Nature-type spell mods?

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 7:48 am

Does anyone know where I can find mods to druid and/or ranger spells? Some of the spells are just ridiculously weak. Mists of Eld at level 7 that heals just 25 HP (ok and other stuff) - don't make me laugh. Also, beast claw for a Ranger is next to useless later on when it fixes his attacks per round to two - it should have been a level one ranger spell. Thanks.

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 8:05 am

no help for you sorry... i dont belive that there is such mods.. There is only quite few mods for IWD2...

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:07 am

OK. Thanks anyway. Was wondering why I couldn't find anything - now I know! Maybe I'll try modding the spells myself when I have time.

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:31 am

Okay, done a number of alterations and created a test saved game file. Alterations include the following:

1. Entangle: increased movement penalty modifier as levels increase. I felt that I had to upgrade this as the druid should be master of outdoor mayhem. At the highest level there is a random chance of reducing targets' no of attacks to one. This should also increase the relative effectiveness of the druid's elemental wild shapes esp as most have a single attack per round.

2. Flame blade: increased the base damage and given a chance of flaming burst damae at higher levels. Small random chance of instantly killing trolls much later on.

3. Rainstorm: Increased the damage done and frequency of lightning bolts as cast gains levels as druid should be master of outdoor mayhem.

4. Beast claw: changed fixed 2 hits rate to +1 hit rate mod. Now it is more useful esp if you're playing a ranger.

5. Snake bite: increased both melee and poison damage as caster gains levels. This was quite useless before even in normal mode, so I've also made poison harder to resist.

6. Spike Growth & Stones: increased damage as caster gains levels. Also, made both spells a little different. Growth does both slashing and piercing damage (to suit the animation of spiky plants waving about).

7. Shambler: OK spell in normal (though quite pathetic for level 9)Incorporated random chance for double and triple shamblers after a certain stage (gets higher with more levels). Increases the spell's effectiveness for summoning these meat shields.

8. Mist of Eld: random chance of double healing and a random chance of draining hp (no save, but does not bypass mg resistance) and putting targets to sleep (usual will save allowed). Not exactly mass heal (not meant to be) but the random downside is meant to make it more useful for elves esp drow.

Still working on my poison mist (against which 9+ level druids should immune) and other spells.

To anyone who's played a druid into HOF mode, what did you find sucked and ruled about druids compared to clerics and sorcs? Am trying not to make druids overpowered, so when you have a moment any ideas / comments are welcome.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:37 am

[QUOTE=winter sorrow]Okay, done a number of alterations and created a test saved game file. Alterations include the following:

1. Entangle: increased movement penalty modifier as levels increase. I felt that I had to upgrade this as the druid should be master of outdoor mayhem. At the highest level there is a random chance of reducing targets' no of attacks to one. This should also increase the relative effectiveness of the druid's elemental wild shapes esp as most have a single attack per round.

2. Flame blade: increased the base damage and given a chance of flaming burst damae at higher levels. Small random chance of instantly killing trolls much later on.

3. Rainstorm: Increased the damage done and frequency of lightning bolts as cast gains levels as druid should be master of outdoor mayhem.

4. Beast claw: changed fixed 2 hits rate to +1 hit rate mod. Now it is more useful esp if you're playing a ranger.

5. Snake bite: increased both melee and poison damage as caster gains levels. This was quite useless before even in normal mode, so I've also made poison harder to resist.

6. Spike Growth & Stones: increased damage as caster gains levels. Also, made both spells a little different. Growth does both slashing and piercing damage (to suit the animation of spiky plants waving about).

7. Shambler: OK spell in normal (though quite pathetic for level 9)Incorporated random chance for double and triple shamblers after a certain stage (gets higher with more levels). Increases the spell's effectiveness for summoning these meat shields.

8. Mist of Eld: random chance of double healing and a random chance of draining hp (no save, but does not bypass mg resistance) and putting targets to sleep (usual will save allowed). Not exactly mass heal (not meant to be) but the random downside is meant to make it more useful for elves esp drow.

Still working on my poison mist (against which 9+ level druids should immune) and other spells.

To anyone who's played a druid into HOF mode, what did you find sucked and ruled about druids compared to clerics and sorcs? Am trying not to make druids overpowered, so when you have a moment any ideas / comments are welcome.[/QUOTE]

...there is the WEIDU mod - besides many other things it gives druids some additional spells and much better shapechanging - e.g. an elemental half dragon on level 21 !

.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:42 am

.

btw. I just test a human bard 9 - druid 21

STR 6 - DEX 13>14 - CON 10 - INT 13>14 - WIS 18>20 - CHA 15>16

for support, range attack & diplomatic purposes...

...and by now (mid normal mode) she is really great !

.

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:00 am

ok. will look for the weidu mod to see what is changed. elemental half-dragon shapechange sounds awesome but does not seem in keeping with the nature theme of a druid. i was trying to create some additional summon spells last night. tried to make a nymph summon with ability to dire charm, confuse and cure wounds but had trouble getting it to work.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:15 am

[QUOTE=winter sorrow]ok. will look for the weidu mod to see what is changed. elemental half-dragon shapechange sounds awesome but does not seem in keeping with the nature theme of a druid. i was trying to create some additional summon spells last night. tried to make a nymph summon with ability to dire charm, confuse and cure wounds but had trouble getting it to work.[/QUOTE]

...weidu has completly new and more powerfull shapeshanges !

.

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:14 am

Damage created by Firestorm spell should be increased.. in normal that spell was realy good killer but in HoF well almost pointless.. Spells like spiked growth and such... those damage should be bigger too..

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:47 am

Agree that firestorm should be harder hitting. Now I've got to figure out how to amend the druid spell list. I don't want to affect the cleric spell versions so much as I think that the cleric is already more effective than the druid in HOF.

I've upgraded Spike Stones to deal 2d10 piercing damage per round with 5% chance +2d10 at its highest level like a crit hit (i think I set the highest level to level 26). Not sure if that is a bit overpowered at the moment esp when stacked. Balancing things is a bit tricky.

Was working on upgrading druid versions of tremor, whirlwind (these two are so disappointing) and tidal wave, but was unsure how to do it so that the druid is not ridiculously powerful.

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:00 am

hmm.. even with all those improments.. Druids cant beat sorcerer casting Wail of Banshee..

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:25 am

My newer version of whirlwind will close that gap a little. I do intend to keep the sorc/ wiz as the uber-caster of mass death. But after I'm done I hope to make the druid a good alternative. Nature theme underlies the mods I've done and am going to do. Powerful, unpredictable and hard to control - whirlwind is a good example of that in practice since you don't know where it's going to go.

Vanion · Post by **Vanion** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:58 am

[QUOTE=Wrath-Of-Egg]hmm.. even with all those improments.. Druids cant beat sorcerer casting Wail of Banshee..[/QUOTE]

True, but they get double the HP, a better attack bonus, a range of useful summons and all of the healing spells as alternatives. Mages will always be the most destructive force in a battle, but the divine caster classes have all kinds of useful tricks you can use.

Heidrek · Post by **Heidrek** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:51 pm

I've got a Fighter8/Druid16 at the moment in HoF mode. What rocked is his ability to Heal himself, and Finger of Death opponents. What sucked is that you can achieve much the same effect from Fighter/Cleric. Also the Shapechange abilities were just plain weak. Elementals that attack once per round?

The ability modifiers should be a generic bonus with a minimum floor. Bears should give something like +6 str and Con. or 18 which ever is higher and -4 Dex. My fighter/druid often got weaker by shapechanging and I've never used the ability except to get away from a tight spot.

My worst gripe though is that he cant cast Prot. from Evil so if he casts Summon Natures Ally VIII and gets a couple of elementals, they attack him! He also cant cast Ironskins or Stoneskin.

Can you make your own mods without Dalekeeper?

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:29 pm

as for mod idea.... Song that is like Wail of Nanshee... could raise level of bard songs.. perhaps level 28 would be right time to gain that.. or improve older songs..

winter sorrow · Post by **winter sorrow** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 3:18 am

Am using something called DC*** (basically has five or six letters in it's name - prob an abbreviation, but I don't really know). I have Dale Keeper but haven't used it so far. IF I don't figure out how to amend the spell list I might need to create a character and use Dalekeeper to port over the new spells, but don't want to do that. Don't think you can mod stuff with Dalekeeper - you can only amend characters, but let me know if that's not true because I admit I've only used it a handful of times.

Agree that wild shape sucks. Was thinking of applying stat modifier instead of flat stat change to the wild shapes. I think I'll stick to the one attack per round rate for elementals, but enhance their other abilities. I've enhanced some spells to decrease no of attacks at higher levels. This would even things out.

The protection from evil thing I'm less keen to implement. It's only an issue if you don't have the potion / paladin / cleric at hand. Most people brings a cleric anyway. The way I see it is that a high level druid can summon nature's wrath if he or she wants, but takes the risk of things getting out of hand. In practice, you can just summon in the midst of enemies and any elementals will focus their attention on the nearest thing to them. Problem is if they defeat all enemies and then turn their attention towards you. Well, maybe there is a late game use for that wolf shapechange..

Changed barkskin (but yet to test) to give damage reduction as well later on. Not as good as stoneskin or ironskins but it'll last for the duration of the spell. If you want the other spells then you'd have to consider a cleric / druid or mage/ druid (or just use the druid item that casts it). As the spell is not a proper skins spell you could stack the skins spell with barkskin.

yes, thought about bard mod as well but going to concentrate on druid / ranger improvements (mainly through spells). Think that a song like wail of banshee is too strong: you could just cast summons, Improved invisibility and haste and run around until everyone dies. Probably would improve the older songs, give the bard tenser's transformation and other spells. Not played the bard all the way so I am not aware of the progression relative to enemies.

Vanion · Post by **Vanion** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:03 am

The Weidu changes to druid spells mostly got it right, IMO. Their summons seemed on the too powerful side, though not as extreme as their bastard sword changes (Executioner's Eyes as a permanent effect? +5d6 elemental damage per hit? WTF?)

If there was one thing I'd like to code in for rangers and two weapon users in general, it would be extra off hand attacks, as per the 3e and 3.5e DnD feats. Two weapon defense would be utter rubbish in Heart of Fury, just like Expertise. Having someone able to drop 6-7 attacks in a round with a pair of weapons would make it a more viable attack choice.

Bard songs are meant to be about buffing first and foremost. Most effects include inspire confidence and the like, regeneration, AC and damage bonuses. In keeping with that theme, I'd include high level songs which grant elemental resistances (Call it "Whisper in the Wind", "Saga of the Stormrider" or the like), immunity to mind effects, more powerful regeneration, and perhaps even enhanced movement rate.

On the offensive side, the chance to enthral or scare enemies would be a good option...if the "Curse Song" of DnD got replicated in a mod, you could have a limited use per day attack, Will save or take bard level X d4 in damage, or something along those lines. Either that, or you could have offensive songs that used different effects, such as slow, fear, or outright charm.

silverdragon72 · Post by **silverdragon72** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:15 am

[QUOTE=Vanion]The Weidu changes to druid spells mostly got it right, IMO. Their summons seemed on the too powerful side, though not as extreme as their bastard sword changes (Executioner's Eyes as a permanent effect? +5d6 elemental damage per hit? WTF?)[/QUOTE]

Weidu has about 15(?) modules - and when installing you can decide for each if you want it or not...

...from my point of view

- Druid changes

- weapon finesse on magical created weapons (moonblade, M sword,...)

- and no stacking limit

...all make really sense...

...improved BS - goes to far but on the other hand BS in IWD2 are really so damned crappy that EW:BS doesn't make any sense at all !

...so I installed it - but won't use the overpowered BS at all - and the "normal ones" only late in the game !

...and the BG2 bonus merchant also has some nice but not completely overpowered additional items - but they are so damned expensive that you will get them late in the game...

.

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:31 am

As for Bard songs.. yes improments on earlier songs would be nice.. New songs would be nice too..

But in Forgotten realms.. there is songs that can be compared to Wail of Banshee.. How did i get this idea? Well i did read book called Elfsong
by Elaine Cunningham. You dont need to read that book...

But as for Bard songs..

Perhaps song that Stuns enemies for duration of song.. Will save.. (people without ability to hear would be immune)

Then song that would create small Tornado wich would deal 5d6 peircing, Slashing and bludgeoing damage.. For duration of song..

these would be level 25+ songs.. and those told earlier would be nice too..

Heidrek · Post by **Heidrek** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:41 pm

I think that songs that cause fear, stun, slow, weakness or reduced saves, and charm make sense, as do buffing effects like STR and CON increases, Haste and a stoneskin type damage reduction effect to simulate the effects of adernaline rushes.

I'd also like a song that either Deafens or inflicts a chance of spell failure on all casters equal to the Bards level plus CHA modifier to simulate a Bards ability to distract people. Also, songs that can summon creatures might be a good idea.

Bards really do need better songs at high levels though, Warchant of Sith, the most pwerful of them is laughable in HoF. The only one's I use are the remove fear and luck ones, and these are almost the lowest of them all.