Author Topic: Spell Pools  (Read 430 times)

Legacy_Failed.Bard

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Spell Pools
« on: December 26, 2012, 02:52:36 am »


                 Has anyone ever made a spell pool system for NWN?  It was something I'd been thinking about the other day, and it seems like with NWNX and a little spellhooking the current vancian casting systems could be completely replaced with a spell (mana) pool system.

  The NWNX allows for the spell just cast to be restored, and for checking whether a wizard is a specialist or not.

  For clerics, I think I'd likely have it check to see if the cast spell is a domain spell or not, and exclude it from the pool system if it is.  This would also allow druids and clerics to use the same spell pool progression.

  The primary advantage, would be the ability to continue adding spells cast per level through epic levels, or for the pale master or other PrCs if desired.
  The main disadvantage that I can think of, is purely technical.  I'm not sure if there's a way to tell if the spell just cast had used the silent, still, or quicken meta-magic feats, so a reduced number of spell levels will possibly be removed for those ones.

  0 level spells would be infinately castable under this system, which given her low powered they are might not be that bad a thing to begin with, especially if the cure minor/cause minor wound spells are set to the proper HP amounts in the module.


  At the moment, it looks like spells might take the CCC for january, but since this system will require nwnx to work, as well as some added feats, it might fall outside the "fully working in game" guideline to be included in that if'when it does when as a topic.

  Anyways, any thoughts/ideas on what a system like this should have in order to be useful, and more importantly, balanced?  I won't be starting the scripting part of it until january regardless, since I have some animating to finish up first.
               
               

               
            

Legacy_zunath

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Spell Pools
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2012, 04:21:27 am »


               I developed a mana pool system similar to what you're describing. I used custom spells though.

Basically how it worked is you learned a spell by using a spell scroll. After doing that, you had to memorize the spell by using an option in the rest menu. From there you simply had to use the appropriate player tool.

If you want to take a look at it, you can download the module "Revenge of the Dead" from this link. Keep in mind that it heavily relies on NWNX and a database.

Link here: nwvault.ign.com/View.php

Feel free to pick it apart.
               
               

               


                     Modifié par zunath, 26 décembre 2012 - 04:28 .
                     
                  


            

Legacy_Pearls

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« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2012, 08:16:36 am »


               we use a spell point system on psu, if nwnx has similar functions it could be made to work in it, also GetMetaMagicFeat does what you want but not for the automatic epic feats but you can just use getfeat to check for those
               
               

               


                     Modifié par Pearls, 26 décembre 2012 - 08:18 .
                     
                  


            

Legacy_Failed.Bard

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Spell Pools
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2012, 09:27:56 am »


                 I though GetMetaMagicFeat() only returned maximized, extended, and empowered.  I'll have to experiment a little to see if it does return for the pre cast feats as well.

  Edit:  I guess it does.  I'd always thought it only returned the ones actually used within the spellscripts themselves, but it's good to know it'll return all of them.  That'll make that part of the script so much simpler than I'd been thinking it would be.
 I can also add in a hook in my own mod to make any silenced bard spell auto fail as well then, though that's an entirely different usage of it.
               
               

               


                     Modifié par Failed.Bard, 26 décembre 2012 - 10:08 .
                     
                  


            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2012, 02:52:41 pm »


               <making another bid...>

A thought for vanilla NwN, you could put the pooled spells on an object - spellbook, material components, etc - and bypass the standard magic system. I.e. if it's a pooled spell, it uses a focus object that handles the bookkeeping. If it's a standard spell, NwN does the bookkeeping.

You are already talking about handling them in a different manner, so that could be an approach.

The magic system (that exists only in my head and half a hundred ragged notebook pages) I'm (sort of) working on does something similar; i.e. maintain NwN standard spell system while building an enhanced flexible system in parallel.

<...for meaningful spellbooks>
               
               

               
            

Legacy_Alex Warren

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« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2012, 08:26:21 am »


               [ZBL] Xylou made a spell point system using nwnx_funcs:

http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=3810
               
               

               
            

Legacy_Failed.Bard

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« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2012, 11:58:55 am »


               

Alex Warren wrote...

[ZBL] Xylou made a spell point system using nwnx_funcs:

http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=3810



  That's very similar to what I'd had in mind, though I wasn't planning to use a generic points/level system until the epic levels.
  The functions for doing it seemed straight forward enough that I'd assumed someone would have done it already, but the searching I did didn't turn up anything.
               
               

               
            

Legacy_Shadooow

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« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2012, 12:22:10 pm »


               Also psionics in PRC casts very similar way.