3 replies to this topic

[Salk]

Hello, subtledoctor.

 

I am reading through Refinements' English .tra file and I have a few questions:

 

1) Recitation: does the bonus apply to the caster as well? On one hand the text speaks of "priest invokes his deity's blessing upon himself and his allies" and on another "Recitation is draining to the priest, so he becomes fatigued as long as the spell is in effect." If the bonus applies to the priest, I find a bit jarring the fact that the priest is at the same time paying a price for maintaining the spell and also get the bonus. It would be better (in my opinion) that the priest is fatigued and not receive any bonus while improving slightly the bonus for the allies.

 

2) Tranquility, Volcano and Whirlwind don't list a school. What school do they belong to?

 

3) Divine Intervention has different effects on the caster, depending on their alignment. Good priests get fatigued while evil ones suffer a damage. Considering that the evil version of the spell can already result in a disaster for the evil priests, wasn't it better to have the fatigued state for them too?

 

4) I don't understand some of the text for Dragon's Fist:

 

" When using this ability, all attacks made by the Monk in the next round will remove the target's specific protection (save vs. spell at -2) and one magical protection up to 8th level (no save). The victim must save vs. breath to avoid losing all physical protections. Creatures hit by Dragon Fist must also save vs. death at -4, or their Magic Resistance will be reduced by 19% for 6 rounds." 

 

What is the "specific protection" the target must save for vs. spell at -2? It cannot be the magical protection since it says there is no save for that. And cannot be physical protections because the text speaks of a save vs. breath. Lastly there is one final save (vs death at -4) to avoid losing Magic Resistance. So the initial saving throw is what, exactly?

 

5) Why is the save against Shadowless Kick Breath? Shouldn't it be Death?

 

I might come with more questions as I proceed further in my examination.

Edited by Salk, 06 December 2022 - 03:12 AM.

[subtledoctor]

2) I don't have the files handy so I cannot check. You could quickly install the mod and look at them in NI, though.

 

4) Don't quote me on this (see below), but it sounds like "physical protections" means spells with the "combat protections" secondary type, e.g. Shield, Stoneskin, PfMW, etc. "Specific protections" might reasonably refer to spells with the "specific protections" secondary type, e.g. Protection from Fire, Protection from Magic Energy, etc. And I would guess that "magical protection" then refers to spells with the "spell protections" secondary type, e.g. Spell Deflection, Globe of Invulnerability, Spell Trap, etc.

 

1), 3), 5) - I am not the author of any of this and so I am not qualified to make editorial comments about how or why things were set up the way they are. I only took over basic maintenance of the mod to get it installing on BG2EE and to allow installation of HLAs for individual classes.

[Salk]

Thanks for your answers!

[Salk]

Okay, as I continue reading through Refinements' HLAs, I find myself a bit at loss regarding Nerve Poison.

 

As they advance in levels, assassins become masters of toxins and poisons. Using this knowledge they can create more dangerous poisons, which not only cause pain, but can also disable the victim's nervous system.Nerve Poison has three main effects: first, it deals 1 poison damage/second for 12 seconds. Second, it has a chance to paralyze the opponent for 5 rounds and grants 50% spell failure until expiration.

Finally, it will deal extra damage every round in the following manner: 

1st: 1D6 damage;

2nd: 2D6 damage;

3rd: 3D6 damage;

4th: 4D6 damage;

5th: 3D6 damage;

6th: 2D6 damage;

7th: 1D6 damage.

This ability will last 3 rounds.

 

Requires: Alchemy

 

I am not sure I understand how it works. First question is: is there any save for the target for any of the effects? Because from the text you'd think there is none. Looking at TG#NPOI.SPL in NI seems to show otherwise (some effects do allow for a save vs. poison) and also that the spell file itself attempts to use a non existing resource (TG#NPS1.EFF).

 

Another unclear passage is about the second effect: it speaks about a chance (and the word "chance" makes me think this is the effect against which a saving throw is received by the target?) of paralyzing the victim for 5 rounds and "grants 50% spell failure until expiration". Does it mean both the casting spell failure penalty and the paralysis both last five rounds? If that is the case, the wording is extremely confusing. Also, how could a paralyzed creature cast any spell at all?

 

Lastly, the final effect. What are those "1st", "2nd", 3rd", etc. supposed to be? At first I thought they were rounds, but then again the duration of the effects seem to be 5 rounds?

 

PS - Opening the tg#cri7.eff and tg#cri12.eff files with NI I noticed there is some garbage at 0x1c as well.

 

PS2 - It seems there is an undocumented Slow effect for the Dragon Fist ability.

Edited by Salk, 25 December 2022 - 02:49 AM.