Shaman run 6.6 Options

[kilorew]

Surprised how quickly you went through this playthrough.

+1 To the idea of ramping up the Irenicus Hell fight significantly, feels like a victory lap if you went through the 'hell' to get JD

[SparrowJacek]

Once again - thank you VERY MUCH for this detailed journal and final thoughts! We're happy that you liked the new stuff and be prepared for more in the future

I don't have access to my PC, so I will reply to only some aspects now.

Spiritual Link
I missed the point of this spell I guess, the idea behind it looks awesome, but I really don't see any spell I tend to use (but Heal) that would really benefit from it. To be honest, I'd go as far as making it a passive HLA, thus making cleric scale harder into late game. But again, I feel like I'm missing a point there with this spell.

It shouldn't be made passive, as such casting bonuses don't work with standard - casting speed (from AoP and such) and this is an engine thing, we can't do a thing about it, so you wouldn't be able to cast spells instantly.
I had a general idea for this spell but had no idea how useful it will be. You made a sound point - there are only few spells that have long casting time and are useful. Since False Dawn and Bolt of Glory are still underwhelming, lowering their casting speed by this spell still does not give real advantages.

Heavenly Shield
Kinda the same as Guardian Angel. I LOVE the idea of making sword & shield relevant for clerics, yet, the amount of damage is so small for a character that won't deal much anyway. Used it almost every fight until late Underdark, and I can't say I felt like it made any difference.

This is supposed to be a small incentive to use shields. Having a shield lowers your APR by 2(since you don't use 2 weapons), I didn't want the damage from this spell to be comparable to those 2 additional attacks. You should either get more dmg or more defensive capabilities.

Guardian Angel
Used it a bit early on with Anomen, can't say I noticed much of a difference as the damage is so huge in IA that the amount of restored HP seems marginal. I might be wrong, but it seems so little in comparison to the kind of damage IA dishes out.

This spell is very tricky to balance, but I wanted Clerics to have some other means of surviving apart from skins and high DR. It can protect very well from things like Magic Missile, even healing more than is dealt( it can even be used as an emergency heal, if you send MM from a Mage to your Cleric!). Also you can easily get up to 70% DR by casting AoF, Defensive Harmony and Hardiness (from Wish for example). With 70%DR you are pretty much immune to attacks from enemies that deal up to 25 dmg per hit, no matter how often they hit. If you have a Shaman then you get up to 80% it is even more ridiculous, as enemies have to deal over 40dmg to harm you and you most probably have also regeneration running, so you're almost invincible.
Sadly, there's no way to make the spell heal a percentage of damage taken instead of a fixed value, I'd definitely make it like that if I could.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Dec 24 2022, 01:22 PM

[SparrowJacek]

Here are some more comments to your thoughts:

Stained in Blood
Even though I never used the rage clickie (no info on HP was too scary), it's still an extremely well-put item ! Made Minsc tank harder than ever. As I mentionned in the journal, 15% DR seems like a lot, 10% might be enough. Good job on that, barbs are top tier more than ever. Makes me wanna try Korgie barb on an evil run. Besides, I believe it comes at the right time (regarding the necessary blood components).

Hmm... from your words I got an impression, that it's the Barb that gets that 15% DR, but it doesn't work like that. The decrease in damage is applied to enemies, in a bit similar matter to Weaken Undead, though this ability works only on enemies that hit the Barb in melee, so I don't think it's too powerful.

Spare the Dying
Another great idea, but in practice I didn't see much of a difference while using it in a lot of fights. It certainly saved my arse a couple of time, but it doesn't look IMO strong enough for a level 7 spell. I mean, in harder fights, so much attacks are going through that well, just resisting 1 is not reliable. What about a 1 casting time spell that prevents death for a round ? Kind of a BIG protective chant. And like CC, can be cast only once a day.

You are right, that this spell is not a 7th level material in its current form. I will need to think of a way to improve it, or remove it entirely. Your idea seems very powerful, we'd need to make sure that AI undestands it though, so it would be a lot of work.

By the way, does it apply on demons only, or devils are counted as demons ?

Which creatures are you referring to? I think BG does not have a separate race for them and the spell works on all creatures with race "demonic".

As for False Dawn, Bolt of Glory and Sunray updates, I used them a bit but the damage is sooo marginal compared to the damage we deal by other means I felt like keeping my cleric aura clean for an emergency heal or anything.

I will wait for some more input and probably improve these spells a bit. I don't want them to be too powerful, as you can stack them in a CC with Aerie for example and instantly deal some nice damage to a group of undead, since these spells are available to all Clerics.

Spiritual Weapon
+3 weapon for free, why not, but shaman doesn't fight well, and if he wants to, he spirit shifts and his weapon is replaced. I don't really see the point of that spell, but why not.

It's a divine version of Enchant Weapon spell, but it creates different weapon types. Every party member can use these weapons if their class allows them to do so, so this spell is a means of providing +3 weapons to the party in early stages of the game.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Jan 8 2023, 10:26 PM