run-through, and report every single bug and balance issue I find.

 

With old age and job and real life catching up to me, I don´t think I have more than one final playthrough in me though, so hope that will eventually be with a psion PC :)  



#15 Illasera The Quick

Illasera The Quick
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  • 8 posts

Posted 03 July 2014 - 01:43 AM

About HLAs: I personally think that every specialization should have at least 1 special HLA for them. Ideally T3-T4 ability to get. If you kept basic HLAs that you've already made but gave special for each discipline it would make them even more distinct and add a lot of replayability for this mod. You may also decide to upgrade just one ability through T3-T4 that would make it nicer as psion progresses through the game and would save you a lot of work from making new ones that could prove obsolate.

Here are the suggestions as follows:

Seer: Each power may focus on different immunity (elemental, saving throws, AC, physical damage) or rather make it more offensive with bonuses to tHAC0, damage, maximum rolls for dice and work either for entire party or a single character (depending on decided approach and balance).

Shaper: This is easy and it may focus on creating better and better construct.

Kineticist: If you don't want to make Dragon Breath-like power then I have no idea :D Maybe Elemental Ball like 3.0 epic spell dealing 10d of each type of energy? Still, it's weaker because in 2.0 there is no sound damage. I think it wouldn't be op for T4 as most enemies in ToB are immune to certain elements. Progression through this HLA could focus on improving dice (d4, d6, d8) for this spell and saving throws to half the damage.

Egoist - Bhaal's avatar ability somehow solves the problem of non-able to fight casters but maybe addressing it in HLA would be a good idea (I'm not sure if you made one already, I didn't play as Egoist yet). Psion morphing into ultimate killing machine for a while and for big pp cost and probably with extra post hoc power cooldown may be a nice posibility as Tenser's Transformation (as far as I remember) never was that strong, which makes Psion even more unique compared to mages.

Nomad - Boy, I have no idea :D

Telepath - Something like Mass Charm with upgradeable ST through progression. Or maybe the way to charm ANYONE (if engine permits) for 1-2 rounds.

About items: I imagine Psions as beings with extremelly strong minds, I think items could focus on improving that aspect of psions to fit that description. Bonus to saving throws is one option. Another option is a (maybe upgradeable via Cespenar) robe for each specialization as follows:

Seer - Aid-like party power 1/day for a couple of rounds. Upgrade makes power stronger.

Shaper - Better AC (3?). Even better AC (1?).

Kineticist - Percental immunity to elemental damage (20%?). Higher immunity (30%?).

Egoist - Tenser's Transformation-like power or percental physical immunity for damage.

Nomad - Ability to avoid death when in trouble (20%- hp). Sequencer-like power that moves Nomad to random safe place nearby protected by Invisibility. Improved invisiblity + heal 20 hp.

Telepath - 1 point higher ST for certain Telepathy powers. 2 point? Or maybe short-lasting domination-like power.


Basic bonuses would be: AC 5, bonus to saving throws: 1. And for improved version AC 3 and bonus +2 to saving throws.

Extra question: Do you plan to add Psychic warrior class to the game? :)


Edited by Illasera The Quick, 03 July 2014 - 01:55 AM.


#16 Marcius Vetrack

Marcius Vetrack
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  • 8 posts

Posted 25 July 2014 - 01:07 PM

Hello everyone! I found a bug in this mod. Psion Class is my favorite classe and i find amusing playing it in a BGT/BWP Instalation. However, i find a bug; The mod scrambles the mage spell progression and/or the Evermemory Ring found in FAI; they don't function as they should, when in conjuntion, staying the mage, or specialist mage, with few spell slots, than they should; i tried respawning the npc (AKA Dynaheir) and releveling it, but it not work; In multiplayer games, with other spellcasters made by my hand, the same problem occours, they stays, with fewers spells slots; I'm using the 0.3 version, in a bgt/bwp instalation; i reinstalled everything, mod afer mod, and testing, and i found that the mod that makes the problem is the Psion Mod; I became frustrated, because i have 2 multiplayer games, where one psion is the protagonist, and the other is part of the party, and I have mages as well along them, and now I don't know what to do with this saves... I'm very sad... please fix this... I also receive the message "installed with warnings" afer the instalation, and I perceive errors during the execution of the batch file. I'm sending the Weidu Log for my instalation of BWP.

 

Attached File  WeiDU.log   22.88K   379 downloads

 

Edit: @Kwiat_W: I found that the problem with the Subrace Mod, is the installation order, somehow, I manage to make them work, and that Welverin Subrace mod is very bugged, but i like it; a shame that it will not improve it anymore; if you know of another subrace mod, tell me and I'll try it.


Edited by Marcius Vetrack, 25 July 2014 - 01:27 PM.


#17 Draeth

Draeth
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  • 14 posts

Posted 28 September 2014 - 08:03 AM

@Marcius Vetrack i play with the subrace mod -> http://forum.baldurs...dated-3-11-2013

you mean this one ?

So it is compatible or not?



#18 Kwiat_W

Kwiat_W
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  • 290 posts

Posted 01 October 2014 - 02:38 AM

He was talking about different mod for non-ee version of the game.

icon11.gif W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA
icon11.gif W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE

icon11.gif Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA