Learning how to get a new spell in game

ok i removed all my original entries - and then got the spell working (by itself, just scintillating sphere) in field 594.

I'm going to try moving it up to one of the higher fields and see if i can get it working in those.

but yeah, in 594 it DOES work

 

oh so i probably broke something by removing them >_< damn lol

ok, well for now is it ok for me to use the 590s range? (i think i'll stray away from lvl 0 spells too) i'll keep checking the other spell slots and all, but for getting stuff into the game, is that ok?

 

The one's ive been doing are from the spell compendium supplement:

I'm not particularly interested in doing homebrew ones personally, but if people want to do them thats up to them

i think ted's are from a few different splat books, spell compendium, masters of the wild etc.

The spell compendium ones are more of a compilation of cool spells from splat books etc, most of them seem ok - i mean, for instance, spells that use sonic damage do less damage overall, since sonic resist is far less common than fire/electric/acid/cold etc. In general i think the blast spells are pretty balanced, only some of the buff/debuff spells would need to be given a look at

That said, if you'd like i can post the stats/rules for each spell before i do each one, and get people's opinions

link to spell compendium:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/885987200

its a pretty cool supplement, if you want a wider range of spells .

for instance, spells you might know from icewind dale/baldur's gate, like vitriolic sphere, burning blood, snowball swarm, scorch (aganazzar's scorcher), black blade of disaster, mordenkainens force missiles etc etc. it lists a LOT of those, in a proper format. its 288 pages of spells for all classes.

Some of them, i honestly dont like, things like 1st level 'wild-shape-ish' druid spells, that kind of thing i consider to be uneccesary, or detrimental to a class design.

Another cool thing is that it can be used to plug holes in spell lists, though arcane divination spells still seem in pretty short supply :roll:

regarding 'being in the modpack' - i was under the impression that it was going to stay seperate, so that people who didnt want the spells didnt have to have them. But ted's the one to field that question, not me

 

further to that effect, the next spell i am working on is the snowball swarm you guys already could see in the files:

Those of you who have played iwd2 will remember this spell - the spell compendium version seems to be brought down in power from that though (iwd2 version had a larger radius i think), it is basically a lesser-powered, shorter range, smaller area fireball that does cold damage, and doesnt scale anywhere near as well. Albeit at a lvl 2 spell.

A comparable lvl 2 blast spell would be sound burst (bard/cleric 2) which does 1d8 damage, close range, save vs fort or be stunned for 1 round.

Does anyone have any opinions as to balance?

I know, two aoe blast spells in a row, i promise that next time i'll do something more interesting. Besides, the effects done already

 

Ummmm... well i dont think that there is a ruling on that - generally theres Core books, phb1, mm1, xph, dmg, and then theres 'splatbooks' which include world specific stuff like the forgotten realms, and theme-based stuff like masters of the wild, complete series, etc.

I think that generally it is considered to be up to the DM, whether or not things are allowed.

Personally, i have no problem with being kept seperate myself - ted seems to have the mod able to integrate quite readily by just installing the mod in the right place.

Considering the ease with which it is installed, its not prohibitive to install one extra mod on top of co8. and this way we dont offend anyone who doesnt want any non-core stuff.

The one thing to always remember with non-core content is that if you include ENOUGH of it, then the game can become unbalanced.

Splatbooks dont always take other splatbooks into account when they come up with new rules.

I'm not trying to imply that there arent ways to seriously exploit mechanics in core d&d, but if you have enough different resources, this can happen:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=491801

 

Quick question regarding debuffs (or buffs for that matter).

the game seems to apply conditions in spell scripts with lines that look similar to this:

target.obj.condition_add_with_args( 'sp-Hold Monster', spell.id, spell.duration, 0 )

(taken from hold monster, obviously)

Now, i seem to remember Ted mentioning that applying a condition to a creature is not as easy as it might seem.

Does this line reference another file that holds the condition's details?

Can new conditions be created, or can i only play with existing ones?

 

ok, so no new conditions, but you can replicate existing ones yeah?

i checked out your ray of entropy, and it appears to simply use cats grace, bears endurance and bull's strength as a damage value

thats still debuffing!

just limited is all

Does it stand to reason that we can do any type of debuff that is already in game, but not create existing conditions?

Does it also mean that most existing buffs can be reversed?

for example:

lets say i want to do an AC debuff, could I achieve it by doing a similar thing as your ray of entropy, using the line from the shield spell:

target_item.obj.condition_add_with_args( 'sp-Shield', spell.id, spell.duration, 4 )

?

 

further questions along that line, is it possible to put a negative value into that line? or do you have to do it the way you did with Ray of Entropy, define damage as Xd1, then call dam_amount?