Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 - The Modding Dungeon Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Modding General Mod Release: Baardvark's Bard Class

They do a tonne of single target damage and they can't keep that up all the time.

I do the same aoe damage on a massive scale when playing as a wizard except it's aoe damage. Include my habitual use of teleport to create what my friend calls a 'meat menagerie' and people would cry 'look how op this is, nerf plz'

Or perhaps I should include my cleric build that can kill absolutely anything with 3 skills. 'Nerf plz'

Or maybe my zombie fighter that uses shackles and healing elixers to effectively suicide bomb anything that moves

bah, worry less about nerfing and more about making 'less effective' classes more effective.


One thing I've been thinking about is creating an unofficial 'tactical mode'

Another thing I've been wondering is how to improve AI but this I feel is way beyond my time and skills to even attempt

One thing you could do with flesh sacrifice (if it's possible) is make it more like executioner. Instead of granting AP straight away, make it conditional. So for example:

Flesh Sacrifice: Buff damage for 10%. If you kill an enemy the buff will expire and reward 1 AP next turn. If you fail to kill an enemy before the buff expires 1 AP will be deducted from your next turn.

These conditions add dynamic / texture and risk+reward factors.

Reducing dagger throw damage (slightly) is also a good idea I think. But only slightly

You could also reduce or actually flat out remove the total critical damage modifier given by the scoundrel traitline.
So for example, Instead of:
Each point in scoundrel gives +5% movement speed +5% Critical damage modifier
It give:
Each point in scoundrel gives +10% movement speed
or
Each point in scoundrel gives +5% MS & +3% accuracy

or something like that.

The thing that makes rogues so strong is the backstab mechanic. The simplest way to deal with that is to hit the crit modifiers directly imo

another thing you could do is increase the damage penalty for dual wielding but reduce that penalty for each point in dual wielding. I actually think this is a far nicer way to balance the rogue but again, that's just my opinion

New Version! Excited about the new instruments.

Changelog V1.1

ADDITIONS



Instrument Weapons!

Super excited for these. You'll be able to find several lutes throughout the game that you can equip, usually as 2-handed clubs, though there are some 1-handed ones for them dual-wielders or shield users. Some lutes behave like a 8m range wand. These deal low damage, but most of them grant skills that set a semi-permanent status to yourself which alters how 1 or 2 of your skills behave. For example, one instrument might grant a status which always upgrades your resonance skill by 1 level. Using an instrument isn't mandatory, so you can still hybridize, but a pure bard will probably prefer equipping a lute over other weapons.

New Bard Skill:

Tame the Chaos: Target absorbs all elemental surfaces and clouds within 3m, restoring magic armor according to the amount absorbed.



MAJOR BALANCE CHANGES

Dance of the Elements is now actually sold by vendors.

Dance of the Elements now chooses the vulnerability with the following priority: Status of target (Stunned, Frozen, Necrofire, Burning, Poisoned, Oiled or Slowed, Chilled or Wet), Surface the character is standing in, and then choosing randomly if none of those conditions are met. Speed Vulnerability can't be chosen as a vulnerability anymore.

Glory To Gore renamed Cacophony, and now deals damage in an AOE when you cast it rather than the aura dealing initial damage when applying Cacophony to enemies. It still also does damage to enemies on their turn though. This is to prevent being able to damage targets multiple times by running in and out of the max aura range. Just too silly.

When using Creative Burden, Hard CC statuses (Staggered, Stunned, Frozen, Petrified) and some softer CC (Crippled) are now taken onto the bard for 2 turns. Most other statuses apply for 1 turn. It was too easy to just strip CC from an ally right at the end of the turn with little consequence.

Rhyme and Earworm now cost 2 AP. Rhyme can grant necrofire, holy water, holy fire, and masochistic melody.

Swindle checks against magic armor. It deals a small amount of magic armor damage.

Song of Living Nightmares can't apply Dazed anymore.

Sound Wave applies Cacophony I instead of Dazed, which reduces resists by 10% and deals some damage. Reduced initial damage somewhat, but overall it should deal more damage with the status.

Inspiration of Woe now converts necrofire into a burning aura.

Reverted Flesh Sacrifice nerf. People didn't like that :P

Crossbows have 1m more range than bows.

Daggers now deal about 10% less damage, but all characters start with the back-stabber talent for free. No more talent tax! If you REALLY hate the damage nerf, you can delete the weapon.txt in the public/stats/generated/data folder. But trust me, the damage nerf really is pretty minimal. Rogue has The Pawn talent by default, and Shadowblade has Guerilla.

Decaying Touch now converts healing into 125% damage, instead of 175% damage. Also, Decaying Touch is worth -2 postive statuses for Resonance. This is mostly to make it so you can't practically 1-shot a boss with 5 buffs and decaying touch (though still deals a lot of damage).




BUG FIXES & MINOR TWEAKS

Boosted player run speed by 20% or so. It's not a huge difference, but it should make running feel like running, not like a sluggish jog.

Reduced leadership requirements of all bard skills except source skills down to 1. Slightly increased bard skillbook gold cost.

Diversified bard visual skill effects, added some status effects.

The Cacophony statuses from Sound Wave and Cacophony can be discharged with Feedback.

Masochistic Melody will stay at level 5 when you get a negative status while already at level 5, rather than resetting to level 1.

Feedback damage statuses (not the initial status) now contribute to Masochistic Melody.

Halved the number of diamonds the CheatBard preset starts with.

I believe I fixed a bug where character creation would bug out if you changed the third character skill on my Skald preset (thanks Rykari).

Ha. Thats excellent.

Shame that spell-song effects would be very hard to create, so that the Bard can have its own kind of visual representation of his spells and songs.

Have you thought about using some of the existing magic visual effects and so maybe even incorporating those into the spells themselves, like for example - ... making a sort of bard version of Hail strike but call it a "cold love" song or something similar, while changing its effects to fit more with the Bard style.
Or "feel my pain" (dumb name) and using shackles of pain for it, only also slightly changed?

Not a big thing or demand, just thought about it.

"Daggers now deal about 10% less damage, but all characters start with the back-stabber talent for free. "

Shouldnt this be limited to some specific character builds instead of all?
Surely only the rogues should start or even have this skill-talent for free?

I think it's more that he's limited to what he's able to do with his mod, and without the tools solutions are necessarily cruder. Also, this is a classless system, and making it only applicable to the two presets (Rogue and Shadowblade) would go against Larian's design philosophy of allowing you to change classes (even if that philosophy is not actually practical in game terms.)

Ideally it would only apply to the daggers themselves, but that's a code change.

Well... most of rogue skills are available only to daggers.
Maybe the talent could be tied to rogue skills investment too.

Of course if this is hard to do now by modding then i wont complain about it, but it does feel like all characters getting this talent at the start is a bit too much.

I think that the best deal with talents would be to have only one locked by default, and players could then choose two at the start.

Just giving backstabber to everyone was the simplest way to do it. Didn't want to get too fancy in case it didn't work out. Not sure if there's a better solution that would be possible to implement. Functionally, tying backstabber to equipping daggers and just granting it to everyone is identical, and not sure how to grant a talent from a weapon type. Non-rogues probably aren't going to be just equipping daggers with the talent tax gone, but I could be wrong. In that case, I may have to nerf dagger base damage even more and then maybe slightly boost the scoundrel bonuses.

Would love unique spell effects for bard skills. It may be possible to make minor tweaks to existing effects (like changing the color and scale), but not sure how to do even that.

There is some kind of sense to allow any build to backstab with any weapon if you are in position and have the talent. Its not something thats difficult to do... although maybe rogues could get some kind of bonus damage and other relatively smaller effect to it.

So every point invested in rogue skills would give a few percent bigger backstabb damage and ... something else. Crippled status maybe... damage to physical and magic armors... weaken status... something to differentiate rogues as better at it then other builds.

You can only backstab with daggers, though. You can't backstab with a spear, as funny as that would be.
Tying it to daggers would change nothing

"Lizard: Shed Skin. Remove all statuses on yourself, positive and negative, and apply a 25% all resistance penalty to yourself for 2 turns."


I think this one should be better, reminds me too much of the Sebille special source skill and doesnt look like anything i would use myself, while its hard to see how it could be used if im frozen, petrified or stunned.
Besides, lizards dont shed skins, snakes do.

Maybe it would be better to have some kind of Lizard gaze, - soft stun or petrified for one turn, maybe lose initiative? Or something like lizards ability to regrow lost limbs - regeneration of vitality for two turns, maybe + remove crippled on yourself.

This is nice, thank you! I would love to see this in the hands of a great role player as a DM.

Lizards also don't breathe fire, so we're already not going for pure scientific accuracy. The idea for Shed Skin has been floating around for longer than Sebille's source skill, Nivv came up with it a while ago and I've been promoting it as a more useful racial than the Lizard's Firebreath. (Admittedly, I also dislike Firebreath for my own personal preferences when it comes to lore.)

It's quite true that it can't be used when you are under hard CC, but there are enough other negative statuses for which this would be helpful, especially for cursed-surface status effects.

Lol, just pretend that lizards shed in this world :P As far as its usefulness, it's hard to say whether it has too many downsides (memory and AP cost, resist reduction, AND it removes positive statuses). But a free skill that can remove every negative status needs to be tempered by something. With my mod it would remove stunned and knockdown since those don't completely eliminate your turn anymore (though unless you have 2 turns of stunned or KD, then it's mostly pointless since you won't recover the AP you've lost already).

Blind, decaying touch, shackles of pain, crippled, necrofire, or several smaller negative statuses can all be worth spending an AP to ditch. Obviously there's some strategy to consider if you have some buffs you'd rather not lose, and whether the resist reduction is worth losing the debuffs for, but that's what makes it interesting. I think I'll drop the resist reduction to 15 or 20% though. 25% is pretty harsh.

Sebille's source skill is just bad and boring, so I'm not going to compare shed skin to that.

I can pretend lizards shed skins, fine.

But i dont see how such a skill is useful. If i could cast it on others then sure, it would be useful.
But since we are playing in a party that usually has at least two healers or debuffers i dont see much need for this skill. Especially since i would lower my own resistances by using it. I just wonder why would i ever do that?

And it looks very similar to sebille source one.

It may be useful for one specific build but not for many others.

Blind is only hampering to range fighters. It doesnt do much to melee ones. all those other statuses can be removed by something else, usually in skills of the party.

I would rather just have fire breath.

Just sayin...

What about a gecko inspired skill that let you detach/drop (summon) a tail that had a taunt skill but no attack or movement.

Visually it would be difficult to mod, but I think it would work in any build.

New version with a dynamic difficulty enhancement feature, 5 new skills, major loot changes, and lots of rebalancing. If you're finding the game too easy at this point, you should check the mod out.

Bardmod Changelog V1.2

MAJOR NEW FEATURE: Enemy Buff Randomization and Champions!

Many people will find the game easy after a while, and more importantly, predictable. Obviously this is just the alpha so there's limited combat, but I wanted to try out a way to make the game more difficult, dynamic, and satisfying loot-wise at the same time. Thanks to Rykari for the initial suggestion.

On entering combat, each enemy above level 1 will receive a permanent random buff, ranging from hasted to floating to invisible to several custom buffs like +5 leadership, vampiric attacks, extra perseverance or pain reflection. Enemies also have a 15% chance to become champions. Champions are very powerful, ranging from a fairly standard boost to basic stats like damage and resists, to a polymorph champion, to a bard champion, and others. However, you'll be rewarded with a garaunteed blue or legendary and other loot on killing a champion, and all enemies have a chance to drop extra items. Bosses that receive champion buffs will drop one additional garaunteed legendary along with other champion loot.

These buffs are intended not just to outright buff enemies (though they do to a degree), but also to force you to change up your strategy. If you an encounter a leader-type enemy, for example, you'll want to avoid stacking up a group of enemies. You might face "Fragile Dodger" enemies that have high dodge chance, but reduced elemental resists, so you might have your mage go for that enemy instead of your rogue.

By default every enemy receives a buff at the start of combat, but the frequency of enemy buffs can easily be tweaked to your liking by editting the EnemyBuff.charScript file with a text editor. This file is located in the Public/Shared/Scripts folder. Change the line INT:%RandomOn = 0 to INT:%RandomOn = 1, and set the value of FLOAT:%BuffChance = 0.50 (50%) to your liking. You can also disable champions or change their likelihood of appearing.

To disable this feature entirely, set INT:%BuffsOn = 1 to INT:%BuffsOn = 0 and INT:%ChampionsOn = 1 to 0. This remove the buffs as well as the extra loot.

Note: all enemy statuses but the champion statuses can be stolen with Bard's Swindle skill.


NEW BARD SKILLS

Crescendo (1 AP, 4 CD)

Boost a character's movement speed by 25% for one turn, and then by 60% the following turn. Bard needed a good movement skill that wasn't just another teleport, and also requires some preperation for best effect.


Call and Response (1 AP, 4 CD)

Inspire a character with feelings of vengeance and gratitude alike, healing characters that have applied current buffs they have, and damaging characters that have applied current debuffs they have. Heals or damages for 8% of a character's maximum vitality per status. (Hopefully this skill isn't too confusing)


Barbarian's Delight (1 AP, 4 CD)

A barbaric jig of bloodbath that grants an ally a random buff whenever they slay an enemy (non-summon) for the next 2 turns. If a character kills a character with the Barbarian's Delight status, the killer will receive a random negative status.


Song of Travel (2 AP, 4 CD)

Boosts the movement speed of yourself and nearby allies by 25%. Removed on entering combat (however, it can be cast again in combat if you want). Mostly meant for use outside of combat, but can be useful for combat too if you don't have other skills to use.


Guilt Trip (2 AP, 5 CD)

Deal a small amount of piercing damage and apply remorse to nearby enemies for 1 turn. Remorse causes piercing damage when characters use skills. Bards needs another simple attack/damage skill, but still requires good timing to make sure enemies actually have skills to use to deal the most damage.




BALANCE CHANGES

Reworked Perseverance so that when Knockdown is removed (either naturally or with a skill), you are fortified for a number of turns according to your perseverance: 1-2 Perseverance = 1 turn, 3-4 = 2 turns, 5+ = 3 turns of fortified. Same concept for stunned, applying magic shell with the same ratio of Perseverance to turns. Toned down perseverance armor recovery from 15% to 8%.

Inspiration of Woe (convert damaging statuses to auras) can now be cast on your allies, not just yourself.

Receiving a critical hit now grants you a stack of of Masochism if you have Masochistic Melody.

Characters with zombie talent now bleed poison and have a status to indicate they are a zombie.

Boosted range of Jingle and Song of Living Nightmares to 12m each.

Jingle can't apply enraged or invisible anymore, but added a few other statuses it can now apply.

Resonance and Feedback cooldowns increased to 3 turns, from 2.

Buffed initial Feedback damage, no longer deals damage over time.

Reduced Tame the Chaos cooldown to 3, from 4. Increased range by 2m.

Staggered now reduces maximum AP by 3, from 2. Reduced the other maluses to 25% from 30%. AP reduction felt too forgiving especially against Glass Cannon characters. Fixed Staggered and Off Balance not applying the accuracy penalty.

Toned down the resistance penalty from Shed Skin to -15%, from -25%. It was a little too punishing.

Significantly nerfed the lucky charm treasure skill that adds loot to enemies, from 100% chance to get a magic+ item to 15% chance.

Increased angle of Sound Wave by 15 degrees, slightly boosted its damage, and made the resist debuff it applies last for 2 turns.


LOOT

More than halved the resists you can find on random loot (e.g., 30% resist items are now 15%, 20% grant 8%, etc.) Uniques and shields unchanged. Resist inflation was absurd without even trying to deck out in rares/epics.

Rare items can occasionally appear with a single legendary modifier (e.g., grants a skill or an immunity or high amounts in one stat).

Epic items can occasionally appear with two legendary modifiers.

Strength and Dexterity bonuses now only appear on weapon types that benefit from those attributes. Intelligence still can appear on all weapon types.

Thievery bonuses no longer appear on loot. Too easy to abuse by trading to allies to pickpocket.

Loremaster only appears on rings now. Persuasion only appears on helms and amulets (removed from rings and belts [wtf? sexy beltbuckle I guess?]).

Amulets can't provide an AP recovery bonus anymore. (Chest pieces can appear with custom AP recovery/start/maximum combos that are hopefully more balanced than a straight +1 AP recovery.)


MINOR CHANGES AND BUG FIXES

Bard skillbooks can now appear in random loot and have a custom description instead of using hydrosophist description.

Undocumented Change (since V1.0): Very slightly buffed lucky charm. Like, from 5% chance to proc to 6% to proc when looting a container.

Slowed, decaying touch, shackles of pain, diseased, and infectious diseased now grant a stack of Masochism if Masochistic Melody is applied with these statuses active.

Crooner (the healing lute Laslor sells) now applies a reduced healing effect than standard renegeration. The lute no longer provides a constitution bonus. Calming Presence now actually improves resonance skill.

Bard at character creation no longer displays an extra memory received from gear.

By default Bard and Skald presets now start with Mnemonic talent instead of Far Out Man.

Staggered now always pierces armor against Glass Cannon targets, instead of applying Off Balance if they have armor.

http://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/3/?

Wow. You've actually managed to add what is effectively a massive game-changer, almost a new game mode in the alpha. Impressive.

The cooldown on Guilt Trip looks excessive for such a situational skill.

Yeah I suppose it's kind of like a new game mode. Sort of like an arcade mode (but not dumbed down, as "arcade" can sometimes imply.)

Guilt Trip CD could probably be shortened by 1. I don't think it's super situational. Most enemies use skills frequently. Remorse does a fair amount of piercing damage, and the status isn't blocked by armor.

Nice, moved to a new sub MODS

Can't wait to read some discussions about mods

That all sounds great but, could there be an option that these new stronger buffed enemies mechanic applies only on some enemy groups?

So not to make all enemies stronger and better but only those where that would be reasonable?

Not sure how this could be done and its true there isnt many low level enemies in the game right now, but there are a few groups where one wouldnt expect to find champions. Mostly in prison area.

I think all magisters groups could be expected to be stronger in this way, and it fits with the narrative.
But maybe not literally every single enemy, or potential enemy.

Or am i wrong?

I could be. I need to first try playing this to see if its too much or maybe it fits better then i think.

Hello, awesome mod you got here!

Anyway, can you share a tutorial how to mod this game? Many thanks!