Damage taken with no reason?!

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 2:30 pm

Hi there.

I'm facing a curious problem: my cleric/mage is constantly taking damage with no apparent reason.

Any suggestions? Has anyone face this problem before? Is there anything can be done to eliminate this inconvenience?

One more thing: is there anything else apart from intelligence affecting whether a mage should or shouldn't fail at copying his spells in his book?

Cheers

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 2:52 pm

If your not poisoned, hit by bolts / arrows of biting, diseased or walking around in the room of blood and spikes I can't answer the first one.

About the second question: No, as far as I know of course.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:11 pm

Oh, no. I'm not poisoned, nothing so dramatic happens... The first time was inside the Shadow Thieves guild house; the second while walking on the street; and the third just after copying some spells on his mage book.

I don't know what's happening, but it's a bit annoying for the mere reason he has rather low points and I don't want to see it happen during some tough battle...

About the second: my necromancer has digestion problems with divination spells

He fails to copy some of them despite the potions of genius I'm giving him. His intelligence is raised to 20 and he stubbornly denies to learn them (his normal stat., by the way, is 16).

Maybe I would better use a whip.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:16 pm

what is the school opposite necromancy. if it is divination, that is the problem although I'm sure divination's opposite school is conjuration.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:24 pm

It's illusion/phantasm. In that case, there is no way he can copy the spells, not even to try it.

I think it's time I took the whip!

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:26 pm

But you can;t even choose to wright the scroll of an opposite school.
About the damage, my only guess is poison or maybe traps!

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:39 pm

Hmmm, a specialist is a different matter than a mage is. The original rules say that you get +15% in your specialist school and -15% in all other accessible schools when learning spells. If Bioware implemented this, this would explain the issue. Between 19 and 23 INT a mage's chance ranges from 95 to 99, a repeated failure is possible but quite unlikely, so I guess the above mentioned rules could apply. I've also experienced problems with Edwin that were outside the statistical range for mages.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:41 pm

Originally posted by Stilgar
About the damage, my only guess is poison or maybe traps!

Shouldn't there be a sign indicating poison? And which traps? In the middle of Promenade?

Is there any possibility to be bug or something? He was created in a mutli-game, following Phantom Lord's instructions.

Mmmm... Let me think about it... Maybe it's all his fault!

Aubrey (just kidding!)

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 4:50 pm

Aubrey,

There is something wrong with your character and/or save game file. It occurred to me that it could be due to a 'vestigle familar dying or a 'phantom beserker rage' ending. If you mess with character files, editors (etc.) you have to expect that it may not work 100% of the time.

Memorising scrolls - The game's percentile dice rolls are extremely suspect. I've had a straight mage with 99% chance to learn fail 5 times in a row. That's 5 rolls of 100% in a row. If I had done that in a casino I'd be a millionaire. - Curdis !

Lykwid · Post by **Lykwid** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 5:52 pm

Shot in the dark here , are you useing the spirit armor buff? When it wears off you lose some hps.

-Lykwid

samcu · Post by **samcu** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 6:19 pm

Can't help you with the first one. Maybe you should look at the script for any clues...

Lowering the difficulty to the lowest with copy spells without fail. If you still can't do it in the lowest difficulty, then you are 100% bug!

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 2:40 am

I'd suggest two simple tests.

Test one: Remove all equipment from char in question, rest, save, exit game, start game, load saved game and see if it still happens. If it happens, your char is highly probable screwed.

Test two: Consume potions of genius 'til INT reaches 25 and learn a truckload of necromancy spells. If any necromancy spell fails, something is wrong. This is also a good opportunity to see if spells from other schools fail and necro doesn't with INT 25. If you lack necromancy spell scrolls, SK them and simply delete SKed save afterwards.

And btw, is that character or game in any way treated with SK, custom scripts, innoficial patches or the like?

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:30 am

@ Lykwid: You're right! I've used a lot of spirit armor and that's probably the cause. Many thanks for pointing this out! I'll check it to be 100% sure.

@ Curdis: I know what you mean. The first time through the game (with ToB not installed) all worked just fine. However, from the second time and on (ToB and official + Baldurdash patches installed) problems started. Such as often crushes, dialogues remain unfinished and hang, etc.

That's the reason I removed the whole thing and reinstalled the whole game (SoA & ToB) adding only what I needed: SoA & ToB official patches. Is there any way some of the old patches to be still somewhere there, and thus causing troubles? And how can I check this?

@ samcu: I'm not good in reading scripts, but lowering the difficulty isn't such a bad idea.

@ Phantom Lord: I'll do the first test as you suggest and see what happens --I'm such an idiot that I haven't thought it myself!

About the second: he has no problem in learning spells in general. It has happened only with divination spells. For example, he has failed twice in copying Oracle, and twice yet in copying Detect Illusion. At that time his intelligence was raised to 23!!

About SK: I know, you suggested me to use it in order to give my newly created character approximately same experience with the f/t I would take out, but I didn't do it. (My c/m started from the very begining and is a bit weak in comparison to the rest of the group.)

As for the unofficial patches, there is only one running at present: the Happy Script; and that for I didn't want Korgan fight with Anomen and leave my party. I don't think it can cause such a mess, can it?

Cheers

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:40 am

Only INT 24 or 25 and failing necromancy can actually prove that the spell or the script or the engine or anything else is bugged (in case the core rules are implemented). If you mange to have INT25 and a 15% bonus on the dice roll (luck and the like) and fail the learning, then there is a bug too.

About love, peace and hapiness in the crew: As a software QA professional I'd say it is possible that a script causes the game to behave weird but it's very unlikely. As a BG II player and card carrying Anomen-hater I'd say remove the script and let Korgan whack Anomen for fun.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:48 am

@ Phantom Lord: Their conversations are hilarious. Viewing it from a more serious point, I'd say Korgan has his own unique philosophy about the world (it's the first time I've decided to keep him for good!) and it's not that "evil" at all.

Maybe Korgan justifies the saying, "There is no pure black, no pure white!"

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 4:11 am

Korgan is the most funny NPC IMHO, but my guess is he's jet black CE. The only thing I could say in his favor that he's already beyond the line of good/evil, he's an outright sociopath. Do you know the dialogue between him and Viconia about the neighbourhood of his clan and her city? It's e.v.i.l.! I also love the story about his former party, especially with the knowledge of Korgan's personal quest (the book). Fun was had by all, Korgan rules big time.

Aubrey · Post by **Aubrey** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 9:11 am

We're going off topic here, but a couple words before Buck give us some angry look.

No, I haven't experienced the lines between Korgan and Viconia --I don't much like her attitude. But when he talks with Anomen, he makes him seem so idiotic fool about all his righteousness staff etc! Perhaps that's what Anomen is, after all.

However, his raising wisdom (16) due to his title ("Sir", pray you) seems so unfair! For that's what Anomen lacks, after all: wisdom!

Cheers

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 2:27 pm

Final off topic answer in this thread, I swear ...

... well, Viccy mentions that her city of birth lies close to the Bloodaxe clan controlled grounds and asks if he knew about her city.

Korgans answers that he usually kills everything on first sight "if it moves", but drows were a different matter because he enjoys to torture them "a few days" before killing them. And that besides that he enjoyed obliterating the city in question.

Rather deep dark black ...

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:54 pm

back ON topic

I just came across my BG 1 manual (shouldn't matter, I hope) and decided to check the thief modifications for my halflig f/t, quite good btw. It also says the following on learning spells: If you attempt to learn a spell of a higher level than you can cast, there is a cumulative 10% decrease of your learning chance per level of the spell above your casting level. This at least explains my problems whith Edwin.

Could it be that the spell in question (Oracle I think) was too high for your char?

Curdis · Post by **Curdis** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 4:39 pm

@Aubrey,

It helps if you delete the folder that the previous install was in (you of course therefore need to make a seperate folder for saved games and characters). Instaling into existing folders (especially if you have played with mods and overrides can have unpredicable results).

@Phantom Lord,

I had forgotten the 'higher level' adjustment, well spotted. I'll have to read my BG1 manual more often and carefully. - Curdis !