Anybody know a way to let bards sing and fight?

[ScarletLemur]

Um, the title is basically my question. Is there perhaps a mod out there that'll do it, or maybe some file I could edit with NI or something?

[Andyr]

You could edit the .SPL files of the bard songs to last longer than 1 round, then the effects would linger after you stopped singing to fight.

[ScarletLemur]

Really? So when I'm singing and just walking around, it's as though I'm recasting the song spell every round? Is that how it works? And, by the way, you wouldn't happen to know the string of cryptic letters and numbers that go in front of the .SPL part for the files I'd need to edit?

[Andyr]

Yeah, that's how it works. I don't remember what .SPLs the bard songs are, but when you find them it should be a simple matter of increasing the numbers on the Duration headers to whatever you want (and the headers should be fairly obvious when using NI or DLTCEP).

[Domi]

SOunds good. I will do the same, then. I think it was very nasty of them to take this from the bards in BG2.

[ScarletLemur]

OK, don't mean to sound like an idiot or anything, but... Seriously, anyone know the .SPL codes are? I've just been poring over all the spells in NI and either I'm looking for the wrong thing, or changing the wrong thing, or doing something stupid.

[ScarletLemur]

OK I figured it out... I should've checked the 2DA file to begin with... But out of curiosity, when I altered the duration, the original value was "100". I went ahead and changed it to "1000". I assume that means ten rounds, since the bardsong seems to re-cast every round. Is this correct? What's up with this numbering system?

[Andyr]

It was 100 originally? That's odd. The numbering system is seconds, so I had thought it would be 7, the number of seconds in a round (I know some of the bard songs are from when I edited them).

[Domi]

Could it be the lingering one?

[ScarletLemur]

See, I initially thought my target would be SPCL542.SPL (I'm focusing on the skald, here). There, the duration was, in fact, 7, which made sense to me. But changing that didn't seem to do anything. I noticed some kind of note somewhere in SPCL542 that some part of the spell referenced the file SPCL542A.SPL, so I looked into that and found more duration fields, one for levels 1-14, one for 15-20 (I don't remember the exact level breakdowns, but you get the idea; the song gets better at higher levels). THOSE duration fields read 100. Once I changed them, it worked. Confusing.

 

By the way, what do you mean "the lingering one"?

[Domi]

There is an HLA for bards, called 'lingering song'

[ScarletLemur]

Ahh... I'm SoA only.