Hey all,
I've always thought shapeshifter seemed like such a great kit, but it's been hilariously broken since BG2 came out. The biggest issue was the whole thing with dispelling the paws, but also, that the shapeshifted character didn't ACTUALLY get the bonuses which were supposed to be granted.
Now, thanks to the magic of ToBEx and the glory of the BG2 Fixpack v10, the dispel bug is seriously dead and gone and fixed. BG2Tweaks and Refinements developed workarounds, but these are no longer needed.
So what about fixing the messed up stats? According to the bg2tweaks readme:
Shapeshifter Rebalancing (Weimer)
Please note that this is a legacy component from Wes Weimer's Ease of Use mod. Wes typically designed for balance under the assumption that people would have the Tactics mod installed, so this is probably overpowered for most normal games. The rest of the description is from Wes:
Shapeshifter abilities now create "symbolic paws". When you wield one you turn into a Werewolf, when you remove it you're human again. There are no possible exploits and you may choose whether to put the paw in your on-hand or off-hand. Since your off-handTHAC0 as a pure druid is, shall we say, sub-optimal, I recommend the on-hand. This fixes the bug where the Shapeshifter's paws could be dispelled and then any weapon could be put in their place. That exploit essentially gave you two extra attacks with whatever you wanted, plus all the werewolf powers.
This also fixes a "bug" where attributes of the CRE file for "PC polymorphed into a Werewolf" were not actually given to the PC by the Polymorph opcode. For a normal werewolf:
You Were Supposed to Receive... You Actually Received... Base magic resistance 20% Magic resistance locked at 20% Immunity to normal weapons Nothing Paw does 1d12 slashing damage Paw does 1d6 piercing damageFor the greater werewolf:
You Were Supposed to Receive... You Actually Received... THAC0 of 6 Nothing Saves 1/1/1/2/1 Nothing Base elemental resistance of 50% Elemental resistance locked at 50% Base magic resistance of 40% Magic resistance locked at 40% Immunity to normal weapons Nothing Paw is +3 weapon Paw is +2 weapon Paw does 2d8 slashing damage Paw does 1d6 piercing damage Regeneration of 3 HP per second NothingTo see this for yourself, check out werewodr.cre, weregrdr.cre, brbrp.itm, etc.
The "Rebalancing" gives a greater werewolf shapeshifter the +7 HP per Level due to a fighter with 25 CON (before you just got +2). Most importantly, shapeshifters may now cast spells while shapechanged. Yuan-Ti, Githyanki, Sahuagin, etc. can all cast spells--why not wolfmen?
In addition, the Druid spell choices were a bit weak in some areas, so some Priest-only spells were made Priest-Druid: Sanctuary (sylvan sanctuaries abound), Chant (they got Bless, why not Chant?), Zone of Sweet Air (sounds nature-y to me!), Glyph of Warding (no excuse, but they need a damaging spell here that isn't Call Lightning), Righteous Magic (listen to Jaheira for a while and tell me she's not Righteous ... more importantly, if they're going to tank around they need some extra help).
Finally, 99% of all sixth-level druid spell slots go to "Summon Fire Elemental". You can get a 24 hit dice monster with +4 claws that lasts for hours with that spell. It's so much better than the 7th level "Summon Earth Elemental" that it isn't funny. The other 6th-level summons just don't come close. To give you some actual choices, "Conjure Animals" has been changed to summon two 20 HD Greater Bearweres (they're like Greater Wolfweres). However, the duration remains 4 turns. Do you want Fire Elementals forever or Mighty Big Tanks for a short time? You decide.
Now clearly this mod takes liberties with the ability of the werewolves to cast, plus bonus spells. Can we fix the errors demonstrated in the table without the ingenious but outdated equipping of symbolic paws, and without the unnecessary liberties taken?
Anyone wanna take this on? Refinements, maybe you?
