Improved Anvil 6.6 BETA Options

[SparrowJacek]

Hello, as you could see from my activity on the forums, I've been working on Cleric rebalancing for the past few months. Finally I have enough changes, that they can be presented to players and make your experience with Clerics different.

But before I present the changes, I need to emphasize, that because of not enough time in our team, the chances that I prepared were only superficially tested. Only extensive tests would enable us to catch some less obvious mistakes and strange behaviors of new/reworked content. We are sorry for that, as we know that's an inconvenience to players. That's why this version is labeled as BETA. We hope, that you will install the mod anyway and if you can, then please report any bugs or issues to us, this will be your contribution to ensuring the quality of the next official release.
Sadly I am not skilled enough to ensure that no bugs will be present and since we have not enough data, we can't also objectively say if the changes that are introduced in BETA v6.6 are balanced, if you find them too overpowered, then let us know, or if you think they're too underwhelming, please share your thoughts on how to improve those skills/spells

The current release of v6.6_BETA can be downloaded from this link
https://github.com/SparrowJacek/ImprovedAnv...es/tag/6.6_BETA

If you want to get the newest version with all newly found bugs fixed, please download it from my Github repository:
https://github.com/SparrowJacek/ImprovedAnv...v7_beta_changes
You can download zip with all the changes by clicking "<> Code" button and then "Download ZIP"

And finally here's the general list of the biggest changes:
Changes made for IA 6.6:
1. Defensive harmony cast by a cleric kit gives additional 2/3/4% DR at levels 12/18/24 to party members, each party member affected gives similar boost to caster, so max 20%DR, this works by casting a spell lasting 6 seconds each 6 seconds, so keep a tight formation to get the benefits!
2. Divine Intervention - new HLA, works as Greater Restoration for whole party, doesn't trigger fatigue, can be taken 2 times by all clerics (it's an ability)
3. Greater Restoration is now single target spell, as per its description, to me it made no sense that Clerics can use a ranged full heal for whole party as 7th level spell and Druids get a single target spell as a HLA
4. Heavenly Shield - new 6th level spell, each round your first hit deals additional damage if you wear a shield, damage increases when you have more points into Sword and Shield, available for all Clerics
5. Hold Undead - Priest of Lathander spell, it slows down undead for 3 rounds (by 50 or 100% depending on saving throw) and decreases their resistance to slashing and crushing
6. Protective Chant - new 5th level spell, AoE, fast cast, for 1 round increases MDR by 50 or 75%, only for kits
7. Guardian Angel - new 6th level spell, each time you take damage, you regenerate for 4/6/8 HP, only for kits
8. Spiritual Link - new 7th level spell, decreases max time to cast spell to 7/6/5/4 at 14/18/22/26 lvl, prevents all other forms of decreasing casting, only for kits
9. Spare the Dying - new 7th level spell, protects from dying for 1 hit, after which it is dispelled when dispelled that way, for 10 seconds prevents chunking, only for kits
10. Purify Aura - new HLA, instantly cleanses aura, has delay, which decreases with levels, at lvl30 no delay, can be taken 3 times, only for kits
11. Demon Hunter - new 5th level spell, AoE, gives thaco/dmg against demons, gives 10%chance per hit to increase demon chance of critical miss by 1 for 2rounds, demons affected by this spell get +1 to critical miss and if they critically miss, they suffer 10magical dmg, available for all Clerics
12. False Dawn - works only against vampires/mists, deals 6-24dmg, bypassing magic resistance and fire resistance
13. Bolt of Glory - if hits demons, then decreases their magic damage resistance by 40% for the impact
14. Sunray - if hits undead, reduces their fire resistance by 25% for the impact, does nothing if enemy has fire resistance higher than 100
15. Weaken Undead - reworked Repulse Undead, bypasses Magic Resistance, reduces chance of Critical Hit by 1 and damage dealt by 10%
16. Strength of One - does nothing if character has higher str than 18/75
17. Holy Power - does not decrease strength if already higher
18. Blade Barrier - does not hit allies (done only for that version available to party)
19. Boon of Lathander - increased dmg/thaco to 2 from level 10
20. Cause Serious/Critical Wounds spells are drastically improved and reworked, please read the description for details
21. DUHM cast by Lathander is undispellable and lasts 90s
22. Holy Power cast by Tempus is undispellable and gives 1/2APR from lvl 12 and 1APR from lvl 20
23. Righteous Magic cast by Tempus is undispellable
24. Summon Animals spells from levels 4-6 are not available to Clerics now
25. Bless duration increased to 1 turn
26. Aid spell from level 15 works as an area spell
27. Seeking Sword is reworked to improve with levels, its disadvantage is now that it can't be used with another weapon (though it can be with shields) and it decreases caster level
28. Priest of Helm gets * in Long Swords at lvl 1 and gets a HLA which increases it to **
29. Holy Bracers are now available to Clerics
30. All Clerics can get ** in Sword and Shield, Tyr can get ***
31. Sword and Shield reworked to add -1 AC and -1 AC against arrows per *, instead of just -2 against arrows
32. Divine Favor duration increased to 6rounds
33. Priest of Talos gets Purify Aura ability at levels 5/15/25
34. Priest of Talos casts Spiritual Link with better result, his spells casting duration is reduced to 6/5/4/3
35. Fully reworked Shaman class with its own abilities and new spells
36. Slightly improved Irenicus' dungeon
37. New recipe for Keldorn's armor
38. New item upgrade designed for Barbarians - Stained in Blood chain mail

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Dec 18 2022, 07:37 PM

[pekkae]

This looks great! Thank you for all the work!

I'm looking forward to trying these things in practice!

[kilorew]

Nice work!

[SparrowJacek]

Hi, the mod is ready to download now, the link is in the first post. If you have any problems, spotted any bugs, inconsistencies, or weird behaviors (eg in AI behavior) please let us know and we will do our best to fix that. I hope you will have great time with this new release and please share your opinions on the changes!

[pekkae]

Great!

[lroumen]

Very nice!
Now I will have to think about which kit complements a shaman protagonist. And whom to give it to if I don't create custom npcs

[tongtian]

Fantastic work The new shaman class is very attractive, probably become the new best healer in the game.

[lroumen]

I have been thinking on the kit selection for my next run.
Tyr looks interesting now, but it's utility skill is meaningless given that my protagonist will be a shaman which has a similar shaman specific spell available.
On paper from above, Lathander, Helm and Tempus are quite strong in melee. It depends on whether one would like anti undead (Lathander), anti mage (helm) or a chaotic boon (Tempus) as a secondary feature.
Talos is a strong caster with good defensive abilities vs elemental damage, which is very widespread.

It is a tough call, really, but I am tempted to go with Tempus or Talos. Since I will round up an evil party for a change, I will probably go for...
Shaman, Hexxat swashbuckler, cleric of Tempus, Dorn or korgan, some wizard magic user, and a sixth open spot.
I am actually considering whether a Talos dualed to mage might fit well here.

[SparrowJacek]

I'm glad that both Shaman and Cleric kits became interesting to players, the more different and creative party compositions, the better!

Iroumen, I see you decided to try as many of our new changes as possible The party looks interesting, although I'm not sure you will have enough melee power. Swashbuckler starts to shine a bit later, Shaman has a limited hand to hand capabilities and Clerics will have to be tested. But I'm sure your survivability will be very high!

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Dec 12 2022, 08:25 AM

[Badgerlad]

These changes look amazing !

Started a run yesterday with a shaman protagonist and Anomen tweaked into priest of helm (instead of generic).
So far so good, even though having to pass up on Jaheira and Cernd feels weird.

A few questions though (the readme doesn't look updated yet) :

- Is Shaman considered a druid when it comes to item limitations, strongholdwise and such ? (so far, seems so. SPOILER!

It appears I can pretend to the Great Druid title once I reach 14

)
- Did you introduce new items (shaman-specifics notably) ? SPOILER!

Found a Yeti's hide somewhere, looks new to me

- Did you introduce the SPOILER!

new druid stronghold upgrade

or will it come in v7 only ?

I'll report bugs I find (if i do) in another thread, only thing I noticed so far is the spirit shift activation animation going on a loop every round when its effect ends. Doesn't always happen, but pretty often. Resting fixes it.

[SparrowJacek]

Hi Badgerlad, it's great to see you're back

to answer your questions:

- Is Shaman considered a druid when it comes to item limitations, strongholdwise and such

Critto will have to say for sure, but Extended Druid Stronghold should be available for all Druids and Shamans, so maybe Shaman is already treated as a a Druid for most logical checks in v6.6_BETA

- Did you introduce new items (shaman-specifics notably) ?

At the moment there are very few new items, IIRC we have some new recipes, which are also present in Items section of the readme. We've reworked Keldorn's armor(that's v6.6_BETA stuff, not 6.5 right?) and added a new chain mail for Barbarians that can be forged. As for extended Druid/Shaman items, I'm not sure whether they are accessible before V7.

or will it come in v7 only ?

No, that's v7 stuff. Apart from Shaman rebalancing and some smaller changes or bugfixes, version 6.6_BETA does not cover any major parts of Extended Druid Stronghold quest to my knowledge.

Started a run yesterday with a shaman protagonist and Anomen tweaked into priest of helm (instead of generic).

I'm curious as to what party composition will you use

I'll report bugs I find (if i do) in another thread

Amazing, thank you!

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Dec 12 2022, 03:09 PM

[lroumen]

With shaman, cleric and swashbuckler and the need for a mage it seems tough to fit in enough melee power. I will have a better thought in it...

[SparrowJacek]

I'm not saying it's impossible, you are an experienced IA player, so I'm sure you will manage though some parts might be tough, however it's been literally years since my last full playthrough, so I might have a wrong perception of what is necessary to succeed. Your party is very versatile with a vast amount of divine and arcane spells, so it should be fine and if not, then you can always switch 1 or 2 characters midgame.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: Dec 12 2022, 06:47 PM

[Badgerlad]

I'm curious as to what party composition will you use

Eventually itll probably look like :
Shaman protagonist
Anomen (he's a ranger > priest of helm so he can ironskin)
Minsc (tweaked berserker)
Neera (I almost always run with a solo arcane on IA)
Imoen ( tweaked kensaï)
Korgan DD

I believe the kited priest + shaman combo can support a melee party fairly well, but I'm also quite worried about dragon fights silences.
By the way, the shaman healing power early on is insane thanks to the mending thing. Minsc could litteraly facetank the Suna Seni fight VERY early on.

EDIT after some early IAish fights (Slavers, TorGal, Windspear full dungeon...) :
The healing from shaman REALLY makes a difference. Never felt so safe in IA, we shall see about later stages of the game. A fight I can't wait to try with such a healer is the kobold crystal in Spellhold.

As for clerics, Anomen is a beast right now. The no friendly fire Blade Barrier is quite a thing, and all these goodies you guys added to the cleric kits feels like it should always have been this way. It really makes them distinct from druids in a good way.



This post has been edited by Badgerlad: Dec 13 2022, 12:10 AM

[lroumen]

For sure, the tough fights in IA require 3-4 melee capable characters, and I think bare minimum of 2 need access to critical strike.

I am happy you feel the changes make such a difference and distinction Badgerlad! That makes me want to try the game even more... once I figure out what I want (and end my shaman run in bg1, to import)

[critto]

Critto will have to say for sure, but Extended Druid Stronghold should be available for all Druids and Shamans, so maybe Shaman is already treated as a a Druid for most logical checks in v6.6_BETA

This is generally true, if somewhat against the existing lore.

- Did you introduce new items (shaman-specifics notably) ?

There's a line of upgrades that are druid/shaman only, and you could probably forge the earlier versions, but the late-game stuff will only come with the extended stronghold quest.

No, that's v7 stuff. Apart from Shaman rebalancing and some smaller changes or bugfixes, version 6.6_BETA does not cover any major parts of Extended Druid Stronghold quest to my knowledge.

Correct, this is not present in v6.6, being WIP at the moment.

I believe the kited priest + shaman combo can support a melee party fairly well, but I'm also quite worried about dragon fights silences.

Shamans have a spell that can help you with that issue.

The healing from shaman REALLY makes a difference. Never felt so safe in IA, we shall see about later stages of the game. A fight I can't wait to try with such a healer is the kobold crystal in Spellhold.

I'm curious whether it makes too much of a difference :-)

I am happy you feel the changes make such a difference and distinction Badgerlad! That makes me want to try the game even more... once I figure out what I want (and end my shaman run in bg1, to import)

I hope the import does not screw things up, I am not sure how the game will handle changes made to the kit when applied to an imported character.

[Badgerlad]

The healing from shaman REALLY makes a difference. Never felt so safe in IA, we shall see about later stages of the game. A fight I can't wait to try with such a healer is the kobold crystal in Spellhold.

I'm curious whether it makes too much of a difference :-)

So far I feel like it does make a big difference. Wouldn't say huge, but I notice it more than every now and then. At least it feels like a somewhat "new" way to take on some fights.
Yet, it comes at the price of having a character (said shaman) being fully dedicated to support duty. Most of the time I choose to hold off that creeping doom or one of his great buffs just so I make sure his aura stays "cleansed" for mending. Still offers new possibilities. As an example, Shade Lord I killed yesterday comes to my mind, shaman could be safe from any ADHW while still throwing mendings so that everyone had enough hp to survive it (and in this situation, was relying on Anomen's Protective Chant to soak half of the dmg).
In a nutshell, it feels like an early game version of Cernd's endgame.

I wonder if making mending scale with levels (as in 1 mending per round til lvl 12, 2 til lvl 20 then 3, or so) might hold off that early healing power. And I still have to test that power out in mid/end game.

Spirit Shift is perfect by the way. Situational as hell, but saved hard fights once or twice and synergizes extremely well with the "stay out of danger and support" kind of play. Staying out means also staying out of debuffs, so at the very end, having someone fully buffed in an instant being able to jump into the fray for a couple of rounds can be life saver.

The sorcerer-like spellbook was also a great incentive to try new druid spells i usually ignored (namely Dolorous Decay which made some early hard fights trivial). And, gosh ! Do I spam Insect Plague like crazy !

I'm about to hit Spellhold, so we shall see how I'll deal with the truck-hitting enemies there.
No bugs so far, just noticed that the acid shield vs. enemy fire shield causes infinite dmg loop on party member more than I remembered.

[critto]

Yet, it comes at the price of having a character (said shaman) being fully dedicated to support duty. Most of the time I choose to hold off that creeping doom or one of his great buffs just so I make sure his aura stays "cleansed" for mending.

Do you mean that you forgo casting in order to avoid waiting out the standard 6 seconds cooldown in case you need a quick healing? Because the aura cleansing that occurs after casting a mend spell does not last beyond a second, so there's no sense in abstaining from casting to keep it from lingering. This is probably obvious, but I thought I'd clarify just in case.

I wonder if making mending scale with levels (as in 1 mending per round til lvl 12, 2 til lvl 20 then 3, or so) might hold off that early healing power. And I still have to test that power out in mid/end game.

Some balancing might definitely be in store for this whole thing, but what you propose is quite challenging technically so I doubt that would be a chosen route. It's much easier to scale the spell's own healing power with levels than limit the amount of chain-castings available, considering that you can chain-cast any spell after a mend spell for the price of breaking the chain-casting ability.

Spirit Shift is perfect by the way. Situational as hell, but saved hard fights once or twice and synergizes extremely well with the "stay out of danger and support" kind of play. Staying out means also staying out of debuffs, so at the very end, having someone fully buffed in an instant being able to jump into the fray for a couple of rounds can be life saver.

True, I have had the same feeling about it but haven't had the chance to test it out in practice yet.

The sorcerer-like spellbook was also a great incentive to try new druid spells i usually ignored (namely Dolorous Decay which made some early hard fights trivial). And, gosh ! Do I spam Insect Plague like crazy !

Yeah, I've been wanting to have a druid-like sorcerer in Baldur's Gate for 20 years, and all the modded kits felt junky. Shaman is such a cool concept implemented on the engine level. Sadly, there are still some ugly limitations that make modding the class tricky.

No bugs so far, just noticed that the acid shield vs. enemy fire shield causes infinite dmg loop on party member more than I remembered.

This bug will just haunt me forever, it seems. Any particular instances?

[Badgerlad]

Yet, it comes at the price of having a character (said shaman) being fully dedicated to support duty. Most of the time I choose to hold off that creeping doom or one of his great buffs just so I make sure his aura stays "cleansed" for mending.

Do you mean that you forgo casting in order to avoid waiting out the standard 6 seconds cooldown in case you need a quick healing? Because the aura cleansing that occurs after casting a mend spell does not last beyond a second, so there's no sense in abstaining from casting to keep it from lingering. This is probably obvious, but I thought I'd clarify just in case.

I might have misunderstood the description. I mostly meant having my shaman "always ready to heal", aura cleansed or not. I was rather refeering to "if i cast creeping doom, I need to wait a round so no emergency healing". I was rather emphasizing the effectiveness of long range healing, so I'd do anything to have my shaman always ready to emergency heal. If that makes sense.
But since he's on healing duty 80% of the time, mending comes to good use.

I wonder if making mending scale with levels (as in 1 mending per round til lvl 12, 2 til lvl 20 then 3, or so) might hold off that early healing power. And I still have to test that power out in mid/end game.

Some balancing might definitely be in store for this whole thing, but what you propose is quite challenging technically so I doubt that would be a chosen route. It's much easier to scale the spell's own healing power with levels than limit the amount of chain-castings available, considering that you can chain-cast any spell after a mend spell for the price of breaking the chain-casting ability.

Scaling scale power is definitely the best way to go. Low level heals are quite strong, and the casting time is close to instant.

Spirit Shift is perfect by the way. Situational as hell, but saved hard fights once or twice and synergizes extremely well with the "stay out of danger and support" kind of play. Staying out means also staying out of debuffs, so at the very end, having someone fully buffed in an instant being able to jump into the fray for a couple of rounds can be life saver.

True, I have had the same feeling about it but haven't had the chance to test it out in practice yet.

Yeah, good job on that ! At the start I was like meh, this sucks why would I ever want to use that ? Then it came in handy and saved my arse. By the way, the ability has the fire elemental description when I right click it. And for some reason I was testing out the damage, each hit from my shapeshifted shaman always deals the same amount of damage. IIRC 3 when I was testing it onto party members, 7 (he had 2 more levels) when against Thax before Shadelord.
=> not true anymore, tested it lvl 14.

The sorcerer-like spellbook was also a great incentive to try new druid spells i usually ignored (namely Dolorous Decay which made some early hard fights trivial). And, gosh ! Do I spam Insect Plague like crazy !

Yeah, I've been wanting to have a druid-like sorcerer in Baldur's Gate for 20 years, and all the modded kits felt junky. Shaman is such a cool concept implemented on the engine level. Sadly, there are still some ugly limitations that make modding the class tricky.

When it comes to the class core, I was wondering if the shamanic dance was really worth it. Gonna try to use it a bit (Mithril Golem for sure !) but it really feels overwhelming so far. I'd (very) personaly like unique summons better, improving with levels, as in what you implemented with Avenger and Vagrant. Not that it's needed, the class is great without it anyway.
The reason I don't use it is that it takes the end of the round I stop it before I can cast again, cf. my first point.

No bugs so far, just noticed that the acid shield vs. enemy fire shield causes infinite dmg loop on party member more than I remembered.

This bug will just haunt me forever, it seems. Any particular instances?

IIRC, against Tanova (pretty sure) in Shadows Thieves 3rd task, and another mage. Maybe Pirate Coordinator ? Can't remember. Happened 3 times this run.


Oh, and I just got Shaman to level 14, indeed his lvl 7 spells are something. I was almost disapointed to imagine how powerful Storm Shell may be, got almost worried Ambers would be a walk in the park. We shall see about that.

This post has been edited by Badgerlad: Dec 14 2022, 02:43 PM

[critto]

I might have misunderstood the description.

Well, to clarify one more time. When a mend spell is cast, shaman gains a short-last improved alacrity (durationg of 1 second). If another mend spell is cast it is renewed, so chain-casting healing spells is possible. If another, non-mend spell is cast, the alacrity is immediately lost.

By the way, the ability has the fire elemental description when I right click it. And for some reason I was testing out the damage, each hit from my shapeshifted shaman always deals the same amount of damage. IIRC 3 when I was testing it onto party members, 7 (he had 2 more levels) when against Thax before Shadelord.

Right click issue is known already, will be fixed in v7. Haven't seen the same damage issue, would need to check.

When it comes to the class core, I was wondering if the shamanic dance was really worth it. Gonna try to use it a bit (Mithril Golem for sure !) but it really feels overwhelming so far. I'd (very) personaly like unique summons better, improving with levels, as in what you implemented with Avenger and Vagrant. Not that it's needed, the class is great without it anyway.

I haven't come with a great idea on what to do with the dance ability, so I left it untouched for now. Maybe the community will offer some insight. Reworking the summons is an obvious choice, but it feels kinda boring, and I didn't want to do it.

Oh, and I just got Shaman to level 14, indeed his lvl 7 spells are something. I was almost disapointed to imagine how powerful Storm Shell may be, got almost worried Ambers would be a walk in the park. We shall see about that.

It might be, yes. This is what beta-testing is about :-)