Changes to Shifter (PnP), Warblade, Shining Blade of Heironeous, Shaman

[CapnQ]

I'm nearly finished with some fairly major changes to the Shifter (PnP) and Warblade classes and some more minor fixes for the Shining Blade of Heironeous and Shaman classes. I think I've finally worked through my last issues, butI still need to do more testing. I thought I'd list the change details here for discussion (if any) and as a head up.

Shifter (PnP)
-----------------
1) New, conversation-based method of choosing new shapes instead of auto-granting them on level up. First, you can choose a "package" from which shapes will be learned. The primary packages currently include the old list from which shapes were auto-grated or a new one with completely different shapes, which has multiple shapes to choose from at some levels. At higher levels, you can also choose a couple of shapes from specialized packages instead of from the primary package.
2) Improved printing of shape details to the debug window.
3) Fixed issue with some properties not working correctly in shifted form (e.g. On Hit property on hide used not to work--now it does).
4) Fixed issue of STR/DEX/CON penalties caused by shifting not being applied in some circumstances (e.g., when wearing item giving ability penalty immunity).
5) Because STR/DEX/CON bonuses are capped at 12 and penalties at -10, it's not always possible to increase or decrease these stats enough to match the form shifted into. Shifter (PnP) has always compensated for this by adjusting AB, AC, etc. to simulate the extra STR, DEX, etc. that should be gained or lost but can't be due to these caps. This compensation is now also applied to skill points and saving throws that are based on these stats. This compensation now also takes stat-boosting items into account (and dynamically update when items are equipped and unequipped).

Warblade
-------------
1) Fixed & Improved Weapon Aptitude Feat:
a) It now actually works (the conversation to choose a weapon has correct options in it).
b) It works differently. There are two selectable feats: the first brings up a conversation that allows you to set your aptitude weapon(s), and these are remembered until you change them; the second applies the choices you have made without bringing up a new conversation. No more conversation after every rest.
c) It is implemented differently: instead of trying to imitate the effects of all the weapon related feats, the appropriate feats for the chosen weapon(s) are added to the PC's skin. This seems to work much better, although it has the side effect that you can end up with both the original feats you chose when you leveled up and the new feats that you mapped them to. For this reason, there is a complete line of weapon aptitude feats that can be chosen on level up (Improved Critical (aptitude), Weapon Focus (aptitude), etc.).
d) It works better for two-handers. If you have multiple Improved Critical feats, for instance, you can map one to your first aptitude weapon and another to your second aptitude weapon.
2) Warblade now qualifies for Weapon Specialization feat at the 6th level as it should (although Fighter and Warblade levels don't stack as they should for this).
3) Fixed issue with Battle Clarity feat where it could apply multiple stacking Reflex save bonuses, boosting your Reflex save up really high.

Shining Blade of Heironeous
---------------------------------------
1) Using Shock/Holy/Brilliant Blade feat when not wielding longsword prints message "Not wielding a longsword" instead of using up one use per day and doing nothing.
2) Shock/Holy/Brilliant Blade now apply damage bonuses to both weapons if dual-wielding longswords.
3) Brilliant Blade no longer applies attack bonus to both weapons if dual-wielding a longsword and another weapon that is not a longsword.

Shaman
-----------
1) Fix Spirit Sight feat implementation: it used to apply a new See Invisibility effect every time EvalPRCFeats was called without removing the old one, eventually resulting in "Effect List Overflow" errors.

[CapnQ]

Here's the much-promised patch: https://s3.amazonaws.com/NWN/nwnprc.patch. I'm still testing, so I may make some small changes later, but I believe it's in good shape as is so I wanted to get it up.

It's in patch form, since that seemed by far the easiest way to apply so many changes, including both added files and one deleted file. I created it using the Tortoise SVN "Create Patch..." option. To use it, choose the Tortoise SVN "Apply Patch..." option. This should apply the changes to your local repository: you can then diff them with SVN to see what changed, and then commit the changes if they appear acceptable.

Thanks.

[Matar]

This is so freaking awesome.

Question. Does the change to the Shifter remove that massive lag spike from shifting?

Also, I have no idea how it works in PnP, but the Soul Eaters level drain is absurdly slow. Is there anyway to speed it up, or make it level drain on an Unarmed Attack? Again, my understand on PnP is extremely limited so I have no idea how legal these changes would be. I am curious though...

-Edit:

After I stopped being lazy I checked it up myself. Again, I don't have a strong grasp on the rules but... it says that it can bestow negative levels on a target with a touch. I'd assume that this would include Natural and Unarmed attacks as well.

[CapnQ]

This is so freaking awesome.

Question. Does the change to the Shifter remove that massive lag spike from shifting?

As far as I can tell, that has been gone for a while (since before any of my changes). Do you still see it with recent versions of NWN and PRC?

Also, I have no idea how it works in PnP, but the Soul Eaters level drain is absurdly slow. Is there anyway to speed it up, or make it level drain on an Unarmed Attack? Again, my understand on PnP is extremely limited so I have no idea how legal these changes would be. I am curious though...

No idea. Not all of my Shifter changes apply to Soul Eater yet, although many of them do. Maybe I'll get a chance to look at it. I mostly fix/improve classes as I play them, and most--including Soul Eater--I've not tried yet.

-Edit:

After I stopped being lazy I checked it up myself. Again, I don't have a strong grasp on the rules but... it says that it can bestow negative levels on a target with a touch. I'd assume that this would include Natural and Unarmed attacks as well.

Do you have an online reference (I haven't even looked yet) or can someone else chime in who knows more about it?

[Matar]

As far as I can tell, that has been gone for a while (since before any of my changes). Do you still see it with recent versions of NWN and PRC?

I actually haven't tested it in awhile I will do so as soon as possible. Perhaps it is gone and I never knew about it.

No idea. Not all of my Shifter changes apply to Soul Eater yet, although many of them do. Maybe I'll get a chance to look at it. I mostly fix/improve classes as I play them, and most--including Soul Eater--I've not tried yet.

That would be nice, honestly. I'll do a small test soon to see what lags exactly. Last I checked, Soul Radiance did by a shit ton though xD
[/quote]

Do you have an online reference (I haven't even looked yet) or can someone else chime in who knows more about it?

I'll type up the whole thing for ya, will that work?

Code: [Select]


Energy Drain (Su): A soul eater gains the ability to drain energy, bestowing negative levels upon its victims. Beginning at 1st level, the touch of a soul eater bestows one negative level on it's target. At 7th level, the soul eater bestows two negative levels with a touch.


[CapnQ]

Do you have an online reference (I haven't even looked yet) or can someone else chime in who knows more about it?

I'll type up the whole thing for ya, will that work?

Code: [Select]


Energy Drain (Su): A soul eater gains the ability to drain energy, bestowing negative levels upon its victims. Beginning at 1st level, the touch of a soul eater bestows one negative level on it's target. At 7th level, the soul eater bestows two negative levels with a touch.


I haven't actually tried it yet, but looking at the code, it looks like the PRC implements Energy Drain as a spell-like ability that executes a touch attack when activated. It probably would be possible to add an On Hit: Cast Spell property to one or more of the creature weapons so that Energy Drain would fire during normal unarmed combat, but it's not clear to me from the description you typed whether that should happen.

[Matar]

I haven't actually tried it yet, but looking at the code, it looks like the PRC implements Energy Drain as a spell-like ability that executes a touch attack when activated. It probably would be possible to add an On Hit: Cast Spell property to one or more of the creature weapons so that Energy Drain would fire during normal unarmed combat, but it's not clear to me from the description you typed whether that should happen.

Well, that was an exact copy of what the text was. And a quick check online shows that all the builds and stuff that use the class rely on the (Unarmed/Natural Attack) thing. So... yeah.

It also doesn't even hint at there being a limit to how many levels you can drain per round. So yeah, that to... from what I can tell, with my limited understanding of the rules, is that Unarmed and Natural Attacks work fine, but you can also make a Touch Attack as well to do it. Seeing as how, you know, all you need to do is touch them.

[CapnQ]

I haven't actually tried it yet, but looking at the code, it looks like the PRC implements Energy Drain as a spell-like ability that executes a touch attack when activated. It probably would be possible to add an On Hit: Cast Spell property to one or more of the creature weapons so that Energy Drain would fire during normal unarmed combat, but it's not clear to me from the description you typed whether that should happen.

Well, that was an exact copy of what the text was. And a quick check online shows that all the builds and stuff that use the class rely on the (Unarmed/Natural Attack) thing. So... yeah.

It also doesn't even hint at there being a limit to how many levels you can drain per round. So yeah, that to... from what I can tell, with my limited understanding of the rules, is that Unarmed and Natural Attacks work fine, but you can also make a Touch Attack as well to do it. Seeing as how, you know, all you need to do is touch them.

Most of the online references and builds I found were based on the 3.5 rules, and PRC is based on the 3.0 rules. Since I don't know how they changed in this area, I didn't know if they applied.

In any case, I'll have a shot at it and see how it works.

Two questions:

1) Some creature weapons already have On HIt properties. As far as I know, if multiple On Hit properties are present, only one of them actually fires. If this is the case, should the Soul Eater Energy Drain property that I'm going to experiment with a) replace any On Hit properties already on the creature weapon, or, b) be replaced by them?

2) If the Soul Eater's touch causes Energy Drain, is the same thing true if you touch them? I.e., should an On Hit: Energy Drain property be added to their skin as well?

[xwarren]

Thank you CapnQ!

Your improvements are great! I like the idea of shifter packages

I'm merging your changes now - edited some files since that revision so I prefer to do that file by file . Your improvements will be included in next PRC release.

Thanks again!

[CapnQ]

Thank you CapnQ!

Your improvements are great! I like the idea of shifter packages

I'm merging your changes now - edited some files since that revision so I prefer to do that file by file . Your improvements will be included in next PRC release.

Thanks again!

Cool--thanks for merging the changes and thanks for the compliments!

[CapnQ]

In any case, I'll have a shot at it and see how it works.

Two questions:

1) Some creature weapons already have On HIt properties. As far as I know, if multiple On Hit properties are present, only one of them actually fires. If this is the case, should the Soul Eater Energy Drain property that I'm going to experiment with a) replace any On Hit properties already on the creature weapon, or, b) be replaced by them?

2) If the Soul Eater's touch causes Energy Drain, is the same thing true if you touch them? I.e., should an On Hit: Energy Drain property be added to their skin as well?

I think I've figured out how to do #1 correctly using On Hit helper code I found already in the PRC. Right now I've got it working so that Energy Drain and whatever other On Hit properties were already on the creature weapon are all working at once--pretty cool.

I've also figured out how to get #2 working, although I'm rather doubtful that it should actually work that way.

One problem I found is that Energy Drain doesn't stack with itself: if you hit someone with it, it drains a level. If you hit them with it again, they are still drained of only a single level instead of a total of two levels. I assume this is not the way it should work?

[CapnQ]

One problem I found is that Energy Drain doesn't stack with itself: if you hit someone with it, it drains a level. If you hit them with it again, they are still drained of only a single level instead of a total of two levels. I assume this is not the way it should work?

I wasn't able to find any official information anywhere about whether multiple Negative Level effects stack with each other, so I just thought I'd note here: they do. The reason I thought they weren't stacking in my comment above is that the first application of Energy Drain was being stripped before the second was applied--I still haven't figured out why, but it appears that, under most circumstances at least, my not-quite-finished-yet implementation works correctly.

[Matar]

I think I've figured out how to do #1 correctly using On Hit helper code I found already in the PRC. Right now I've got it working so that Energy Drain and whatever other On Hit properties were already on the creature weapon are all working at once--pretty cool.

I've also figured out how to get #2 working, although I'm rather doubtful that it should actually work that way.

One problem I found is that Energy Drain doesn't stack with itself: if you hit someone with it, it drains a level. If you hit them with it again, they are still drained of only a single level instead of a total of two levels. I assume this is not the way it should work?

For 1: Yeah, that's so awesome.I thought that for unarmed attacks (Like for a Monk or something) you had to add the property to the gloves or something. At least, I think that's how it's done.

For 2: No, I don't think it works if someone hits you. And I honestly don't think it's worth figuring out anyways xD

[CapnQ]

I think I've figured out how to do #1 correctly using On Hit helper code I found already in the PRC. Right now I've got it working so that Energy Drain and whatever other On Hit properties were already on the creature weapon are all working at once--pretty cool.

I've also figured out how to get #2 working, although I'm rather doubtful that it should actually work that way.

One problem I found is that Energy Drain doesn't stack with itself: if you hit someone with it, it drains a level. If you hit them with it again, they are still drained of only a single level instead of a total of two levels. I assume this is not the way it should work?

For 1: Yeah, that's so awesome.I thought that for unarmed attacks (Like for a Monk or something) you had to add the property to the gloves or something. At least, I think that's how it's done.

That may be what I need to do: I still haven't handled the situation of a PC fighting unarmed. What I've done so far only works for creature weapons. The only other option I can think of would be to add creature weapons to PCs that don't normally have them, but I suspect there are probably too many pitfalls to that approach.

For 2: No, I don't think it works if someone hits you. And I honestly don't think it's worth figuring out anyways xD

Actually, once I figured out #1, figuring out this was almost literally no extra work--just a minute or two. But, although it would be cool, I also suspect it isn't supposed to work that way.

[Raza]

Do you have an online reference (I haven't even looked yet) or can someone else chime in who knows more about it?

Consensus on the 3.5 character optimisation boards on the wizards of the coast forum is that he's right, and negative levels from for example the soul eater should work with unarmed strikes and natural weapon attacks.

Level drain also stacks. Everything called drain/damage stacks, only penalties of the same kind overlap.