Topics

Before starting, I really like the change that brings skill (and stat) rolls into a text format rather than number rolls. It flows much better in roleplay. I think it could be improved a little, too.

First of all, a minor thing. There is at least one place on the forums where (in line with source books) it's stated that 10 is considered an average human stat. However, rolling for a stat of 10 in-game comes up as "below average" I think.

That is a little disappointing to someone who makes their sheet based on forum info, expecting to at least be seen as average in a stat, and it would be nice if it the message could be tweaked to be consistent.

Secondly, untrained skills. Currently, even if you had 10 points in diplomacy, 20 charisma and +10 persuade worth of fancy gear for +17 total, if you are untrained in persuade, a roll will say only that you are untrained in it. I understand that not having training in a skill should be apparent, but presumably said example should also not be perceived as being on par with the dwarf with -2 persuade, even if neither have expressly trained this skill.

It would be nice if it instead went, say, "William Smith's persuade seems untrained, but gifted by other means to be above average." This way you could also distinguish technically skilled orators from raw charismatic speakers, and so on.

[SIZE="1"](Really, if it differentiated by how much skill you get from bonuses and used a similar format for anyone with more than half their skill from bonuses, that might be even better... gifted vs. skilled.)[/SIZE]

Thirdly, a question for discussion while we're on the general topic. In what situations would it make sense to roll diplomacy as an alternative to one of the "standard" social skills?

[1920]

Just a quick how-to for running NWN in windowed but border-less mode across the full screen. If you are having random NWN freezes, this might fix that issue. It fixed it for me. However, I didn't want to have it in a window. And NWN doesn't want to open in a window at the same resolution as the desktop. But I also don't want to have to manually diddle with the resolution every time to get this to work, when I can automate it.

Though it might seem involved, when all done, you will simply press ctrl-alt-1, click Play in the launcher, then ctrl-alt-2, and you will have NWN running windowed on a full screen.

Caveat: This will likely not work if:

A. You want to run your monitor at its highest supported resolution.
B. You want to have anti aliasing enabled in NWN. Not sure why, I have to disable it for this to work.
C. For some unforeseen reason this fries your monitor. Disclaimer: use at your own risk. I am not responsible for loss of hardware or lives.

1. Get a free program called Autohotkey. Install.

2. Make a new text file. Paste the following text into it.

!^1::
; Set resolution high
ChangeDisplaySettings( (ClrDep:=32) , (Wid:=1920) , (Hei:=1200) , (Hz:=60) )
ChangeDisplaySettings( cD, sW, sH, rR ) {
  VarSetCapacity(dM,156,0), NumPut(156,2,&dM,36)
  DllCall( "EnumDisplaySettings", UInt,0, UInt,-1, UInt,&dM ), NumPut(0x5c0000,dM,40)
  NumPut(cD,dM,104),  NumPut(sW,dM,108),  NumPut(sH,dM,112),  NumPut(rR,dM,120)
  Return DllCall( "ChangeDisplaySettings", UInt,&dM, UInt,0 )
}
; resolution done
; next, run NWN
Run, nwn.exe, C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\
return
!^2::
; Set resolution back
ChangeDisplaySettings2( (ClrDep:=32) , (Wid2:=1440) , (Hei2:=900) , (Hz:=60) )
ChangeDisplaySettings2( cD, sW2, sH2, rR ) {
  VarSetCapacity(dM,156,0), NumPut(156,2,&dM,36)
  DllCall( "EnumDisplaySettings", UInt,0, UInt,-1, UInt,&dM ), NumPut(0x5c0000,dM,40)
  NumPut(cD,dM,104),  NumPut(sW2,dM,108),  NumPut(sH2,dM,112),  NumPut(rR,dM,120)
  Return DllCall( "ChangeDisplaySettings2", UInt,&dM, UInt,0 )
}
; resolution done
; next, remove borders and center window
WinSet, Style, -0xC40000, A
WinMove, A, , 0, 0, 1440, 900
;WinActivate, A
return

3. Change the red numbers to a resolution that your monitor supports and which is higher than you usually run. Change the blue numbers to your normal resolution. If needed, change the 60 Hz as well in each case and/or the 32 which is the color depth. If needed, also change the green text to match your NWN installation directory.

4. Change the file extension to .ahk and save it.

5. Right click on the .ahk file and compile script. This should generate an exe file in the same directory.

6. Run the exe. Now it will be in your tray. If you drop it in your Startup folder, it will run with Windows startup.

7. May not be needed, but you probably want to do this anyway: In C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN, edit nwn.ini and under [Display Options] add this line: Disable Intro Movies=1

8. In NWN itself, go to your "Options" then "Video" and "Advanced." Adjust the Anti Aliasing slider all the way to the left, ie "off."

9. Exit the game. From here on out, to start NWN, do the following:

a. Control-alt-1. This will change your resolution to a higher setting, and then bring up the NWN Launcher.

b. Click Play. Oddly enough on my system this changes the resolution back to normal even before step c. Have not bothered to troubleshoot why, since that needs to happen anyway. <_<

c. Control-alt 2. This removes the border from the current window, which should be NWN, and also centers it on your screen for you. It's also supposed to switch your resolution back prior to that.

That's it. Hope this will be helpful to someone. Or maybe someone has a more elegant way to do this. >_>

I am really looking forward to seeing the effects of these changes in-game. After some talk on the system in IRC, I just had a few thoughts and suggestions off hand, which might be interesting discussion.


1. Let cleric symbol and prayers diminish in power.

The bonuses will be potentially powerful for clerics. As a check on this, instead of being permanent, they gradually go back to normal. To facilitate this, prayers provide less boost on a symbol that's already powerful.


2. Have two different types of points from different activities.

On the heels of the first suggestion, it might help to have two different types of points to track, hard points and soft points. A conversion grants hard points, and these diminish much more slowly. Soft points, say from prayers, diminish quickly. This would let clerics who do a lot of conversions rest on their laurels, so to speak.


3. Replace the limit on patron changes with a limit on cleric bonus from these.

Some characters may be long-lived and it might make sense. Instead of preventing a conversion, remove any sort of bonus from converting them beyond the limit.


4. Treat insincere conversions (via 1 step check as per cleric script) different.

By insincere, I mean a lawful good fighter choosing say, CE Malar, as a new patron, for instance. Converting someone outside of the 1-step rule should not provide any bonus beyond what a prayer would normally produce, and not count against the conversion limit mentioned above so a more sincere conversion can still be rewarded. Anyone can give prayers. A patron is a deity characters identify with - for this, clerics should look to convert those people that actively work towards their deity's goals. (And if they do this in a significant manner, their alignment will change.)


5. Change the trickery domain tool to also allow symbol changes.

I don't believe I've seen the trickery tool used a single time, as it essentially broadcasts, "Look at me, I'm untrustworthy" to everyone near, not to mention the metagaming of deducing cleric patrons from domains in the case of deceptive clerics. Instead, change it's function to be used in a more covert nature, that's to say in the same way as SF: Bluff.

[Atonement]

A while back, we were gonna have greyguards, apparently. I guess that never made it in, but I imagine it would have been an interesting addition for the gritty, ambiguous EfU atmosphere.

One of the features that defines greyguards seems to be the atonement. In PnP, atonement works better for greyguards, giving them more liberty in stepping over traditional paladin bounds.

It's something that's lacking in NWN entirely. So, what about a reduced form of the Atonement spell, along the lines of this. Maybe someone with more experience in playing paladins could give input on whether this might be worthwhile or encourage more greyguard style pallies. [SIZE="1"](Esp. considering I don't know if I'd ever use it, myself <_<)[/SIZE]

Atonement
Abjuration
Level:       Clr 5
Components:    V, S, XP, Prayer beads or equivalent worth 500gp (not consumed)

"This spell removes the burden of evil acts or misdeeds from the subject. The creature seeking atonement must be truly repentant and desirous of setting right its misdeeds. Many casters first assign a subject of this sort a quest or similar penance to be completed in order to determine whether the creature is truly contrite before even casting this spell."

Mechanical effects of spell: (4 subversions existing, similar to PfA - Atonement (Shift to Good), Atonement (Shift to Evil), etc.)

1. Removes 200 xp from cleric.
2. Announces on /DM, "[Cleric Name] of [Deity] wishes to allow [Target Name] of [Deity] to atone."
3. After one minute, summons a "Servant of [Deity]" according to the cleric's deity field.
4. The Servant summon says, "Mortal, explain your foolish deeds to [Cleric Name], I will listen on behalf of [Deity Name]."
5. Assuming no DM is interested and takes over the servant in the meantime, after 5 minutes have elapsed, the servant announces, "Your case does not convince me fully at this time, but your efforts, at least, have been noted."
6. The alignments of the Target of the spell are shifted 2 points according to the spell type. The servant vanishes.

Original version of Atonement here.

[SIZE="1"]Of course, you could also just make it simply remove xp and shift alignment, or keep it so only DMs do it, but I think the above would be neat and more accessible, while making it easy for DMs to police it - even if they don't care to personally jump in for a stronger alignment shift. >_>[/SIZE]

[I. Accents vs. dialects vs. illiteracy.]

Or, How to write Old Testament English!

Just a short thing I hope may be educational on some of the lesser-known nuances of english and um, stuff.

I. Accents vs. dialects vs. illiteracy.

This defines the point at which a word is expected to be written differently than the norm.

1. An accent implies a word that is pronounced differently from how it is written. In other words, "your," "yoor" and "yer" are all still spelled "your." If your character is not part of a particular tribe or subculture or just poorly educated, his writing in common will still have standard spelling.

2. A dialect is the point at which a nation's subculture differs not only in pronounciation but also in grammar and vocabulary. They will have words that are spelled differently from the norm at this point, but their speech in general will likely be hard to understand. An example is the amish, which speak a dialect of german. If your character is tribal or in some obscure culture, this may apply and his spelling may be radically different. He'll likely also use words other people aren't even familiar with.

3. Lastly, an uneducated character would simply spell things the way they sound out to him, more so for difficult words. This would likely manifest as more crude, childish-seeming letters, where short, common words would be spelled better than long ones and so could change the situation regardless of accent or dialect.

II. Old english terms.

I like seeing ye olde english terms in letters and posters, though seeing them used poorly, I, at least, find is a little jarring and reminds me that they're not terms from our current era. Since their use can be a little confusing even to native english writers (though some of these are still in use in certain areas), I hope to clarify a little why they exist and how to use them correctly.

Also, this might be more detailed than anyone needs, but hopefully it'll at least point in the right direction, maybe inspire some if lucky!

1. "Ye." This can be two different words. It can mean "the" or "you." "Ye" as "you" at one point implied more than one person (as opposed to "thou") and, similar to german, this plural version was also a sort of "formal" address. When to use?

a. When addressing a group. "I shall guide ye to the caverns." However, not when you could use "to." Ie "I shall guide ye around the caverns; after this I will give rations to you."
b. When addressing an equal or superior as a form of respect. "I shall guide ye to the throne, highness."
c. Ye can also be seen used as "the." (This is incidentally because there was a rune (thorn or thurisaz) that stood for the "th" sound. Early on, the "y" stood in as this rune's symbol.) This generally stopped seeing use before "thee" etc. It is essentially just an archaic spelling of the word "the."

2. Thou/Thee/Thy/Thine.

The purpose these words had has (mostly) not been completely continued in modern english. So, using them properly can be confusing. Speakers of some other languages may actually "get" the uses more easily. These affect only the second person singular, first and third are (almost) just as in modern english.

SINGULAR

First of all, know if you are talking about one person or a group. Thou, Thee and Thy/Thine are all for singular cases only - you are talking to just one person. It clarifies situations - for instance, in scripture, if Jesus is talking to the head pharisee and his priests, and he says "Thy sins are great," he is specifically addressing one person (presumably the leader), but if he says "Your sins are great" it is ambiguous. (If he were to say, "Ye have committed great sins," he is definitely speaking about sins of the entire group, not just one person.)

a. Thou - is the default. It is essentially "you (specifically)." Ex: Thou shalt speak; Thou has said, etc. It distinguishes "You, in particular" from "You guys," or "You all, as a group." It is the nominative form. NOTE: This is the only time the plural changes from "you" to "ye."

b. Thee - is the objective form. The simple way to remember is that this is the correct form to use any time that you could, or do, precede "you" with a "to." The "to" does not always have to be written. For instance, "I will speak unto thee; I give [SIZE="1"][to][/SIZE] thee this gift," both are correct. Again, you're not giving it to "you all" but specifically the one person you speak to.

c. Thy/Thine - these are the possessives. If you are talking about something that belongs to the person, you use this. In other words, when you want to point out that something belongs specifically to the person you are addressing. Which one to use? Easy, thy and thine correspond to my and mine. If you were speaking to a group, you would say "this is your pipe; these are your pipes; the pipes belong to you; ye own these pipes." But as you are singling out one person, you say "this is thy pipe; it is thine."

Hope this helped someone and wasn't too boring. ;) In the right situation, I think it can even lend dramatic impact, like when talking about responsibility, or for instance making accusations... in my opinion, "It is THY fault" somehow just sounds more strongly than "It's YOUR fault," no ambiguity, it is your fault specifically, individually...

[Resist Energy]

Just some spells I'd not mind having on EfU. Links go to SRD spells they imitate. Yeah, will never happen... but I can dream. Nothing terribly crazy, it's all pretty standard stuff reeeeally. Sorta. ;)

Resist Energy

Abjuration
Level: Clr 2, Drd 2, Pal 2, Rgr 1, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 10 min./level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)

This abjuration grants a creature energy resistance 10 against the energy type chosen, (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic) meaning that each time the creature is subjected to such damage, that damage is reduced by 10 points. The value of the energy resistance granted increases to 20 points at 7th level and to a maximum of 30 points at 11th level.

Obscuring Mist

Conjuration (Creation)
Level:Clr 1, Drd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Range: Close
Effect: Cloud spreads in 20-ft. radius from you, 20 ft. high
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: None

This spell grants 20% concealment for creatures within the effect.

Detect Alignment

Divination
Level: Clr 1

This spell functions like detect evil, except you must specify the alignment to check for. You are vulnerable to an overwhelming aura if you are of opposing alignment.

Hide from Undead

Abjuration
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S
Range: Self
Targets: Non-hostiles in the area
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates

This spell functions similar to Sanctuary, only works against undead, but affects all non-hostiles in the area of the caster. Non-intelligent undead do not get a saving throw and thus the spell always works against these. (Alternately, increase the will save throw required.)

Shield Other

Abjuration
Level: Clr 2, Pal 2
Components: V, S
Range: Close
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)

This spell wards the subject so that some of its wounds are transferred to you. The subject gains a +1 deflection bonus to AC and a +1 resistance bonus on saves. Additionally, the subject takes only half damage from all wounds and attacks (including that dealt by special abilities) that deal hit point damage. The amount of damage not taken by the warded creature is taken by you. (Perhaps this could be replaced some similar mechanism. Would make a nice "protector" spell.)

If you and the subject of the spell move out of range of each other, the spell ends.

Undetectable Alignment

Abjuration
Level: Brd 1, Clr 2, Pal 2
Components: V, S
Range: Close
Target: One creature or object
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: Will negates (object)

An undetectable alignment spell conceals the alignment of an object or a creature from all forms of divination.

Sending

Evocation
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S
Range: See text
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round; see text
Saving Throw: None

You contact a particular creature and send a short message to the subject. It can answer in like manner immediately.

If the creature in question is not on the same plane of existence as you are, there is a 5% chance that the sending does not arrive.

Dimensional Anchor

Abjuration
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Range: Medium
Effect: Ray
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: None

You must make a ranged touch attack. Any creature or object struck is blocked from extradimensional travel. Forms of movement barred include plane shift, teleport and similar abilities. The spell also prevents the use of a gate or teleportation circle.

Align to Patron (Mechanics Reference: Atonement)

Abjuration
Level: Clr 4, Drd 4
Components: V, S
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None

This spell requires consent by the target. It changes the target's patron deity to that of the caster.

This spell costs 100gp to cast.

Lesser Plane Shift (Mechanics as Plane Shift)

Conjuration (Teleportation)
Level: Clr 5, Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S
Range: Touch
Target: Non-hostiles in the area
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates

Similar to teleport, or true plane shift, except you may only move to one of the transitive planes which overlap the material plane: The Plane of Shadow or the Ethereal Plane.

The former leading to a dark, highly condensed, mockery of Ymph and the latter a ghostly, almost empty place, similarly condensed; they provide the benefit of being able to travel more quickly in one general direction or another. The spell will only function in a location where the planes overlap strongly. Casting Detect Evil will reveal such locations for the Plane of Shadows, typically around graveyards, sites of negative energy or evil artifacts. Detect Law or Chaos will reveal such locations for the Ethereal Plane, often around areas of arcane significance; more rare but also leading to a less hostile plane. These landmarks will be vaguely recognizable on the "other side" though little else will be.

The planes may be populated with hostile, native creatures such as shadows and ghosts, respectively. Both may also have unique effects on magic or, in the case of the Ethereal Plane, allow occasional clear glimpses back to the Material Plane and Ymph from certain landmarks, even for those with no magical inclination otherwise. The Plane of Shadow is known to host deadly areas of negative energy as well. However, for groups needing to cross distances quickly and willing to take a risk to do so, or spellcasters in need of magic-enhancing properties, it may be worth the while.

Due to the manner in which these planes echo or follow Ymph, and the limited nature of this spell, travel beyond the main island is not feasible through this method.

What is consecration? It means “to associate with the sacred.” Lots of things could potentially be consecrated... areas, objects, even people. A cleric, for instance, is by definition “consecrated.” The most obvious mechanical effect of the difference between deities is in the domains of their priests. So how would this look like in EfU? Rather than try to come up with a bunch of different random things that could be done, I'd like to break it down and come up with something that can be made to look like a consistent system, using the “logic” that seems to dictate what we have.

I imagine three steps of consecration, or the progress of a Consecrator:
1. Countering, negating. Desecrating.
2. Altering of existing effects.
3. Imbuing proper.

These different steps would be the natural progress a consecrator would make. Firstly, desecrating (or cleansing) opposing holy/unholy items. It's easier to destroy than create. Secondly, rather than destroy, learn to alter; bend things to the will of your deity. Last of all, the actual creation of effects or bonuses through this should be hardest. What should it be usable on, though?

Consecration targets, in order of difficulty:
1. Opposed, magical items. (Desecrating only.)
2. Neutral and opposed magical items. (Alteration of effects.)
3. Mundane items, areas. (Imbuing of new effects.)

Pretty straight-foward, since destruction is easiest, the first item on the list is probably going to be objects of veneration of opposed faiths. The second, for alteration, might include these, but also “neutral” objects with various magical effects. Last and most difficult to achieve would be consecrating areas or items that were previously mundane, since creating effects proper should be most difficult.

The next question is how to define or flesh out the sacred items. There are different approaches. I feel that the most elegant, rather than a deity-by-deity approach, is to define things by domains. This should significantly cut down on the amount of customization needed, and at the same time result in a unique per-deity list... there are less domains than deities, and each deity has multiple domains.

In other words, rather than an item “sacred to Kelemvor,” add an item “consecrated of Law.” Not only does this apply to far more deities than just Kelemvor, but you have a whole slew of deities of the Chaos domain whose priests might be interested in destroying this object. We simply need to determine opposing domains for the majority of domains, and then each deity ought to have a good number of “opposing” artifacts their consecrators can look for to destroy.

If we're going by domains, one could also use spells. So a priest of Kelemvor might look for items with spell effects granted by undeath domain, stone bones for instance.

If these items are valuable or useful, it might also help create some conflict between opposing priests... a cleric decked in loot consecrated to his deity might make a more interesting target for robbery by enemy priests looking for a nice stash of sacred things to desecrate in their deity's name.

Another question is how to limit progress? Naturally, actual consecration skill should be most prominent. Cleric or perhaps druid levels should play a part. I think there should ideally also be a progress counter, which tracks how much a cleric has destroyed or purified in the name of their deity as well, as this is a hidden investment with monetary value.

Anyway, here is an example of how I'd envision a typical, successful consecrating priest going about things... by the ideas above:

1. Connie Consecrator consecrates a generic “money sacrifice,” which is destroyed. The system checks her deity domains. Let's say one of them is “Good,” and the opposed domain is “Evil.” Connie receives the “insight” that she should destroy items of Evil whenever possible. This could be specifically created items clearly described as “dedicated to deities of Evil” (domain), or it could include items with charges of spells normally granted by the evil domain, such as negative energy ray, etc.

2. Connie faithfully destroys scrolls of such whenever possible. Each such event adds a small bit to a counter of Connie's consecration progress. At a certain point, Connie will receive another insight, either of more powerful artifacts that can be purified/desecrated, or (eventually) of a way to alter neutral or opposed magical items to attain bonuses granted by some of Connie's deity. For instance, Evil grants Enervation (5) but Good grants Lesser Planar Binding (5)... so it might impart her with a method to change scrolls, wands or possibly specially created “consecrated” loot items from an opposed type to her own.

3. Doing so successfully further increases Connie's consecration progress score... until at some point it is enough for Connie to gain insight on actually creating or enhancing some of the effects of her deity's domains through a ritual process. Perhaps consecrating an area with a Good domain method would allow spells granted through this domain to be cast at increased duration, for instance, with an appropriate component cost, etc, possibly also checking for the caster's deity's domains. Or the creation of items charged with already granted powers, like for Good domain, Lesser Planar Binding, etc. The power of this alone would not necessarily be much beyond the ability to create scrolls or extend spells, though the amount invested may warrant more. Not interested in power, I'm sure DMs are better than me at figuring out balance.

Of course, many things could be designed that are more creative and tailored to each deity, I just wanted to think about how a system might work that is based on the information we already have about deities and domains.

The last thing needed would be to decide which domains are opposed ones; though it's a bit sketchy, I'd lay it out something like this.

Air vs Earth, Fire vs Water, Law/Fate vs Chaos, Good vs Evil, Repose vs Undeath, Darkness/Cavern vs Sun, Destruction vs Protection, Healing vs Hatred, Knowledge vs Illusion, Death    vs Renewal, Planning vs Luck, Trickery vs Trade, Nobility/Metal vs Animal, Charm vs War, Portal vs Travel.

Undecided: Drow, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Fungus, Magic, Metal, Ooze, Plant, Reptilian, Retribution, Rune, Sea Caves, Spells, Spider, Strength, Storm, Suffering.

That should be enough to ensure that just about every singly deity out there would have at least a few 'opposed' domain items/domain spells for their clerics to look out for.

[1. Reserve "Amulet of Deity X" for rewarding specific characters of those deities.2. Use domains as the theme instead.]

In a discussion not too long ago, some interesting points regarding "consecrated" loot drops, ie "Amulet of Lathander," etc, came up. The issue was originally about some DMs frowning on clerics that use items "of" another deity, and the discussion moved to the loot selection.

That said, I do wish there were more holy symbols and such for other gods.

On a side note, I duly noted more items of standard deities faith could solve part of the issue discussed here.

I actually think less items connect to a God would solve the issue here. When you add more Deity-related items to a random loot table the chance only diminishes you get it. Do away with it altogether, in my opinion, and reward Clerics who do things right with a flavored item instead.

I agree with the thoughts behind all these comments; there are at the moment a bit over 120 different deities in EfU one can worship, I think? If we have a cool amulet to deity #109 in a quest, that is great and adds more flavor than "Generic Amulet +1" but the chances are most parties won't even have someone in the group that worships that deity - and maybe not even know anyone who does.

SO... to get to the point:

1. Reserve "Amulet of Deity X" for rewarding specific characters of those deities.

2. Use domains as the theme instead.

If the god in question has the domains of trickery and evil you could just state there are symbols of trickery and evil on the item.

Or you could describe images of evil trickery: vile abominations ambushing people, fanged trickster masks, little stick-figures stabbing each other in the back etched onto the item. Or if the god has the fire and suffering domain, flame symbols, people on fire, pets on fire, er... lots more stuff on fire, preferrably sentient... and so on. :)

It makes for items that are at least as colorful if not more, will have meaning to a broader range of characters, and circumvents the whole, "hmm, priest of Kelemvor wearing 'Mystran amulet' while fighting undead... kosher or not" issue.

[SIZE="1"]Yeah, I pretty much just stole those other people's ideas and rehashed it into a suggestion thread.[/SIZE]

Nothing exactly urgent, just those "Huh, would be nice if" sorta things.

1. As "colony bank" gold is apparently recorded, it would make more sense to me to track the total gold in the Gold/XP Info charts rather than just the gold on your person.

2. Also, as "Questing Info" is available, it would be pretty nice if the quest titles had the level and group size requirements in it. That way there is a non-spoilerish way to at least reference the ones you've done, and avoid those annoying "Oh, well, we walked all the way out to this dark tower which certainly looks like it's in need of exploring, but I... just remembered... I left my muffins baking in the oven at home... yeah."

2b. Might also suggest to add a column, "Average XP Awarded per Quest/taken," along with the totals. >_>

Suggestion up front: Change the dice roll syntax or duplicate it to add a function so any dice roll can be sent to a targetted person as a message only you and them see.



Reason/ing: Every once in a while someone asks me to roll a skill check, or sometimes I would like to ask a player if they would mind rolling one for me.

However, personally, I dislike seeing rolls myself. I find them mildly disruptive to immersion, much like //ooc type stuff floating around. The option to send it to one recipient will make things seem more roleplay-ish and less rollplay-ish for the audience.

The option to also send it, hidden, to yourself might also find some use for people who like to use this to decide how their character acts, something else I see from time to time and think is neat - but would be better "off site."

Had a friendly spar with another character, and one of two things happened: A summon caused bleeding, which caused the character to die, OR (possibly) his bloodfrenzy/rage wore off, causing him to die. We weren't completely sure which of the two happened, but in either case, it seemed a pretty lame death. Maybe whichever of these issues is causing death in subdual could be looked at.
 
The killed character in question was Hrugin, played by Vlaid_EFUA. There was no DM around, we waited a while. He was still able to respawn, and even be a good sport. If someone is feeling kind, I'd feel less crappy about it if he could be restored to his previous state. Just sayin'.
 
Edit: As a note, the summons did not hit him as they were being unsummoned. Since I was told they switch to FD just before being unsummoned, they were led away and manually unsummoned to make sure that did not happen.

I'd like it if the wilderness spawns that use stealth and paralyzation attacks that last for minutes, ie goblin assassins and assassin vines, were changed. Namely to goblin rogues or rangers, and vines with a debilitating but not paralyzing poison, perhaps -str or con.
 
Tough spawns are fine - the things with stealth were usually defeatable, or if too fugly big to fight alone, most of those you could see at a distance anyway, or take a bit of knockdown beating and invis/whatnot. So you'd still have to heal or make a getaway, but that's the price you pay.
 
Now, though, it's just a matter of (bad) luck until you fail a save, followed by practically guaranteed death (even for nature types I suppose, failing a stealth check.)
 
Tougher spawns are fine and good. If you foolishly take on a ton of critters, or go into the wilds unprepared, I don't expect anything other than death. The wilds should be dangerous, yes. Creatures that you can't react to whatsoever until it's too late are another matter.
 
Previously, I enjoyed being able to spend a fair deal of time in the wilds as a barbarian, with a friend or often alone. Even though it took some resources and was still risky, foresight and toughness made it reasonably doable without eventual guaranteed death. With the addition of these particular critters, players options have been limited. That's not a good thing, and a change to both of them would be great.

One of my characters has domains the deity does not normally grant, and has been wanded (on two different occasions) to be able to still cast with them. Upon wanding everything works just fine, until I re-log. (I don't think there was a reset inbetween, since I logged off at an odd spot, and when I returned, was still there.) Once I relog, my character once again gets the divine spellcasting error message, that I have domains my deity does not grant and will not be able to cast, and I get the divine spellfailure message upon casting, as well. The spells then fail, of course. Howland suggested perhaps the wanding effect was not persistent, and that I should report it.

Edit: Efusl does report having two domains, and they both show on my character sheet.

Sun domain is better at expelling undead than the Repose domain, now. Gonna humbly request Repose domain get the same undead-turning boost that the Sun domain has, seeing as Kelemvor is outspokenly the most anti-undead per his dogma, Doomguide being a Kelemvorite PrC, yadda yadda. I'm pretty sure it's a given that the answer to the question "Which God would focus most on giving his clerics power to combat undead" is Kelemvor, hands down. :)

They're archetypal survivalists, barbarians should be able to at least rest easier out in nature than most other classes. *shakes tiny fist at Bioware for not making use of the wilderness survival skill* :p

[Weather Table]

Since (it seems) these aren't implemented yet, I thought I'd go through the pnp list of weather effects and try to compile a hopefully helpful list! Also this is yet another thing that could be affected by a survival skill implementation, so plug plug plug. :o (Successful survival skill checks give you a bonus to your saves vs certain weather effects, and could arguably lessen the penalties of other things as well. Not to mention predicting the weather a day in advance with it!)
 
First of all, here is a comprehensive but simplified weather table from the d20SRD, appropriate for our climate. Detailed effects follow, I faithfully pieced together everything from the various parts of the System Reference Document, omitted anything irrelevant to our setting/mechanics, and went ahead and combined wind effects with the appropriate weather effects, too.
 
Weather Table

• 01-80 Normal for season (No effects)
• 81-90 Precipitation (Typical for season)
• 91-99 Thunderstorm
• 100 Thunderstorm accompanied by a Tornado

And here are the appropriate effects:
 
Precipitation (81-90)

• 01-30 Fog
• 31-100 Rain

Fog
 
Duration 2d4 hours

• 20% miss chance with ranged weapons
• Conceals all sight beyond 5 feet - suggest emulating this with:
• -10 to Spot
• -10 to Search
• 50% miss chance with ranged weapons instead

Rain
 
Duration 2d4 hours

• -4 to Spot
• -4 to Search
• -4 to Listen
• -4 to Ranged weapon attacks (Not sure you can do this in the toolset - suggest emulating this with a 20% ranged miss chance like fog)
• Unprotected flames are extinguished, protected flames have a 50% chance of being extinguished. (Setting campfires)

Thunderstorm (91-99)
 
Duration 2d4-1 hours

• -8 Spot
• -8 Search
• -8 Listen
• Ranged weapon attacks other than siege weapons (-4 AB for these) are impossible: 100% ranged miss chance
• Unprotected flames are extinguished, protected flames have a 50% chance of being extinguished. (Setting campfires)
• In addition to wind and precipitation (usually rain, but sometimes also hail), thunderstorms are accompanied by lightning that can pose a hazard to characters without proper shelter (especially those in metal armor). As a rule of thumb, assume one bolt per minute for a 1-hour period at the center of the storm. Each bolt causes electricity damage equal to 1d10 eight-sided dice.
  
• I would suggest checking merely two things: the terrain type and the armor type worn. Urban and forest tilesets would incur a smaller chance than, say, the plains, mountain or cliff areas. Wearing metal armor would increase the chance of being struck.

Failing a Fort save of 15 DC during a thunderstorm also incurs:

• Tiny creatures are blown away. Moved about 25 feet in a random direction, and take 1d4 d4 of nonlethal damage. Flying creatures are moved about 70 feet and suffer 2d6 nonlethal damage.
  
• Small creatures are knocked down.
• Medium creatures are unable to move forward.
• Large creatures are unaffected.

Thunderstorm accompanied by a Tornado (00)

• Duration 2d4-1 hours

All of the effects for Thunderstorms apply, with the following exceptions:

• All flames are extinguished.
  
• All ranged attacks are impossible, including siege weapons.
  
• If the tornado funnel is in "close proximity," then instead of the previous Wind Effects table, the following rules are used: Failing a fort save of 30 near a Tornado incurs:
• Large creatures and smaller are sucked towards the tornado funnel. Those who come in contact with the actual funnel cloud are picked up and whirled around for 1d10 rounds, taking 6d6 points of damage per round, before being violently expelled (falling damage may apply). "Loading: Tornado Funnel," anyone? Muahaha...
  
• Huge creatures are knocked down.
• Gargantuan or Colossal creatures are unable to move forward.

May already be in place. Having the same deity as that of a cleric turning undead should give you a pretty huge bonus to recognizing it. /blah blah
 
Quite likely factors like similar alignments should also do that, while factors like opposing alignments, racial pantheons, and such, should give you a penalty. But anyway-
 
It would be odd if you were a worshipper of say Oghma and couldn't recognize any of his symbols. :p

There've been a few mods in the past that had random area generator, including an official release that was based on it, more or less. I'm pretty sure that EfU also has had some areas with variable transitions. And of course, some of the current transitions are supposed to represent much longer stretches of terrain.

Now that we have so much new material to explore, not to mention the intriguing possibilities I heard mentioned with "ship travel," we could combine these things to make exploring and sailing a little more interesting. How you ask?

Simply make a few "lost in wilderness" areas, corresponding to the basic terrain types they'll be linked from. You enter them whenever you fail a check moving from one wilderness transition to another - and to get back to the area you started from, you have to move through this one first. The "actual" wilderness areas could probably be a little tamer in terms of hostile creatures, with most of the more nasty stuff in the "lost" areas...

What will this do? Spice up any trips done without a decent guide! And make having those hairy woodsman coots along much more desirable when you're going for a trip to timbuktu. This can apply to ship travel too, if it's put in! -and maybe be the cause for some unintended trips to really "interesting" *cough*deadly*cough* locations... ;)

And of course this would work well in conjunction with an implementation of the survival skill, since that's the skill which is supposed to be used for finding your way around in nature. n_n

Not to mention that it would add a little of the unknown! Maybe every once in a while even the most skilled trail-blazer could get lost, and when -they- get lost, you have a chance of finding something neat, instead of the random, hostile areas you usually find... This makes the mod retain a little mystery even when you think you might have explored everything already. ;)

And...! It could make the mod feel a lot bigger, even without adding many areas at all. Not to mention that taking a good guide truly could make a trip much easier, and magically shorter. :D

This was mentioned in the thread about tracking, but is a seperate suggestion, so here's a thread for it.
 
Survival skill!
 
Fine you say, so what about the Meta-Why?
 
- We have 2 unused skills, craft armor/weapons already in the game
- With a ton of undiscovered areas before us, this is an ideal time to give more options to wilderness wanderers
- Allow guides, navigators and explorers to have a way to truly give their characters an edge in the wilds
- No longer do nature-hating, tribe-stomping conquistadore types have to have a "magical fuzzy connection" to nature in order to have any mechanical advantage for cutting trails and burning native crops!
- Make getting along in the wilds amount to more than merely "how many rabid dire badgers can your tank hold off." :p
 
 
Alright, and what sort of things could be done with it, specifically? Here's a starting list of things that could be added to the game that would utilize the Survival skill. Note that all of these ideas are basically exactly what pen and paper DnD says the survival skill should be used for. More uses are certainly possible!
 
- Predict weather! Bah humbug? How about storms that make ranged weapons miss, and winds that kill your spot/search checks... not to mention actually getting lost for real? More suggestion posts ahoy...
- Not getting lost in rabid, dire badger-infested areas - Suggestion post for that, later!
- As Survival lets you gather food and live off the land, it could be used for the harvesting/planting, as well as the cooking scripts implemented.
- Tracking! (plug plug plug) In the interest of not having every character of a certain class be the same, an unused feat (skill focus: craft/survival) can be used, just like in 'real' AD&D. Now you non-magical, non-hippie people can learn how to use your eyeballs and follow tracks!
- Easier resting in the wilds. Jealous of those scruffy druids? Make your own bedroll out of scavenged tufts of rat fur.
- Treacherous terrain. That's right - Quicksand pits. *evil laugh*
- Navigating boats by the stars - don't want every transition on a boat to end in were-shark infested waters? Better find a navigator to tag along. (See said suggestion post above :p)
- Reduced effects of bad weather, such as (all per pen and paper DnD) rain and storms that make ranged combat, search and spot less effective, winds that make it hard to use listen, hail that can damage, etc. Laugh at the city halflings as they get tossed around by raging winds ;)
 
Moar ideas welcome! n_n
 
It would probably also be the best fit for any swimming checks, as tumble is used for climbing. :)

In PnP, rangers get tracking for free. Anyone else can take the Track feat, but it operates off of the survival skill. Three classes get the survival skill as a class skill,

1. The Ranger (though they get tracking for free anyhow)

2 + 3. The druid... and the barbarian.

In PnP both of these classes can take the track feat and enjoy the benefits of having access to Survival as a class skill. Although I know that survival is not implemented here, tracking is, and it would be nice if higher level barbarians, like druids, received the tracking ability, and their levels (assuming tracking here checks class levels) are factored into tracking.

Edit: Looking at the survival skill, now that we have weather, and possibly more treacherous terrain with quicksand, there might be some ideas there that could be put in... predicting the weather patterns? Hmm...