Several tweaks to the way spells work and relate to one another, and several tweaks to the way various magical subsystems work, like invisibility, illusionary clones, sequencers, familiars, and cantrips.
This component allows changes to which spells are in an "opposition school" and thus unavailable to specialists. There are currently seven options, several of which will be available for install depending on which game is being played. (The BG2 options will not be displayed if you are playing BG; the IWD options will not be displayed if you are playing IWD.)
- No Opposition Schools (all specialists can cast all spells)
- Baldur's Gate Opposition Schools (matches BG/BG2)
- Baldur's Gate Opposition Schools, low-level allowed (matches BG/BG2, but up to 3rd-level spells are universal)
- Icewind Dale Opposition Schools (matches IWD)
- Icewind Dale Opposition Schools, low-level allowed (matches IWD, but up to 3rd-level spells are universal)
- PnP Opposition Schools (matches the original 2E Player's Handbook)
- PnP Opposition Schools, low-level allowed (matches the original 2E PHB, but up to 3rd-level spells are universal)
This component changes the school of various spells, to make sure there is at least one spell at each level in each school, and that specialists of different schools are better-balanced against one another. Generally:
- Sequencer spells are moved to the school of Enchantment
- Power Word spells are moved to the school of Enchantment
- Symbol spells are moved to the school of Divination
- A couple other small changes
This component has spells bypass the magic resistance of their target by 5% per spell level above 1st. So a 9th-level spell cast at a target with 65% Magic Resistance would affect them as if they only had 25% Magic Resistance. NOTE: this only affects arcane and divine spells that can be in a spellbook. Innate abilities are not changed, they are all considered to be 'level one.'
Adds a saving throw vs. Death to all level drain effects delivered by physical attacks.
This component makes Mislead and Project Image work just as Simulacrum does, except the clones can use more magic as you go up in level, and the caster gets progressively better invisibility at the same time:
- 5th Level: Mislead - clone is a pure image, cannot attack or cast spells. Caster become normal invisible - NOT super-Mislead-invisible.
- 6th Level: Shadow Clone - clone has 40% hit points and -7 to thac0 and caster level, can cast only 1st-level arcane spells, cannot cast divine spells.
- 7th Level: Lesser Simulacrum - clone has 60% hit points and -5 to thac0 and caster level, can cast up to 4th-level arcane spells, cannot cast divine spells.
- 8th Level: Simulacrum - clone has 75% hit points and -3 to thac0 and caster level, and can cast any spells.
- 9th Level: Projected Simulacrum - cast Simulacrum on another creature. (Illusionists only)
This component merges the effects of Invisibility and Sanctuary (you can now loot chests and open doors while invisible :) ). The upshot is, if you cast 2nd-level Detect Invisible, the caster will be able to see and target invisible enemies but other party members who cannot see invisible cannot.
The Nondetection spell is renamed "Protection from Divination" and improved to actually block any DIVINATIONATTACK effects, like Invisibility Purge, Detect Illusion, and Oracle. A caster of Detect Invisible or True Sight will be able to spot and target enemies who are protected by Protection from Divination - Detect Invisible and True Sight affect the caster, not the target. But Protection from Divination will ensure that illusionary protections like Blur and Mirror Image are not dispelled.
Additionally, the 5th-level Oracle spell is empowered to destroy nearby illusionary creatures, including Shadow Monsters if they are revised by this mod, and Projected Images and similar clones.
Instead of only the last one cast being applied, Haste and Slow effects will now fully cancel each other out, resulting in a net neutral effect if you are affected by both, in any order.
Some friendly spells have their power level set to 0, so that they can bypass Spell Deflection. I always get frustrated when a battle is over and I try to heal a party member, but the Cure Wounds spell fails because their Spell Deflection is still in effect. This fixes that. The spells changed in this way include:
- All Cure/Regenerate Wounds spells and Heal
- Cure Disease
- Cure Blindness and Deafness
- Slow Poison and Neutralize Poison
- Remove Curse and Break Enchantment
- Remove Paralysis
- Exaltation and Spiritual Clarity
- Free Action
- Lesser and Greater Restoration
- Freedom
Component 61 creates 17 innate cantrips. Each day mages can prepare three of them (sorcerers and bards can prepare two) and then you can cast those prepared cantrips without limit.
Component 62 changes 1st-level arcane spells such that they do not cost spell slots, meaning you can cast any you have memorized without limit. To account for this, you will have fewer 1st-level memorization slots and more 2nd-level memorization slots. Some spells are slightly rebalanced or moved to 2nd level to account for this. A benefit of this component is that it will naturally work with existing AI scripts - meaning enemy mages will naturally use these 'cantrips' against you and will never totally run out of spells.
Component 63 gives you a "wand" that you equip in a weapon slot. It has a ranged attack that operates as a cantrip ("Minor Magic Missile") and which allows you to use one of seven other cantrips as item abilities with unlimited uses.
Component 81, "Choose-Your-Own-Familiar," allows you to choose which familiar you want (from a slightly modified list) instead of being bound by your alignment. Currently, the available familiars are Pseudodragon, Ferret, Rabbit, Cat, Spider, and Rat. Each has its own special skills and abilities, and each provides a different small passive benefit to the caster:
- Pseudodragon: can cast Blur, Color Spray, and Cure Light Wounds once per 3 turns. Flies, so is immune to Grease, Entangle, and Web. Caster regenerates 1 hp/round while familiar is out of the backpack.
- Ferret: 90% Pick Pockets skill. Once per turn, can create a small-AoE Nauseating Aura which causes 2-point combat penalties and a 25% spell failure chance in enemies. Caster has +1 CON while familiar is out of the backpack.
- Rabbit: 90% Find Traps skill. Can burrow into the ground to escape danger, just like the Shadowstep ability. Caster is immune to Slow.
- Cat: 90% Stealth skill. Is immune to being revealed by divinations, similar to a thief with a Cloak of Nondetection. Caster has +1 DEX while familiar is out of the backpack.
- Spider: can shoot a Web at a single target once per 5 rounds. Bite can cause 3 extra points of poison damage over one round. Immune to being stuck in Webs. Caster gets an extra chance to save to avoid poisons while familiar is out of the backpack.
- Cat: 90% Stealth skill. Is immune to being revealed by divinations, similar to a thief with a Cloak of Nondetection. Caster has +1 DEX while familiar is out of the backpack.
This also eliminates the hp damage and CON loss you take when a familiar dies. So you can re-summon/revive the familiar without penalty, once per day. As a consequence, this also eliminates the flat hit point bonus you get from summoning a familiar. Instead, you will get a 15% boost to your max hit points, whenever your familiar is out of your pack and within your general vicinity.
Component 82, "Imbue Familiars," allows you to imbue your familiar with up to five spells (one each from spell levels 1 through 5, from your known spells). The familiar will be able to cast each spell as an innate ability, once per hour.
Component 83, "Cantrips for Familiars," gives familiars the ability to prepare one or more cantrips each day, which can be used at will. This functions exactly like the Innate Cantrips from component #61 - and in fact can only be installed if that component is already installed.
Only available if Spell Revisions is installed. Damage to non-undead is halved, from 1d6 per 2 levels to 1d3 per 2 levels, up to 5d3 max. Damage to undead is 1d6 per 2 levels on top of that, so up to 5d3+5d6. No saving throws are allowed relating to the damage. On a failed save vs. spells, the duration of blindness is increased from 1 round to 3 rounds.
No saving throw is allowed to avoid either the AC penalty or the inability to turn invisible. A new animation is added. If Faerie Fire was added by Spell Revisions, the AoE radius will be doubled.
Instead of giving an AC bonus to avoid attacks, Barkskin acts like a slow version of Stoneskin, giving the caster one 'skin' of protection which regenerates each round. So the spell can block one attack per round for its duration. For balance reasons, this version can only target the caster, not an ally. This effect does stack with Stoneskin/Ironskin.
For technical reasons, if installed in BG2EE, the ending of the Stoneskin effect triggered by the Juggernaut Golem in the Golem Manual will no longer cause the golem to die.
Instead of creating consumable berries, that is abstracted away. Upon casting the spell, all nearby allies are assumed to have eaten berries; any intoxication and fatigue are removed, and they regenerate 2 hit points per round, for one round per level of the caster (to a maximum of 10 rounds). This spell cannot be cast in combat.
There's nothing more annoying than curing an ally of poison and then watching them immediately get poisoned again. This adds a very short immunity to poison damage - just three rounds - for convenience, to help you finish out a fight against those spiders or snakes or what have you.
The damage caused by this spell is increased from 3d6 to 4d6, and the damage type changed to 'magic.'
Gives all the effects of Exaltation to Spiritual Clarity (curing more conditions, though the duration lasts only half as long) and improves the spells' casting times: to 4 for Exaltation and to 1 for Spiritual Clarity.
Adds a chance to cast Faerie Fire on anyone struck by the Moonblade, and a chance to Slow if the target is undead.
This spell becomes "Remove Afflictions," a combination of Slow Poison, Cure Disease, Remove Paralysis, and IWD's Unfailing Endurance. It removes poison, disease, blindness, deafness, Hold, and fatigue. If Spell Revisions is installed first, this also extends immunity to disease for the same duration as the spell's immunity to poison.
With a long casting time and finicky targeting, Smashing Wave is just too hard/annoying to use. This sets it to be party-friendly, so you don't have to worry about positioning and risk missing the enemies.
This allows the Breach spell to work against Blade Barrier spells.
This allows the False Dawn spell to bypass magic resistance.
Instead of restoring two random spells you have no control over, this will now use a 6th-level slot to restore ALL 1st- and 2nd-level spells. If you have Item revisions installed, this will also affect Potions of Memory in the same way.
This sets the Physical Mirror spell to acts as a super-strength "Reflected Image," blocking one physical attack every three seconds.
This will give the Searing Orb item a faster attack speed, and a slightly smaller radius of destruction, so that you can actually throw it before your target closes the distance and causes the thrower to be affected as well.
This allows the Sunray spell to bypass magic resistance.
Against enemies of the same level as the caster or above, Holy Word only applies deafness, which does nothing to hinder non-spellcasters. This Tweak adds a Slow effect that lasts for five rounds.
This adds a chance for any target to be blinded for one round, regardless of their level. If you have SR installed, the Confusion effect is switched to the three-round duration.
This turns Pro Petrification into "Mirrored Eyes," giving protection from any effects using the GAZE projectile. AFAIK that includes vampire Charm, umber Hulk Confusion, and Aec'Letec's Death Gaze. This works like the IWD thieves' Evasion ability, giving you a saving throw to avoid the effect.
Identify will now be cast like a normal spell in the main screen, rather than used from the inventory screen. Additionally, it will scale with level, such that at 13th level the caster can identify 4 items with a single casting of the spell. (NOTE: this component involves modifications to the UI. It *may* not work with some UI overhauls installed beforehand, and it likely won't work with any UI overhauls installed afterward.)
Individuals affected by the Sleep Spell will awaken when struck. If Spell Revisions is installed, this will fix the current (SRv4b19) bug that makes some creatures wake up without being struck.
Only available if Spell Revisions is installed. This will replace SR's Expeditious Retreat spell with "Chameleon," which gives weak invisibility (like improved invisibility, but after you attack a target) and improves thieves Sneak skill by 25%.
Adds a missile avoidance effect to the Blur spell, which avoids the damage (of the "missile" damage type) from one projectile each round. Basically the same as the tweak to the Gloves of Missile Snaring, below.
Makes Luck into an AoE spell that can affect the whole party, and extends the duration from 3 rounds to 10 rounds.
Moves Mirror Image to 3rd level. A straight nerf. But Illusion also has Blur at 2nd level, and having two illusionary protection spells there seems silly - and there are none at 3rd level. Mirror Image is incredibly useful, I think it works quite well one level below Stoneskin. (Pro tip: if you install the "Revised Invisibility" component of Tome & Blood, then Nondetection (renamed to "Protection from Divination") will protect your images from divination attacks like True Sight and Oracle, making them as effective as Stoneskins.)
Only available if Spell Revisions is installed first. This buffs the SR version of Stinking Cloud a bit by making the effects of nausea remain for a short time after leaving the area with the noxious gas. Movement rate is slowed for two rounds, the inability to cast spells or attack is extended to two rounds, and residual 2-point penalties to thac0, AC, and casting speed remain for another two rounds after that.
Web no longer Holds targets who fail their save. Instead it Slows them and sets their APR to zero. Additionally, it cuts movement rate to 30% for anyone in the area of effect, regardless whether they make their save. This compounds with the Slow effect so on a failed save you will only be able to move at 15% your normal rate. And you won't be able to attack, and spellcasting will take twice as long, and you'll have a 4-point AC penalty. This is a nerf, to be sure... but man, vanilla Web is just too powerful. A non-party-friendly Slow spell one level below the party-friendly Slow spell makes a lot of sense to me.
I find Agannazar's Scorcher to be too finicky for common use. This component changes it into a new spell, which is similar to Magic Missile but fires one extra missile, and can do 1d4 extra fire damage on a failed save.
No saving throw is allowed to avoid the inability to turn invisible. An AC penalty is added to match the thac0 penalty.
Adds a chance to Deafen anyone struck by the Decastave for three rounds if they fail a save.
This spell will be moved from 3rd level to 1st level, with all that implies. (E.g. if "Level 1 Cantrips" is installed, you cna cast Spell Thrust as a cantrip.) NOTE: you can edit SubtleD_Spell_Tweaks/sdst_settings.ini before installing the mod and change the spell's level from 1 to a different level.
Additionally, if Spell Revisions is installed, this component will change Spell Thrust to target an individual instead of targeting the floor.
These spells will now bypass magic resistance, which is a fairly common defense for undead enemies. (Tip of the hat to Bartimaeus for the idea!)
This removes the Hold effect, and adds effects to prevent spellcasting and disable all UI buttons. The idea is, if you find yourself inside the sphere, you are still awake and aware. You cannot interact with the outside world, but you can go to the inventory screen and do things there, like drink potions!
This allows the Breach spell to work against Fire Shield and Acid Sheath spells.
This component alters the summoned creatures in the Shadow Monsters, Demi-Shadow Monsters, and Shades spells from IWDification or SCS IWD spells (or in IWDEE). There are several changes: 1) the summoned creatures do "non-lethal" damage; 2) most of the melee damage done by the summons can be resisted if the victim makes a saving throw vs. spells; 3) victims with intelligence of 17 or higher are immune to most of the damage done by the summons; and 4) the "gender" of the summoned creatures is changed from "SUMMONED" to "ILLUSIONARY," which means that they can bypass the normal summoning cap, and any spells that affect illusionary creatures will affect these ones (like Spell Revisions' version of True Sight). In general, these summons should be stronger than those in the equivalent-level Monster Summoning spells, but their power will be inconsistent and prone to being disbelieved.
Instead of applying actual fatigue (the effects of which can be frustratingly variable), this will apply a Luck penalty and remove Haste effects on the targets; and if they fail a save vs. polymorph/petrification, it will also penalize their saving throws, APR, and spellcasting speed.
Makes the Phantom Blade more of a phantasmal, psychic weapon. It now does 1d8 "stunning/nonlethal" damage, plus 1d8 magic damage. It removes the extra damage vs. undead (that's what Moonblade is for). There is a chance that anyone struck by the Phantom Blade will be confused for three rounds if they fail a save. If you use Spell Revisions it will also retain SR's casting-failure-on-hit. Finally, it moves the spell to the Illusion school.
There are two options:
- The spell becomes "Missile Storm." Put simply, it casts a maximum-strength Magic Missile at every enemy within 20' of the caster - twice.
- The spell become "Scorcher Storm." It casts Agannazar's Scorcher at every nearby enemy simultaneously.
This boosts the True Seeing spell from Spell revisions and/or Tome and Blood by granting the "see invisible" opcode to all party members, not just the caster.
This changes Mantle into "Iron Skin" (and renames the druid Ironskins spell to "Stoneskin"). It applies the Stoneskin effect, identically to the 4th-level spell; but it also protects you from non-magical melee weapons and all missile weapons while the stoneskin effect is active, and also prevents elemental damage and other secondary effects of melee weapons while the stoneskin effect is active.
Only available if Spell Revisions is installed first. This sets all of the effects of Chaos to be mental - stun, sleep, fear, etc.
Only available if Spell Revisions is installed first. This sets all of the effects of Prismatic Spray to be physical - poison, fire, petrification, etc.
This makes the Breach spell unable to remove Moment of Prescience.
Moves Symbol: fear to 7th level. This is the weakest Symbol spell, I think, and this will diversify the Symbol spells a bit, instead of lumping them all at the same spell level.
Moves Shapechange to 8th level. In the Alteration school at 9th level it competes with... Timestop?!? Shapechange is not quite at the same level. Seems more like 8th-level magic.
Moves BBoD to 8th level. Just because, again, it doens't quite seem like 9th level magic. (A 9th-level spell that requires you send your mage into melee?!? No.)
Adds a save-or-die effect to Energy Drain, and moves it to 8th level. (It's probably still underpowered... but at least it's better than competing with Wail of the Banshee at 9th level.)
This will change the Planetar HLA summon into a 'Noble Djinn,' and change the 'Fallen Planetar' into a 'Noble Efreet.' The name and animations will be changed as such, but the underlying creatures and abilities and scripting will not change very much. Elemental resistances will be tweaked (djinn immune to electrical damage, efreet immune to fire) and their weapons will be changed to something like Usuno's Blade and something like the Sword of Flame, respectively. But apart from that, they will behave and perform very similarly to the traditional planetars... they just won't stick out like a sore thumb anymore. This is mostly an aesthetic change (except for them losing their crazy vorpal swords).
This mod was created by SubtleDoctor. You can visit The Gibberlings Three for information on this and many other fine mods.
Thanks to the still active and vibrant Infinity Engine modding community.
Tools Used in Creation
WeiDU by
Wes Weimer, and then the bigg and then Wisp
Near Infinity by Jon Olav Hauglid, and then Argent77 and Astrobryguy
IESDP maintained by igi
Copyright 2023. If you want to use or adapt any part of this mod in another mod or similar endeavor, please try to contact me at forums.gibberlings3.net to discuss it. As a general rule, I have no problem with that as long as you credit the source of the work. If you cannot get in touch with me, assume that you have my permission to use any of this code for any project that is non-commercial, offered for free, and intended for the greater enjoyment of players of Infinity Engine games. If you do so, please credit me, and mention how awesome I am in a comment in the code, or something like that. You may NOT use this code for any profit-making or commercial venture, without express permission from me.