Imoen as 13th level sorcerer Options

[Sikret]

Imoen will appear as a sorcerer in spellhold. Her base (minimum) level will be 13. If your protagonist is high level enough she will gain additional XP to level up after she joins you. The additional spells after the level up will be chosen by the player during the game. What we want to decide over now in this poll is to determine her base spells as a 13th level sorcerer.

I have chosen most of her spells (as a 13th level sorcerer) in an optimized way for your needs in IA (as probably I know the usefulness and power of each spell in IA better than most other players). However, I want your opinions about the few remaining spell slots. Her current list of spells are as follows:

First level spells:

- Magic Missile

- Shield

- Larloch's minor drain

- Identify

- Burning Hands

Second level spells:

- Mirro Image

- Melf's Acid Arrow

- Blur

- Resist Fear

- One last spell you need to vote for and choose

Third level spells:

- Vampiric Touch

- Flame Arrow

- Remove Magic

- Dispel Magic

Fourth level spells:

- Emotion

- Ray of Fragmentation

- Stoneskin

- One last spell you need to vote for and choose

Fifth level spells:

- Breach

- Oracle

- One last spell you need to vote for and choose

Sixth level spells:

- Protection from Magic Energy

- One last spell you need to vote for and choose

As I said, if your protagonist is high level, Imoen will gain additional XP once she joins the party and may immediately level up. Those additional spells (after the level up) will be chosen by the player. What we want to determine now are her remaining spells as a 13th level sorcerer.

Note 1: I don't guarantee that I will follow the result of the poll accurately (as I still know things about the mod that voters may not know), but I guarantee that I will consider the poll as one of my main criteria for making the final decision. In other words, I have reasons to prefer some of the options to others, but those reasons are not decisive (if they were decisive I wouldn't need to create a poll) and I will surely consider the poll and your comments before making the final decision about each spell level.

Note 2: The options in the poll are written in alphabetical order. So, the order doesn't show anything about my own preferences.

[lroumen]

Sikret,

That would be soo cool!


The idea to randomise the innate ability and to experiment with it until you find out what it does is really innovative. It does spur a few questions though.

Does the innate have a name, and does that name change once you find out what it does?
Are there banters involved after a certain amount of failed experiments, or is there a banter after having found out what the innate does? I think something would be nice to have a banter discussing the progress if you keep failing and it would be good to have some concluding banter if you do finally figure it out.
I'm certain that you've already scripted such things, but now that you've excited my curiosity, I cannot help but ask.




Concerning the spell selection.

I think the debate concerning the high level spells is probably not very important. Once Imoen levels the player will be given the opportunity to pick whichever spell they prefer, and if your party level is much different from Imoen she will level up immediately allowing the player to immediately pick those spells they want.


Concerning the choices.
Lower Resistance is a spell that 90% of the player uses, even those people that prefer Spell Immunity. People who prefer Spell Immunity pick it before Lower Resistance, but they end up with both anyway. Lower Resistance is just a utility spell that is a waste 'not' to have.
I would therefore give Imoen Lower Resistance and let the player decide whether they want Spell Immunity or not (I am likely to pick Spell Immunity on the level up). This would probably allow more players to use tactics they are familiar with.

The 6th level spells are all very useful and I can think up tactics for all of those. It would not be a hamperment for me if two 6th level spells were pre-chosen for me (prot magic energy + 1 out of 3 listed above). Seeing as we get to choose 3 more 6th level spells after I think there is little to worry about and you can probably just go with that which is voted for the most.

The most important debates are the 2nd and 4th level spells. Whatever the final result may be, I would not go with both invisibility spells. There is just no need as a sorceress. Knock would make Imoen remain a little bit of a thief and allows players to take a lesser thief with them (for instance Nalia), but of course if her Innate ability were thieflike then maybe knock isn't necessary anymore. We still get a 4th level spell, but players probably all have their own preference for that last one, sooo..... chosing between spider spawn and improved invisibility is a tough one I guess.

[Sikret]

The idea to randomise the innate ability and to experiment with it until you find out what it does is really innovative. It does spur a few questions though.

Does the innate have a name, and does that name change once you find out what it does?
Are there banters involved after a certain amount of failed experiments, or is there a banter after having found out what the innate does? I think something would be nice to have a banter discussing the progress if you keep failing and it would be good to have some concluding banter if you do finally figure it out.
I'm certain that you've already scripted such things, but now that you've excited my curiosity, I cannot help but ask.

Well, the difficult thing to implement banters about the new innate ability is how should the game realize that you have figured out what the ability does. You may discover what it does at some point but there is no way to check it to see whether you have discovered it or not.

As for the abilities name, I am thinking of giving it a vague name which suits well with all of its possible random forms (both before and after the discovery of what it does). Its name will be the same in all random forms. Something like: "From Deep Inside" or "Imoen's miraculous Endeavour" or something like that. Any suggestions for its name will be most appreciated.

Concerning the spell selection.

I think the debate concerning the high level spells is probably not very important. Once Imoen levels the player will be given the opportunity to pick whichever spell they prefer, and if your party level is much different from Imoen she will level up immediately allowing the player to immediately pick those spells they want.


Concerning the choices.
Lower Resistance is a spell that 90% of the player uses, even those people that prefer Spell Immunity. People who prefer Spell Immunity pick it before Lower Resistance, but they end up with both anyway. Lower Resistance is just a utility spell that is a waste 'not' to have.
I would therefore give Imoen Lower Resistance and let the player decide whether they want Spell Immunity or not (I am likely to pick Spell Immunity on the level up). This would probably allow more players to use tactics they are familiar with.

The 6th level spells are all very useful and I can think up tactics for all of those. It would not be a hamperment for me if two 6th level spells were pre-chosen for me (prot magic energy + 1 out of 3 listed above). Seeing as we get to choose 3 more 6th level spells after I think there is little to worry about and you can probably just go with that which is voted for the most.

The most important debates are the 2nd and 4th level spells. Whatever the final result may be, I would not go with both invisibility spells. There is just no need as a sorceress. Knock would make Imoen remain a little bit of a thief and allows players to take a lesser thief with them (for instance Nalia), but of course if her Innate ability were thieflike then maybe knock isn't necessary anymore. We still get a 4th level spell, but players probably all have their own preference for that last one, sooo..... chosing between spider spawn and improved invisibility is a tough one I guess.

I agree with everything you wrote.

BTW, Agannazar's Scorcher has also occured to me as a good 2nd level option.