-Johs-
Posted 30 May 2013 - 03:03 AM
Hey Kwiat,
A suggestion for effects to assign to either psionic items or acquirable (HLA?) abilities:
- Increased concentration. Make powers not interruptable by low damage attacks (capped at 5 or 10 for example, depending on time of availability. Implemented in TobEX, only for non-damaging attacks).
- Make powers harder to resist. Set a permanent aura effect lowering saving throws (eg. -2 for save vs spells), centered on character. (Implemented in Item Revisions, Staff of Command).
/Johs
-Johs-
Posted 05 June 2013 - 07:24 AM
More power suggestions:
It seems to me that the psion needs some reliable damage/protection against high level, high damage&saving throw enemies. So, what about adding:
All the stygian powers - stygian bolt and stygian conflagration (lvl9 I think?), to add a little more offensive oomph, in a different manner than ordinary damage or save-or-suck spells. Stygian veil is a great defensive spell, and more useful in BG2/TOB than oak/iron body. The movement limitation of those spells is likely to get you killed rather than protect you (and quite annoying to play with, since you´ll constantly lag behind the party). Also, immunity to certain things is usually better much better than %-lowered damage, since the enemies in ToB will kill you instantly even at half damage...
Intellect fortress for a tactical defense option, not available to mage or cleric.
Emphatic transfer, hostile - combined offensive/defensive oomph for the telepath...
Telekinetic buffer (if impossible to implelemt as pnp, maybe just a fast-cast 1-round push everybody away). Very useful defense, akin to teleport field for mage.
Contingency. Not strictly necessary since the psion is already very flexible, but opens a lot of tactical options.
Glyph of warding. Don´t know, but guess it could be very useful in soloruns, or without thief in party...
Also, as you mentioned yourself somewher else, psionic charm seems brokenly good for its level. Maybe make it so enemies turn blue, and keep psionic dominion as the only way to get them on your team?
/Johs
Posted 11 December 2013 - 03:09 AM
All the stygian powers - stygian bolt and stygian conflagration (lvl9 I think?), to add a little more offensive oomph, in a different manner than ordinary damage or save-or-suck spells. Stygian veil is a great defensive spell, and more useful in BG2/TOB than oak/iron body. The movement limitation of those spells is likely to get you killed rather than protect you (and quite annoying to play with, since you´ll constantly lag behind the party). Also, immunity to certain things is usually better much better than %-lowered damage, since the enemies in ToB will kill you instantly even at half damage...Stygian powers, they come from Complete Psionic, I hate this book, it made psions too simmilar to mages or even priests. In ad&d I liked most of psionic powers cause they had cool, fitting descriptions, like 'you change molecular structure of an object' or 'you band time and space with your mind'. In 3ed edition it's mostly 'you do this or that' without any explanation why and how. Sstygian conflagration is fine and I implemented it in v.0.3, but stygian veil althou it is quite powerful it's also kinda stupid, you turn yourself into an undead??? Oak/iron body are stupid too but stygian veil is a stretch.
Emphatic transfer, hostileI like it and I will add it sooner or later.
Telekinetic buffer (if impossible to implelemt as pnp, maybe just a fast-cast 1-round push everybody away). Very useful defense, akin to teleport field for mage.I like it too and will make it closer to pnp.
Glyph of warding. Don´t know, but guess it could be very useful in soloruns, or without thief in party...I'll add a 'trap' kinda power but I hope it won't be glyph cause it sounds to magical for me.
Intellect fortress for a tactical defense option, not available to mage or cleric.IIRC it is aoe that lowers magical damage taken? Is magcal damage common enough in bg for this power to be worthy of taking?
- Increased concentration. Make powers not interruptable by low damage attacks (capped at 5 or 10 for example, depending on time of availability. Implemented in TobEX, only for non-damaging attacks).
Contingency. Not strictly necessary since the psion is already very flexible, but opens a lot of tactical options.Concentration and Contingency would both require tobex, which unfortunately doesn't work with BG(2)ee and I don't want to make powers that would work only on one game.
- Make powers harder to resist. Set a permanent aura effect lowering saving throws (eg. -2 for save vs spells), centered on character. (Implemented in Item Revisions, Staff of Command).I want to make seer to specialize in this kind of powers, some day.
Also, as you mentioned yourself somewher else, psionic charm seems brokenly good for its level. Maybe make it so enemies turn blue, and keep psionic dominion as the only way to get them on your team?Change to charm spells/power will be an optional component in next release.
Edited by Kwiat_W, 11 December 2013 - 03:12 AM.
W_GUI - a GUI replacement for Baldur's Gate 2/TUTU/BGT/CA W_PackMule - Your own pack mule for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA, BGEE and BG2:EE
Psionics Unleashed - play as a Psion, mod for Baldur's Gate 2/Tutu/BGT/CA
-Johs-
Posted 13 December 2013 - 02:24 PM
A sign of life! Good to see you back.
A few comments – though I haven´t actually tried the new v03, so this is all theory.
V03 changes: Simple and effective changes, like it a lot. Makes psion really begin to stand apart from mages and clerics.
Stygian stuff and general weird effects:
Haha, yeah you´re right, don´t know why I hadn´t thought of that, but I agree; turning into an undead is conceptually extremely lame. It seems to me that a great deal of the available material suffers from this problem. I´d say, stick with the flavour of altering of minds and molecules (ie Jon, the blue guy from ”Watchmen” – perfect psion 
), and leave the ”conjure something arbitrary out of thin air” for mages and priests. If the canon text books come up short of suitable powers, maybe you should alter the existing ones, or revise the descriptions to something less random and more fitting for the class. I mean, its your mod - if ad&d splat is bad, make something better!
On the specific proposals:
Intellectual fortress:
Hm – I didn´t think of it as magic damage only, I thought of it as all non-physical damage (elemental + magical) - a quick-defense against spells or dragon breaths. Would add a unique dynamic defense to the psion. Doesn´t need augmentation to last longer IMO.
Energy adaption: Making it scale as you suggested would make it viable.
Other stuff:
Maybe make attack roll powers function more like melfs minute meteors – if they last longer, a wasted attack does not = wasted spell. Crystal shard could produce 3 shards instead of one for example…
General balance:
BG2 is full of unbalanced concepts, and still remains a load of fun. Don´t think class balance is that important. However: if an obviously better alternernative is available, you will end up using that exclusively. if the psion gets a protective ability, and priests at the same level get something much better, the psion skill will never see any use. Same goes for individual powers available at same level. If something is waay better, then other powers see no use (ie, charms being superior to other save-or-something skills).
Overall: I really like the way you´re going with it, especially the trying to keep it distinct from magic part. Don´t know if you´re actively working on this mod still, but if yes, i´d be happy to try and provide some more detailed suggestions for specific powers, revised descriptions etc.
/Johs
