What do you know about Moonblades?

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 2:53 am

I consider learning how to create custom items and then create a Moonblade for my Elven Fighter/Mage (Bladesinger). Some background information would be nice, though.

What do you know about Moonblades?

I suppose they are most often Long Swords. What about type of Damage? Magical? Extra Damage vs undead? Bonus to AC? And which To Hit bonus? +3? More?

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 3:27 am

Do you have BG or Shadow Keeper, to see Xans moonblade. If so then, just make it even cheesier. Since BG2 does have a lot of cheesy weapons.

EDIT- The image is MISCB3, although its unusable and has no present function. More a prop

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 3:45 am

Originally posted by Astafas
I consider learning how to create custom items and then create a Moonblade for my Elven Fighter/Mage (Bladesinger). Some background information would be nice, though.

What do you know about Moonblades?

I suppose they are most often Long Swords. What about type of Damage? Magical? Extra Damage vs undead? Bonus to AC? And which To Hit bonus? +3? More?

From what I read in Elaine Cunningham's Songs & Swords books, Moonblades are magical swords useable only by and bound to their chosen successors (usually elves). Each wielder adds another power when he/she takes it up - so each moonblade is not necessarily the same as the others. Ms. Cunningham mentions that a Moonblade won't allow you to harm an innocent, and implies evil characters can't wield them.

Your basic Moonblade would be something like Xan's, with AC, THACO, and damage bonuses, resistance to one or more elements, some special once/day properties, and of course, would glow pretty colors.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 6:24 am

Thanks to both of you.

Any ideas on how to incorporate the sword in the story? Could Gorion have kept the sword in Candlekeep without telling you? Or if you did get it in BG1, how come Irenicus didn't take it from you? Hmm, maybe it could be given to you by that Genie instead of Sarevok's sword...

Jaesha · Post by **Jaesha** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 8:58 am

Elhan would give it to you after accepting the task of killing Bodhi.
But only if you were an elf, naturally...

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 9:21 am

Originally posted by Jaesha
Elhan would give it to you after accepting the task of killing Bodhi.
But only if you were an elf, naturally...

Where would he have gotten my heirloom from? The chance of him having the blade that can only be drawn by me seems soemwhat small...

Nae'run · Post by **Nae'run** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 9:48 am

That was one ****ing good post UncleScratchy

Where can you find information like that?

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Wed Aug 21, 2002 12:53 pm

Great info, Scratchy! Thanks!

I actually have read all Cunningham's books but did not remember as much.

As for alignement, most Elves are chaotic good, so I suppose that would work too.

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Thu Aug 22, 2002 6:25 am

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
In doing so the wielder would forfeit Arvandor (elf afterlife in elf heaven) and would continue to serve the sword and people even after death.

Uhm, this sounds like a curse to me.... I couldn't imagine what effect it should have if applied to a SoA main char, but...
Wouldn't it be interesting to implement some negative effect in that sword... maybe to balance some really great power?
Something like... Permanent death ward, but the item can't be unequipped...
(Yes, I know that what I suggested is almost the opposite to "serve the sword and people even after death")

I'll try another... should the pc be turned in some kind of wraith instead of dying and need a remove curse or something equivalent to return to his normal form?

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 2:31 am

@Uncle: I was just wondering about the meaning of "forfeiting heaven" in game terms!
Nothing important.

(And, no, I never made custom items for BG... only as a DM in pnp)

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sat Aug 24, 2002 12:36 am

Originally posted by UncleScratchy

Serjey: A couple of thoughts on what you brought up. I don't think anything negative should be imbued within the sword other than the chance of it killing someone unworthy - maybe a way around that is to make it so the elven wielder must have certain attributes (possibly a minimum wisdom and intelligence score or alignment) before he could equip it. Not sure if it can be done, but also perhaps have the sword cast death or disintegrate spell on anyone who tries to wield it that is not an elf meeting the minimum equipping stats.

Putting the race and stat restrictions on the sword is easy enough to do, but to really prevent it from being wielded by unworthy characters (such as thieves with UAI ability), you'd have to write a script.

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Sat Aug 24, 2002 5:34 am

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
@Asty: So give us an update on this sword of yours. Have you decided on it's properties yet? Is it going to be a long sword? Are you coming along okay with the item creator program? Need any help writing the story line for the description block? - I promise I won't screw around this time, honestly (just don't call it the Sword of Machiavelli, please). Did you figure out how to make it glow blue? I hope you're not letting your job and family responsibilities get in the way of doing this. One might venture that you are wasting to much time posting to the other threads rather than getting on with the business at hand.

I've so far only downloaded the item creator and had a quick look. It seems complicated... I have yet to check the swords that are already in the game, though.

No family responsabilities, so I'm home free there. Lots to do at work, though, as I'll change company in a week and have to finish up everything. At least that hasn't stopped me from posting, as you've so correctly pointed out.

I want the sword to be a family legacy. Gorion will have to had found it upon rescuing me. Maybe my mother was once able to wield it and then kept it for me (as Elaith does for his daughter in Cunningham's books).

The Djinn in Irenicus prison managed to capture a sword that has my "taint" on it. This is as you know Sarevok's Sword of Chaos. Ideally, I want this sword to be replaced by my Moonblade.

It will be a Long Sword. Could it be done, I'd like to make it a sword that only the protagonist can wield. In addition, I want only elves and half-elves of good alignement to be able to wield it.

I can't imagine a Moonblade that cannot hit everything in the game. Thus it will have to be a +4 weapon. That way it'll still be useful in ToB as well. I'll settle for a weight of 4 and a speed of 2 as per the Drow Long Sword. A +4 to damage seems reasonable. Maybe this should be magical?

Finally the sword should probably have a few special abilities that has been added by my ancestors. The sword is already good, though, so I'll have to be careful here. I'm thinking about giving the wielder one given spell per level up to 6th level. These won't be the most used or most powerful, though, but should reflect a supposed diversity of the earlier wielders. I consider the following:

Friends
Vocalise
Hold Undead
Farsight
Sunfire
Globe of Invulnerability

The sword won't be named Sword of Machiavelli, I promise.

Is it possible to name it "[Protagonist's name]'s Moonblade"?

So what do you think?

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Sat Aug 24, 2002 6:06 am

Anyone has the code for Xan's Moonblade? I need to look at it but simply can't find it...

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Sat Aug 24, 2002 2:04 pm

Thanks for the good advice!

I'll certainly PM you later on.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 2:52 am

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
But as far as making the sword only wieldable by the protagonist - I don't think thats feasible or really necessary. This wouldn't be a very useful feature anyway. Its great for an NPC like Xan who is hard wired into the gameplay but not for a player created character. Also, I was unable to find any Xan scripts that might indicate how the programmers made his moonblade only wieldable by him. Nor could I detect anything in the moonblades settings.

This feature was hardcoded into BG1, so no, it's not possible.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 2:58 am

Originally posted by Astafas
The sword won't be named Sword of Machiavelli, I promise. Is it possible to name it "[Protagonist's name]'s Moonblade"?

Quite possible! When you write the item description, write:

"<CHARNAME>'s Moonblade"

The game will automatically substitute your protaganist's name for <CHARNAME>. Note: It is case-sensitive.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:58 am

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
@Asty: There's a handy color gradient file tucked away in the IEEP Help folder. If you print it out in and renumber the hexidecimal codes with decimal (starting with "0" for the first color) you will have unlocked the secret of the color setting scheme and can use it to change the equipped colors of the items you make. I mention it because I can't remember if Xan's moonblade glows blue when he has it equipped or not.

It does - it had a blue flame animation.

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Mon Aug 26, 2002 4:38 pm

I decided that this kinda item would be worth making, so I modified Xan's slightly. It now has +4 to damage and to hit, a +3 bonus to saves vs. death(might make +1 bonus to all saves), and it's +5 enchanted. But when I did the description I put in <CHARNAME> wherever Xan's name was and when in the game it says <CHARNAME> instead of my character's actual name. I also noticed that the animation on Xan's moonblade is so much cooler in BG than in BG2. It's jsut that the effects don't give the same effect from game to game. What's up with that?

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 10:16 am

Are you using IEEP? Did you check the "Parse Text" option below the item description before saving? Also, the designers changed the animation sequence for flame swords - you'd have to replace it to get the old flaming swords back (not easy to do).

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 10:43 am

Parse Text is now checked so it should work fine. And I have since found out that David Gaider thought the flaming sword effects looked ugly in higher resolutions so he ditched 'em in BG2. But is there a way to get it back? I sent him a message over at the Bioware forums to see if I can get an answer, but until I can get those effects back I'm stuck with my above average looking sword.

UPDATE: Here's the reply I got from David Gaider

"First off, this was not 'my' decision. I am a designer, and that was a decision made by the art team. If someone told you that it was my decision, it's probably only because I was very active on the BG2 boards and I'm probably the one that dicussed it in some thread.

The original flame blade effect was made for BG1... which operated only in 600x400 resolution. That same animation used in 800x600 resolution did not only look bad, it looked wrong. So we didn't use it. If you saw it, I'm sure you would agree.

Why didn't we make a new flame effect? I don't know. The art team decided to create the glow effects, instead. There is no way to use the flame blade effect in BG2 that I know of, and I doubt anyone would want to."

So there's one more thing they decided to leave out, probably because they didn't have the time or want to bother redoing the animations. Oh well. Now I'm stuff with a glowing blade in stead of a flaming blade. I wonder what else, if anything, was left out because of the transition between resolutions?