January 2013 Custom Content Challenge: Spells and Spellcrafting

[Legacy_henesua]

               The problem with giving the master resistance to taunt is that wizards and sorcerers likely already have maxed out concentration checks. But a familiar that provides a bonus to concentration would be a nice perk and I suppose that could go with a seagull. They do seem to have a single mindedness in how persistent they can be.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

henesua wrote...

• Dire Rat - Self: Disease causing bite (d6 damage). Toughness. Low light vision. (Lv11) Immunity to Disease. Master: +2 Con
• ...
• Falcon - Self: flight, low light vision, Toughness, d3 claw x2, d6 bite. Master: +2 Spot, Listen (for a total of +4 to both)

That seems a bit unbalanced to me. Why would I want a falcon who can give me a +2 Bonus for spot and listen if I can get a dire rat which will give me +2 to con and is immune to disease. The falcon might be a better fighter, but I wouldn't send a familiar into a fight anyway.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               True. That is why I posted this. Nothing is settled yet, and I'm eager to hear suggestions. I'll be rethinking all of them in a bit as well.

However one thing that I have not posted are the skills that each familiar has. The skill differences can be used to balance things. Search is a very valuable skill in my opinion as familiars can help a wizard find hidden things. And ... well in this case the rats should all have search... so that doesn't work.

Another thing I could do is enable a summoned familiar to alert their master to an enemy that they perceive. An interesting idea that would give great benefit to the bat (blindsight) and any other familiar with high spot and listen.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               to bad we cant have real flights in nwn because thats an advantage where the falcon true shines. In P&P flying creatures are just cool to use as scouts but here well anyway. The falcon looks and smells nice and the direrat is ugly and stinks '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 09 janvier 2013 - 06:38 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

to bad we cant have real flights in nwn because thats an advantage where the falcon true shines. In P&P flying creatures are just cool to use as scouts but here well anyway. The falcon looks and smells nice and the direrat is ugly and stinks '>

The flying feat which I will be releasing as part of this makes up for that limitation to some extent. Being able to click on a location in the area and jump there enables a familiar to outmaneuver enemies, and to cross impassable terrain. I've been playing with this in Arnheim a great deal, and had fun exploring areas as a flying familiar. You can get to the tops of towers in the TNO tileset. You can cross impassable water and chasms and blocking palceables are not a problem either. The only limitation which poses some issues is that you can't fly to a place that you can't see.

I have considered creating a widget that would enable the familiar to fly to a memorized location, but that is well beyond the scope of this release. The reason for that is the complexity in figuring out if it is impossible to get from your current location to another. Still it would be cool if a sorcerer imprisoned in a tower on a distant island was able to summon and possess their familiar, fly out through the bars in the window and head home,  deliver a message to your allies then fly back. With a DM on it would be possible, or with a builder who scripted the possibility in that one instance, but I would still like to be able to set that up so that a player could do such a thing in any circumstance....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

The falcon looks and smells nice and the direrat is ugly and stinks '>

True beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. I always liked my Carobian warpig Grunter who wasn't smelly at all and looked better than a falcon. '>
And pigs can fly - I think.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <driving by...>

Depends entirely on the weight of the pig and the strength of the pigapult ;->

<...and shooting off his mouth>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               This reminds me that in the MUD I was playing there was a catapult operated by gnomes which was the only way to get out of the crater of an inactive volcano. There was room for several people or one fat half-troll and his warpig. So Grunter did fly.

And this is totally off topic, I know. I'm almost sorry, but not quite. '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I could use help with creating a generic portrait for base familiars. This is a portrait that would only be seen during character creation or levelling up while selecting one of the base familiars.

What? You ask.

I am using one blueprint for all familiars, and thus need one portrait that suggests generic familiar while a player is looking at different familiar choices during levelup. An illustration of a wizard's lab showing a raven, rat, bat and cat would work. A vague suggestion of something being summoned inside a brightly glowing pentagram could work. Just a bunch of wizard symbols in an illustrative style. Etc...

I am thinking that if a player sees a very generic set of stats and a very generic picture, they'll get the idea that looking at those stats won't help. And they should click the question mark instead to get a glimpse of what the familiar offers.

This is the tradeoff for allowing flexibility with familiars. If you want to allow a wizard to be able to select any familiar with a Bind Familiar spell you need a base of generic stats etc... I don't think its a big tradeoff as once the familiar is in game, the correct stats show up in its character sheet and it will have a proper portrait.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par henesua, 10 janvier 2013 - 01:39 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Fester Pot]

               

FP!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <feeling a bit...>

After a series of PMs with concerns about the model and some technical difficulties I have not the heart to fight I am withdrawing the Homonculus from the CCC.

It will be available for private requests at a later date.

I will concentrate on the familiar VFX this month.

<...low>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               Rolo, expect one more request from me then. '> Oops. I guess if I announced it, its not a private request. Please don't hold my transparency against me.

Fester, thats the ticket! I'll give it a whirl.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               As I said earlier in this thread I have had an idea for a sfx. The mechanics and appearance are very simple. My idea is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. To give you an idea here are the first 2 textures that I have come up with.



and



Note, where it is black in these images is actually transparent in game.

Basically they are comic book style speech bubbles that can hopefully be attached to wands/PCs/NPCs etc. They should make an interesting alternative to floaty text in a cut-scene.

The question is, do you think it worth my going ahead with these or do you consider them a total waste of time when compared with the excellent stuff that others are making?

TR
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 10 janvier 2013 - 07:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I think those would be fun, TR. We would need a great variety of them. And you will need to get them to always face the camera.

And lastly... since you are into 2D stuff I think  your delving into VFX would be fruitful.

Go for it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               I intend to update my beam effects pack for NWNCX as well as pack a bunch more spell effects I did for my 4th ed mod. I'll do spell icons and the like, but I won't be putting my 4e spell system scripts up for this one. It should at least have the following:

*Diablo3/NeverwinterOnline style beams for many energy types (non-ray, fixed length)
*a small, medium and large beam for each
*additional beam effects you can apply separately that will run at the same time
*casting and impact puffs for each type and size
*additional FNF graphics for some 3rd and 4th ed spells including a line of special meteor fx
*spell icons for every beam packed as well as icons for 4th ed spells
*small assortment of spell component icons not already seen on nwvault
*some inanimate book shelf placeables based on 90's console and pc games
*lots of new fxpa files for use with weapon and spell effects, with and without TXI

The beam upgrade will have nice particle emitting particles in the trail of the beam, just like D3 and NWonline