2 replies to this topic

[temnix]

Here is a little plot I might make into a quest at some point. The BG party encounters an experimenting wizard who promises the main character, if he is a wizard or sorcerer as well, great power with a price. He wants to extract magical energy from his body and contain it in an item - a talisman. Usually a talisman is a staff or a ring. There the magic will be free of impurities, and the protagonist will receive powerful bonuses like an extra spell per level and maybe more, but he will be forever tied to that talisman. When he wields it, he can do more than others; without it, he is nothing.

 

There are many examples of this sort of thing in fantasy and fairy tales. The one that sticks in my mind is Thoth-Amon's ring in Robert Howard's Conan stories; the Stygian spent years as a slave after rivals stole the talisman, and once he got it back, he instantly recovered his power. And then there is Dradeel in BG and his spellbook. Why is it so important to him? "Without it, I am the pauper that stands before you." Surely the party could spare some scrolls. Anyway, the mage who does this for - or to - the main character will abscond with the item, naturally, and the party will have to track him down to recover the ability to use magic.

 

The idea is to offer players this option for radically transforming their character. When the staff or ring is wielded, spellcasting will be enabled and augmented; once it's taken off, it should be disabled, and so on any number of times. As far as mechanics are concerned - in the real world - I'd like to know whether it's possible to "cut into" a spell's duration for a time without actually dispelling it? Can it be suppressed?

 

I thought I could achieve something like this with a repeating EFF that disables wizard spells every 6 seconds; I had an NPC cast it. The talisman (ring) had another repeating EFF to Remove Effects of the first one. But that didn't work. The spell icons never came back on. Maybe I did something wrong there. Anyway, I decided to make it simpler and just Disable Button (Select spell) with that Permanent repeating disabling spell and Enable Button + Protection from the first spell on the ring. I would like this Protection to work as a shield for as long as the talisman is worn; but once it's off, I want the disabling EFF to kick in again.

 

It's not working so far. The button flickers off and then on again when the EFFs compete for effect, and the Protection doesn't do anything for the spell that's already on the character. It's not suppressing it. I could have a complete dispel in there upon putting on the ring, but then the disabling spell would have to be cast again by something or someone.

 

See the problem?

Edited by temnix, 24 March 2017 - 07:30 PM.

[GeN1e]

I suppose, make the EFF apply 146 and make the item immune to the latter's resource.

[subtledoctor]

I just did something very much like this to allow Dakkon's Zerth Blade to give you the extra spell slots for 60 seconds after you unequip it. I think this would work:

- Add three equipping effects to the item:
-- opcode 321, timing mode 2, cancels SpellB
-- opcode 146, timing mode 2, casts SpellA
-- opcode 206, timing mode 2, protects against SpellB

- SpellA has 2 effects:
-- opcode 146, timing mode 1, casts SpellB
-- opcode 146, timing mode 4, duration 6, casts SpellA (yes, itself)

- SpellB has the following effects:
-- opcode 321, timing mode 1, cancels SpellA
-- all of your "disable dpellcasting" effects (opcodes 144, 145, whatever you are using) with timing mode 9

EE v1.4 or higher required. Bonus: no repeating .EFFs from buggy opcode 272!

You'll need to cast SpellB on the character when the transformation occurs. I would use the "disable button" effects, and not the "disable spellcasting" effect, since the latter tends to (I think) wipe out memorized spells in addition to disabling casting. Or maybe just quickspells. I forget.