175 replies to this topic

[aVENGER]

are you using two separate spells to handle the "True Seeing dispels invisibility but not etherealness? (e.g. one spl for immunities, the other for the 'illusionary protection' invisibility)

Not quite. I'm using a single SPL file with regular invisibility + protection from creature type [ANYONE]. The former can be removed by True Seeing, Detect Invisibility and the like but the latter can't. To the best of my knowledge, this is how it's supposed to work in PnP.

- which immunities are you granting? (I've used 'immunity to all weapons + 100% mr, all undispellable)

I use protection from creature type which makes it impossible to attack the creature physically and/or target it directly via spells. Area effect spells are still able to harm them, but only at half strength (50% resistance to all elements) except for force attacks (magical damage) which deal full damage to ethereal creatures. In general, aTweaks' Fiends usually retreat to the Ethereal Plane when seriously wounded in order let their natural regeneration do its job.

- are you allowing it to attack with non-physical abilities? (I've used apr set to 0 and 100% spell failure)

I don't allow ethereal creatures to attack anything on the Prime Material, neither physically nor via spells. In aTweaks, that's handled through scripting since the spell isn't available to the player.

- for cosmetic purposes I've used a simple "translucent effect", but your effect looks better imo...blur+translucent?

I used blur + translucent + color glow pulse + remove feet circle. Basically, I was trying get the unsettling, ghostly appearance which is described by the PnP source material. Looks like it worked.

[aVENGER]

I think you meant, 'PnP'.

Nope, it's pretty much the same as in Icewind Dale 2. Summoned Fiends are green circled while they can't see the party (i.e. if the party is protected from evil) and when they see a party member (but not a summoned creature) they will turn hostile and attack. I don't think this is quite how it works in PnP, but I really liked Josh's (IWD2 Lead Designer) approach ever since I first saw it on the old BIS forums, so I borrowed it for aTweaks.

Hopefully a consideration for another tweak mod, or future version of this component.

You might have better luck with Demi.

[aVENGER]

A few more screenshots:

A summoned Gelugon goes on a rampage

A Balor's abyssal death throes

Balor vs. Prot. from evil party

Note: Although a Balor has only 13 hit dice, he casts his spells at 20th level, as per PnP. As you can see, this makes his Dispel Magic a bit more useful.

Also, as per PnP, a Balor slain in the Abyss explodes in a flash of light dealing 50 points of fire damage to anyone nearby. However, in BG2 terms, this only applies to a couple of areas: the Abyssal pocket inside the Planar Sphere, Hell (Irenicus' final battle), the Protagonist's Pocket Plane and the Throne of Bhaal (Mellisan's final battle).

Edited by aVENGER, 27 December 2009 - 03:59 AM.

[Daulmakan]

Can't see the screenshots.


Happy christmas, mate. Hope you have a good one.

[aVENGER]

Sigh, Google Sites sucks. Better now?

And Merry Christmas to you all as well.

[Daulmakan]

Yep, can see them now.

[aVENGER]

I've updated the first post with the statistic blocks of all Fiends that have been implemented so far. Also, those of you who have access to the RR Workroom can now find a fully playable Beta version attached there. A small Christmas gift from me.

BTW, here's a last minute addition: summoned Fiends now correspond to the caster's alignment. In summary, Lawful casters always get a Baatezu, Chaotic casters always get a Tanar'ri and Neutral casters (on the Law-Chaos scale) have a 50% chance of getting either. For example, the Lawful Evil Edwin casting Cacofiend always gets a Cornugon, while the Chaotic Neutral Jan always gets a Nabassu. However, the Neutral Good Imoen can get either one of those (50% chance each). For reference, this is accomplished via EFF targeting. Here's a piece of the relevant code:

COPY_EXISTING ~SPWI905.SPL~  ~override~											// Gate (Wizard)
			  ~SPPR703.SPL~  ~override~											// Gate (Cleric)
  READ_LONG  0x64 "abil_off" ELSE 0
  READ_SHORT 0x68 "abil_num" ELSE 0
  READ_LONG  0x6a "fx_off"   ELSE 0
  SET "delta" = 0
  FOR (index = 0; index < abil_num; index = index + 1) BEGIN
	READ_SHORT ("%abil_off%" + 0x1e + (0x28 * "%index%")) "abil_fx_num"
	READ_SHORT ("%abil_off%" + 0x20 + (0x28 * "%index%")) "abil_fx_idx"
	SET "abil_fx_idx" = ("%abil_fx_idx%" + "%delta%")
	WRITE_SHORT ("%abil_off%" + 0x20 + (0x28 * "%index%")) "%abil_fx_idx%"
	FOR (index2 = 0; index2 < abil_fx_num; index2 = index2 + 1) BEGIN
	 READ_SHORT ("%fx_off%" +		(0x30 * ("%abil_fx_idx%" + "%index2%"))) "opcode"
	 READ_ASCII ("%fx_off%" + 0x14 + (0x30 * ("%abil_fx_idx%" + "%index2%"))) "resref"
	  PATCH_IF (("%opcode%" = "177") AND ("%resref%" STRING_EQUAL_CASE ~SPGATE~)) BEGIN  // effect #177: Use EFF File
		WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x04 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "16"			   // param1: 16 (MASK_LAWFUL)
		WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "8"				// param2: 8 (ALIGN.IDS)
		READ_ASCII ("%fx_off%" +		(("%abil_fx_idx%" + "%index2%") * 0x30)) "clone_fx" (0x30) // clone effect
		SET "index2"= "%abil_fx_num%" // kills loop
		INSERT_BYTES			("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) 0x30			 // new effect
		  WRITE_EVALUATED_ASCII ("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "%clone_fx%"	 // cloned effect
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x04 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "48"			 // param1: 48 (MASK_CHAOTIC)
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "8"			  // param2: 8 (ALIGN.IDS)
		  WRITE_ASCII		   ("%fx_off%" + 0x14 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "RR#SBALR" #8	// resref: RR#SBALR (Balor)
		INSERT_BYTES			("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) 0x30			 // new effect
		  WRITE_EVALUATED_ASCII ("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "%clone_fx%"	 // cloned effect
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x04 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "32"			 // param1: 32 (MASK_LCNEUTRAL)
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "8"			  // param2: 8 (ALIGN.IDS)
		  WRITE_BYTE			("%fx_off%" + 0x12 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "100"			// probability1: 100
		  WRITE_BYTE			("%fx_off%" + 0x13 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "51"			 // probability2: 51
		  WRITE_ASCII		   ("%fx_off%" + 0x14 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "RR#SBALR" #8	// resref: RR#SBALR (Balor)
		INSERT_BYTES			("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) 0x30			 // new effect
		  WRITE_EVALUATED_ASCII ("%fx_off%" +		("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "%clone_fx%"	 // cloned effect
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x04 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "32"			 // param1: 32 (MASK_LCNEUTRAL)
		  WRITE_LONG			("%fx_off%" + 0x08 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "8"			  // param2: 8 (ALIGN.IDS)
		  WRITE_BYTE			("%fx_off%" + 0x12 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "50"			 // probability1: 50
		  WRITE_BYTE			("%fx_off%" + 0x13 + ("%abil_fx_idx%" * 0x30)) "0"			  // probability2: 0
		SET "delta" = "%delta%" + 3															 // mark 3 new effects as added
		WRITE_SHORT ("%abil_off%" + 0x1e + (0x28 * "%index%")) ("%abil_fx_num%" + %delta%)
	  END
	END
  END
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

Edited by aVENGER, 27 December 2009 - 06:14 AM.

[aVENGER]

A note on Etherealness and Teleport Without Error behavior.

Upon exiting the Ethereal Plane, a Nabassu or a Glabrezu will try to teleport to the last opponent who had attacked it, but only if there are no other enemies nearby. Note that this only works if the Fiend has actually seen that particular opponent at least once. For example, if you send out a lone scout who encounters a Fiend and dies, the Fiend won't auto-magically know the location of the rest of your party members and teleport to them.

[aVENGER]

New screenshot:

A Succubus' Kiss

In the unmodded game, the Succubus' energy drain ability was clumsily implemented as an on-hit property of her melee weapon. As you can see, I've restored it to its proper place. Note that a Succubus first needs to successfully charm a humanoid male opponent in order to kiss him. Once charmed, a Succubus will keep kissing an opponent until she has drained the very last ounce of life out of him.

Edited by aVENGER, 27 December 2009 - 03:15 AM.

[aVENGER]

I've updated the first page with the statistic blocks for Erinyes, Marilith, Maurezhi and Bone Fiend. Here are two new screenshots as well:

Erinyes vs. party

Marilith vs. party

BTW, Mariliths seem to be much more dangerous now that I've restored their proper 7 attacks per round. However, note that they can longer cast Protection from Magical Weapons nor Stoneskin as those spells aren't in their PnP repertoire. Still, I think some of their restored PnP abilities might just make up for that.

[Quester]

Very cool. Look forward to trying it out.

[aVENGER]

Very cool. Look forward to trying it out.

The new components are currently in beta testing stage. If you are interested in lending a hand, just send me a PM.

[aVENGER]

I've added Cambions, Alu-Fiends, Imps and Quasits to the first post. Although the last two are not real Fiends in 2E, I've included them too for completeness' sake.

And that pretty much wraps up the Fiend lineup for v3.

[Miloch]

Very cool stuff here. I haven't looked at the in-depth revisions but I think I would support anything that brought them at least somewhat closer to their proper PnP abilities.

A summoned Gelugon goes on a rampage

Which one is the gelugon? Surely not the blue yuan-ti looking thing? As far as I could tell when I looked at it for Infinity Animations, only a couple mods added gelugons, all of which used inappropriate animations (slayer, raver or balor). It should really be a more insectile sort of devil, no? I'm not sure what I decided on using, maybe the NWN hamatula, though that is actually a barbed devil (but IIRC there aren't any barbed devils in even a BWP game that I could find).

And are bone fiends actually osyluths? The name would seem to suggest that, but I thought the ones in the game were actually undead, though I did not look at them in detail.

[aVENGER]

Very cool stuff here. I haven't looked at the in-depth revisions but I think I would support anything that brought them at least somewhat closer to their proper PnP abilities.

Cheers! I tried to stick to the 2E source material as close as I could, only making changes where absolutely necessary.

Which one is the gelugon? Surely not the blue yuan-ti looking thing? As far as I could tell when I looked at it for Infinity Animations, only a couple mods added gelugons, all of which used inappropriate animations (slayer, raver or balor). It should really be a more insectile sort of devil, no?

You're spot on, but the closest looking avatar I could find in the default BG2 animation set was the Ice Salamander. IMO, that's slightly more fitting than the Slayer avatar as it looks a bit like the illustration from the source books and also wields a spear:

And are bone fiends actually osyluths? The name would seem to suggest that, but I thought the ones in the game were actually undead, though I did not look at them in detail.

Their LE alignment and the fact the the Baatezu leader in Watcher's Keep keeps gating them in as reinforcements during the battle indicate that they are indeed Osyluths.

Edited by aVENGER, 01 January 2010 - 04:34 PM.

[aVENGER]

Heh, during a playtesting session, I came across a strange situation - an Imp was taunting a Nabassu and desperately trying to fight it due to a leftover Blood War fragment inside the Imp's script. Despite the hilarity, I don't really think that's appropriate. So, I've recoded the Imp and Quasit scripts and made them taunt and fight each other whenever they meet, but always avoid attacking the true Fiends. In fact, it might even be more hilarious this way:

The not-quite Blood War

[aVENGER]

A small update, I've decided to make Fiends immune to curative magic (i.e. the "Cure X Wounds" line of spells). By the rules, extraplanar creatures should not be subject to healing spells which is even mentioned by the default in-game spell description. So, the only way to for Fiends to restore their health is through regeneration or by a (Limited) Wish spell.

On the plus side, Fiends are now also immune to the "Cause X Wounds" line of spells.

[aVENGER]

Here's a small purely cosmetic/RP detail. Although most summoned Fiends enjoy killing any innocents they encounter, some of them do use more subtle methods. For example, the Glabrezu prefers to trick and manipulate mortals into service, as per PnP. Check the dialogue box in this screenshot for a demonstration:

The promise of power

Note: by the rules, a character who Plane Shifts into the Abyss leaves all of his possessions behind. Also, the summoned Glabrezu Plane Shifts along with him.

Edited by aVENGER, 08 May 2010 - 09:44 PM.

[Lollorian]

Please, please, please make this compatible with SR (or vice-versa )

Cheers,
Lol

[aVENGER]

Please, please, please make this compatible with SR (or vice-versa )

It already is.