Third party custom content

[Vahene]

You know, the thingie on the task bar.. defensive casting?

I thought that sorta counterspelled.

K

[Wired]

So let it be written, so let it be done!

Thx to Atharin for the counterspell XML.

[Wired]

You know, the thingie on the task bar.. defensive casting?

I thought that sorta counterspelled.

K

Defensive casting lets you make concentration checks to avoid attacks of opportunity while casting in combat.

[Vahene]

I thought it ate spells though?

K, who really needs to find her manual...

[Elrith]

I thought it ate spells though?

K, who really needs to find her manual...

Nope, no spell eating. And I wouldn't read the manual. As far as I know the original one was written as if counter spell was going to be in the game, but they removed it before launch and didn't update the manual.

[Peregrinus]

Vahene, Vahene... allow me to explain. ;p

Defensive Casting, as stated, makes it so that you can cast spells while in melee range without provoking attacks of opportunity. Very useful if you're a melee mage like Phelan. The DC for defensive casting is a 15 + Spell Level Concentration Check, so to defensively cast a Magic Missile is DC 16 while MUB is 24. It's quite easy to get it so you never fail this check, max ranks in concentration, and the feats Combat Casting and Skill Focus Concentration do it quite nicely (or the first level of NWN2 Eldridge Knight, whichever you prefer).

Counterspell is an entirely different thing altogether. In order to counter, you must ready an action to do so (in NWN this meant choosing a target and going into counterpsell mode). When your target begins casting you must identify the spell (no big problem for most high level spellcasters). Once this is done the spell to counter with is chosen. If you're lucky and know the spell, you use up that spell for the day and counter the opponent's spell.

Example: Falson and Heaven are talking at Popper's Rock. Heaven is a known to be rather mentally unstable and Falson doesn't trust her because of this. Falson decides to ready an action to counterpsell just in case she snaps. Sadly, she does and tries to cast Isaac's Greater Missile Swarm at a poor nearby Redboot. Falson makes his spellcraft check and identifies the spell, since he knows IGMS he expends one us of IGMS for the day (being a sorcerer) and counters Heaven's spell. Then proceeds to chastise her for an hour about controlling her temper and magic.

If you don't know the spell, you must then use a Dispel Magic of some kind. In NWN2 there are three spells that act like Dispel Magic. Dispel Magic, Greater Dispel Magic and Mordenkainon's Disjunction. If you fail to identify the spell OR don't have the spell prepared (or known) that the opponent is casting you can use this. This may fail as you must make a Dispel Check DC 11 + Caster Level of the Spell you're trying to counter.

Example: Falson has had a long and tiring trip from Dragonwatch, having to battle through a group of Talon Scouts who'd set up camp in the Daris Farmland. Coming into Daris he spies Heaven sitting on Popper's Rock and she's having an argument with Haxley. Concerned for his friend, Falson readies to counterpsell Heaven. She eventually snaps and begins casting Wail of the Banshee. Unfortunately Falson doesn't know that spell, and he's used up pretty much all his magic above fourth level killing Varanites, so all he has left is a dozen or so Dispel Magics. He attempts to counterspell the Wail, a DC 31 check, but fails as he rolls a 17 on his Dispel Check, a total of 27 on his check (due to the +10 bonus he gets from his caster level). Haxley, being a rogue, fails his fortitude save and falls over dead at Heaven's feet. To bad Falson didn't have an extra Mordenkainon's Disjunction... As it stands, Falson is forced to aid the Redboots in capturing Heaven and she spends the night in jail.

I hope this helps folks understand the difference between Defensive Casting and Counterspell, and how they work.

Examples may or may not have been true stories, names have not been changed to protect the innocent, Falson, Heaven and Haxley are the property of their respective creators and have been used here for educational purposes only. ;p

[Vahene]

Haxley, being a rogue, fails his fortitude save and falls over dead at Heaven's feet.

Before Stormknife has a chance to see this, let me just clarify your scenarios. Heaven would be dead the moment she started to chant the spell. We're forgetting that Haxley is a rather skilled rogue, and level 20... and usually has absolutely no problems disrupting Heaven's casting. Especially since it's hard to cast if you're a corpse.

But, thank you for the summaries of what DC and Counterspell do. I couldn't remember the blasted name for it at first. I remember Counterspell being annoying though because I could never get it off in time because of all the menu clicks you had to go through, and I couldn't figure out how to put it on my taskbar to just click it.

K

[Peregrinus]

Hey, my example scenarios, my story, Hax would understand, besides, it's more amusing this way.

And in all likelihood whether or not Haxley stopped Heaven would depend on a significant number of variables, including, but not limited to, relative position when Heaven starts casting, if he opens with a Knockdown or not, etc. etc. Yes he was a skilled rogue, but when a rogue is ambushed with something that hits their weakness, they usually lose. No offense to any rogues, present or past.

[Vahene]

Well, very likely they both would have been dead.. but.. still.. *grins*

K

[Atharin]

Oh and half-elf beards plzzz.

[superpoweredchimp]

I tested out the TKL Perfomer. Pure awesomeness. Must have.

[Atharin]

OH AND while we're mucking with 2das can we modify the weight of the base clothing item from 10lbs to 1lbs because them are some really really heavy clothes!

[Nathen Arnes]

OH AND while we're mucking with 2das can we modify the weight of the base clothing item from 10lbs to 1lbs because them are some really really heavy clothes!

Agreed. And Vick's a wimp.

[Peregrinus]

If I was arguing for pure realism, I'd say change the clothing weight to about 5 lb, but I do agree 10 lbs is a bit much for any believable amount of clothing, even heavy winter wear. It also just serves to penalize low strength characters... which is annoying.

I do need to repeat my question from earlier: with added character design options (hair, faces, etc) will you allow folks to do one free redesign of their characters or will we have to recreate a character if we want to take advantage of the new stuff?

[Wired]

No rebuilding of characters, sorry. While I suppose you could get a new haircut (though NWN2 does not provide a facility for changing it), you can't really change your head mid-way through life anyway.