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A Series of Questions about aspects of the IE engine


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Within the item files there are options to delineate the Item properties: Silver, Cold-Iron, and Adamantine. Does anyone have an in-depth guide/list to what these actually do in IE engine when applied to an item? And, in regards to overcoming defenses, how do they compare to the “Magical” property? Are they any way similar to how these materials work in 3e, in regards to Devils, Demons, Fey, and damage reduction?

 

Next I want to ask some questions about dual-classed characters, specifically in regards to how their level is recognized by the game. I know caster level is determined by each respective class, but in regards to spells and attacks that detect “Hit Dice”, I’ve heard a dual classed character’s HD is determined by the average between the two classes, that is First Class Level + Second Class Level, divided by two. Is that true? The next thing I want to ask is, with a Dual-Classed character, how does the game “read” said character’s level in regards to scaling New NPCs as well as level-scaled enemies/challenges: does the game simply use the higher of the Dual-Classed character’s two levels, or does it actually add the two together?

 

Next I want to ask how a summoning spell determines the status of the summoned creature, in regards to whether it is friendly, hostile, neutral, controlled, etc; but more importantly how it is determined whether a creature can follow the party from map to map (like a familiar) or is stuck in the map it is summoned (like a normal summon)? Is that determined in the spell file or the creature file, and what are the different options?

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Next I want to ask ...how it is determined whether a creature can follow the party from map to map (like a familiar) or is stuck in the map it is summoned (like a normal summon)? Is that determined in the spell file or the creature file, and what are the different options?

It's set by the .cre's scripts it's running.

 

No, there are no predetermined item propperty table that say what each item has or how they are modified by mods that install them. And the what they are used, is that there's an opcode that protects from the damage they do. As there are no damage reduction modifiers in the 2nd Edition of the "rules". Well, at least in this engine(it's not anywhere near the 2nd Edition complete rules for a AD&D game, they are more of a guide, for a RTS game).

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iwd:how does support damage reduction and amplification.

 

which spells detect hd? Maybe something in iwd2, but descriptions are also prone to errors.

 

playable npc replacement is externalised to npclevel.2da and is completely devoid of any special handling — the level depends on your level and what file is referenced in the table. Non-playable npcs are static or replaced arbitrarily in scripts or areas (depends on the version).

 

summoning: depends on the opcode and parameters used.

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iwd:how does support damage reduction and amplification.

It has damage resistance (like Fallout 3) but not damage reduction/damage threshold (like Fallout NV). The specific question is about the silver/cold iron/etc. flags... I think the answer is that those can only be used for immunity to weapons (like Karoug in TotSC), not for more nuanced effects like damage reduction.

 

which spells detect hd?

He must be talking about caster level?

 

EDIT - I guess Sleep and Color Spray.

Edited by subtledoctor
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flat damage reduction comes with iwd2. :)

 

hd: do those spells really use it?

Death spell uses the characters level... which can be seen as hit dice, but it's not really it... but yes, they are kinda related.

Ahh, yeah the worst Infinity Engine game, who would guess that it comes with damage reduction, but doesn't with joinable party members.

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Cold iron and silver are flags to support damaging certain creatures with damage resistance.

Adamantine has no specific support in the engine, except the scripting action DestroyAllFragileEquipment(I:Type*ITEMFLAG)

can destroy all items flagged by it. (This is to support the drow items in bg2ee).
Modders can use the remaining unused flags for their own.
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In regards to certain spells that vary in effectiveness depending on the level of the target (ie death spells, certain HLAs, etc., I think maybe Tenser's T) is there any difference if a target is a Level 15 Mage or a Level 2 Fighter/ Level 15 Mage? To put it another way, would that 2 Fighter Levels have any effect the character (besides the obvious fighter skills), vs the same character that is a pure mage?

 

In regards to the summons, I wanted specifically to know how to make a summon that follows the party from map to map. And, moreover, can one make a summon that follows from room to room but still has a limited summon duration?

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Just from reading about mods made by other people, my understanding is that "summons" can follow you to new areas.

 

They can't.

Familiar-like characters can be scripted for, but anything that can be summoned in quantity is impossible to reach, scripting name or not.

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In regards to certain spells that vary in effectiveness depending on the level of the target (ie death spells, certain HLAs, etc., I think maybe Tenser's T) is there any difference if a target is a Level 15 Mage or a Level 2 Fighter/ Level 15 Mage? To put it another way, would that 2 Fighter Levels have any effect the character (besides the obvious fighter skills), vs the same character that is a pure mage?

 

Does anyone know about this?

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I have another question, though this one requires something of a preface. A kit can be applied to a character at any time using utilities like EEkeeper; in fact a character can even retain a kit for a class different than their own, for example, a Fighter could have the Assassin Kit applied to him, and, even though it will not effect his fighter levels in any way, the game will remember that said character has that kit. Then if that fighter chooses to dual classes into a thief, rather than becoming a True-Class thief, he will start his second class as an Assassin, with all of it's unique class features and restrictions intact, and then will continue the game as a Fighter x / Assassin x dual. It is an interesting engine feature that I'm surprised has never been utilized in the main game.

 

With that said, my question is how is the most direct way to apply a kit to a character, preferably via an opcode? I know there are opcodes to change alignment, sex, level, etc.

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