Larian Banner: Baldur's Gate Patch 9
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#641009 20/01/18 10:34 PM
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Erikem Offline OP
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I currently work on an standalone-class mod, which will feature some new mechanics and hopefully a lot of fun.
[Linked Image]
The mod is WIP and is roughly 91% complete. TBD:
- Do proper skill sounds (100% complete)
- Add proper effects for honor and focus skills (100% complete)
- Change tiering rules for certain leadership skills (100% complete)
- Release on steam and maybe nexus
- Finish banter (75% complete)
- Implement periodic party banter (unrelated to skill usage)
- Balance (need input from whoever tries it)

Download latest version

In order to enable the class you need to get a single class-specific skillbook from new vendor available at most marketplaces as well as Lady Vengeance
[Linked Image]
This class is about a sourcerer-warrior wielding enomorous two-handed sword with which he shares his soul. His arsenal includes deadly martial art skills, statuses manipulation and party protection
[Linked Image]
Standalone-class
This class is not a set of extra skills added to a game but instead a standalone class which can be activated and deactivated any moment (out of combat) together with all of its features, which include (but are not limited to):
-New skills
-Class-specific attributes and abilities bonuses and restrictions
-Stance-rotation based combat
-New mechanics: skills tiering
-New mechanics: spirit shield
-New mechanics: share weakness
-New mechanics: oath of honor
-Party banter
-Class-specific visual effects



All skills that come with a class are available only if it is active and are immediately removed if class is disabled. On a bright side they are all added back if class is activated again
[Linked Image]
Stance-rotation based combat
Although Blade Master knows many skills only a few of them are available at any given moment of time. His martial art is all about a fluid dance of stances which automatically progress with every skill that he uses. Every stance offers different skills and using these skills will ALWAYS move Blade Master into the next level of the stance or into an ultimate stance if he was already at level 3 stance

There are 3 stance types:
-Offensive stance
-Defensive stance
-Ultimate stance

Both offensive and defensive stances have 3 levels after which Blade Master goes into the ultimate stance. Once one of the ultimate skills is used the stance is removed and Blade Master will have to start a new rotation.
[Linked Image]
Key attributes and abilities
Key abilities of the Blade Master are:
-Leadership
-Two-Handed
-Perseverance

Key attributes of the Blade Master are:
-Strength
-Wits
-Finesses
-Constitution

A different combination of these will not only make Blade Master stronger but will also change the playstyle dramatically

Playstyles
Two-Handed + Strength - a pure damage dealer. A bit fragile but can do tremendous damage
Two-Handed + Wits - damage dealer focusing on crits. His damage output might not be as steady as with the Strength build but his crits are devastating
Perseverance + Constitution - a pure tank focusing on big pool of health, many protective abilities and protection from negative statuses
Perseverance + Finesses - tankish combination, which focuses on superior dodging
Leadership - offers various playstyles all of which focus either positive or negative statuses manipulation and multiple team-wide bonuses. Blade Masters with high leadership can easily penetrate enemy armor-related resistances and apply statuses that are normally blocked by armor
[Linked Image]
Skills
Class currently features 37 active and 3 utility skills. Skills are focused on 3 main areas:

-Damage-dealing
-Status manipulation (both positive and negative)
-Protection and tanking

While Blade Master knows all of these skills it will be very hard to be exceptionally good in all of these 3 areas.
[Linked Image]
Class-specific attributes and abilities bonuses and restrictions
Blade Master benefits from main abilities and attributes in a way different from other chaarcters. Some give him extra bonuses and some limit him.

Bonuses
All bonuses are applied on top of what attributes or abilities give by default

-Wits: +1% critical damage for every point over 10
-Finesse: +0.5% dodge chance for every point over 10
-Consistution: 0.5% chance to auto-cleanse negative statuses when they are applied to Blade Master for every point over 10
-Perseverance: grants a spirit shield on entering the combat. The higher ability - the stronger the shield
-Leadership: every teammate of Blade Master has 2.5% chance per point in leadership to regain back positive status for 1 turn once it is removed

Restrictions
-Warfare does not give any damage boost to Blade Master
-Strength and Two-Handed provide much smaller damage boost to Blade Master to counter quite high base damage and keep scaling less steep
-Necromancy, polymorphing and summoning schools are restricted for Blade Master because one way or another they interfere with a fragile soul-bonding link between him and his sword
-Blade Matser is not a lone wolf by definition. He is a party-guy constatly chatting with his trusted sword and initimidating enemies
-Obviously Blade Master is restricted to two-handed swords as his weapon
-Many skills are not available for him, especially buffing, healing and mobility ones. In order to achive supremacy Blade Matser fouces on his dedicated martial art and has very small capability of learning skill beyond it
[Linked Image]
Skill tiering
Almost every skill Blade Master has scales with his abilities gaining not only raw damage but also (depends on each skill):
-Range
-Radius
-Extra targets
-Extra effects
-Removal of friendly fire
-etc.

Most of the skills have 7 tiers, starting with tier 1 that requires just 1 point in one of the Blade Master abilities and ending up with tier 7 which is granted on 20 points in ability
[Linked Image]
Party banter
Quite often Blade Master, his sword, companions and enemies will comment the skills used by Blade Master. Can be disabled any moment

Last edited by Erikem; 08/02/18 09:07 PM.
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Erikem Offline OP
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[Linked Image]
Spirit shield
Blade Master relies a lot on this extra exotic form of protection, which offers an extra layer of armor (both magical an dphysical armor) instead of simply mending/boosting your current armor

Pros:
- powerful
- many abilities give it

Cons:
- has short duration
- is fully removed once duration expires even if it wasn't completely destroyed
[Linked Image]
Share weakness
You force your enemies (or sometimes yourself) to share their negative statuses with other enemies around. Can be devastating if used properly
[Linked Image]
Oath of honor
Activated optional party buff which boosts base attributes of the team but punishes save/load scamming in battles

Loading a mid-combat* save will force everyone who has given an oath of honor to die of shame. Literally.

*Start of combat autosaves are safe to load

Last edited by Erikem; 28/01/18 07:21 PM.
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Sounds cool and innovative. Keep up the good work! Will it be for GM mode?
I would love to try it out in my campaign, for NPCs to begin with.

Is it going to be balanced or is it supposed to be a bit OP?

And, if I could make a wish, I would like some slim light two handed swords to go with it (like Katanas). Or maybe GM mode has such swords already? (I havent looked through them all).

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Erikem Offline OP
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I will initially release it for story mode and then will try to adapt to GM. As for NPCs - I'm not sure whether AI would be able to properly use skills with so much scripting involved.

As for balancing - I want it balanced but seeing how everyone and everything becomes OP by the end of the game (mainly due to insane scaling and item bonuses) it may be a challenge. But I do want this class to be balanced.

As for Katanas... oh... that's a dream. I want them soooo bad myself. But alas this is seriously beyond my skillset =( Good news is that if other modders create mods with new 2h swords and name item templates properly then they will be automatically supported by Blade Master mod.

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Some banter examples and stuff are moved here (content was not updated)
https://youtu.be/-uxheMx2jAE
https://youtu.be/GPxd-dr8gXQ
https://youtu.be/OT6FKshH8dk

Several skills:
[Linked Image]

Last edited by Erikem; 28/01/18 07:25 PM.
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Erikem Offline OP
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Here's the first beta version of the mod:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ln50r61k4...4b3-965e-415a-8992-d7b62b1bdd00.pak?dl=0

TBD:
- Sounds (not even started them)
- Banter (75% complete)
- Balance (need input from whoever tries it)

In order to enable the class you need to get a single class-specific skillbook from new vendor available at most marketplaces, as well as LV and tutorial level

MAKE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR SAVE BEFORE TRYING THIS MOD

Last edited by Erikem; 28/01/18 07:32 PM.
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Erikem Offline OP
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A new version has been released (link is the same as before):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ln50r61k4...4b3-965e-415a-8992-d7b62b1bdd00.pak?dl=0
Changes are:
- Change respec behavior for class vendor to 'instantly refund all points'
- Game no longer randomly crashes when Blade Master class is enabled
- Added proper support for mod updates (versions are handled properly now)
- Spirit shield now works as intended:
-- when a new shield of stronger power is applied - it overrides old one
-- when shield is depleted - it is automatically removed
- Fixed some skill descriptions
- Vendor lore dialogue improved
- Stacked Dodging buffs are no longer removed when hit by multi-projectile skills
- Honor buffs now provide correct amount of attributes bonuses
- Battle Focus buff now provides attributes bonuses while active
- Balance somewhat improved

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A battle with magisters during tutorial:

Last edited by Erikem; 31/01/18 05:27 PM.
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I'm loving it!
Especially the back and forth between you and swordy, gives this such a good dynamic. (And the skill progression system is amazing too.) I know what I'll do in my next full playthrough smile

Sincerely,
Kevin

Sidenote: It has to be said that these are some amazingly clear skill tooltips. Good job!


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Wow! This is one very encouraging feedback and I'm very glad you're enjoying it!

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements or find any defects.

BTW have you tried 'honor' skills? I need some feedback on the very idea behind them (voluntary prevention of loading in-combat saves)

As for the upcoming plans they are:

- do proper skill sounds (20% complete)
- add proper effects for honor and focus skills (0% complete)
- finish banter (75% complete)
- release on steam and maybe nexus
- implement periodic party banter (unrelated to skill usage)

Last edited by Erikem; 02/02/18 01:13 PM.
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I'll play it some more and see how the balance feels. From a quick play through the tutorial on Tactician, it feels just as rewarding as a normal class. I do see some typing mistakes, but that's a minor thing at this point.

Maybe make the initial 2 skills (Forward Lash and Provoking Whispers) 1 AP? Not sure myself, but it might help flexibility. Easier reacting to offensive/defensive switch + you still have an AP left in a normal 4AP situation to do smaller things like drinking a potion or moving a bit (handy for moving out of smoke clouds like the one you make with I Am Not Here!). But it could make it a bit too flexible, so I guess its a matter of testing it out.

I do like the honor skills. It's like a mini honor mode, but less punishing if you realize its too hard after a couple of hours. Making the team version scale with level is a good idea. Keeps it worthwhile on all points of the game. The stats bonusses are a bit high though, I think, given how restricting mid-combat save/loading is not that harsh of a penalty. Especially Honor Mode: self might be a bit exploitable early on. Maybe let it scale too, but slower/less?

Anyway, that's all after only a hour or so and really nitpicking. Keep it up and I'm sure this will turn out great! It's definitely in a state that can be publicly released/tested and adjusted on the fly smile

Sincerely,
Kevin

PS: Nice write-up of the Blade Master story. And introducing it as a sort of specialization instead of a separate class. Makes it feel unique/flexible. Reminds me a lot of the specializations like Reaver and Templar you could unlock in the Dragon Age: Origins DLC.

Last edited by Larian_KVN; 02/02/18 03:21 PM.

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Originally Posted by Larian_KVN
I do see some typing mistakes, but that's a minor thing at this point.

Yeah there are plenty of them. But that's gonna be a part of post-release fixes

Originally Posted by Larian_KVN

Maybe make the initial 2 skills (Forward Lash and Provoking Whispers) 1 AP? Not sure myself, but it might help flexibility. Easier reacting to offensive/defensive switch + you still have an AP left in a normal 4AP situation to do smaller things like drinking a potion or moving a bit (handy for moving out of smoke clouds like the one you make with I Am Not Here!). But it could make it a bit too flexible, so I guess its a matter of testing it out.

Oh... if only I could add some "free" movement ("pawn" talent style) as a part of the skill then certainly ssome skills would have it.
But your point makes sense and mirrors my personal observations. But instead of reducing AP cost I think of adding an ability with 2-3 turns CD, which will allow you to drop your stance and regain back 1 AP

Originally Posted by Larian_KVN
The stats bonusses are a bit high though, I think, given how restricting mid-combat save/loading is not that harsh of a penalty.

On the other hand I want to make this bonus appealing enough to use it. I want players to be tempted to go for it but still keep it within reasonable power level

Originally Posted by Larian_KVN
Especially Honor Mode: self might be a bit exploitable early on. Maybe let it scale too, but slower/less?

Oh yeah - this one is big (9 ability points in total) but only on a first glance. Thing is that Tier 1 BM abilities actually suck a big time, so not having this bonus can make a life very hard for early-game BMs.

If player would decide to go for BM for these bonuses only and use other game skills - he is welcome to try. I assume it won't be as satisfying as it sounds.

And one more thing... all skill that are scaled by abilities are actually scaled all the way up to 20 points (tier 7). You just don't see T6 and T7 until you reach T5.

Originally Posted by Larian_KVN

PS: Nice write-up of the Blade Master story. And introducing it as a sort of specialization instead of a separate class. Makes it feel unique/flexible. Reminds me a lot of the specializations like Reaver and Templar you could unlock in the Dragon Age: Origins DLC.

Thx!

Here are some examples that show that T6 and T7 skills usually get some pretty strong extra features
[Linked Image]

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Ohlaa, nice high-level stuff. That does indeed balance out the points you addressed smile
The stance drop is indeed a nice idea.

Sincerely,
Kevin


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Version 0.9.0.0 has been released and can be downloaded here
Download latest version

Changelog:
- New skill "Regroup": drop your current stance and get back 1 AP
- New bonus from Leadership: each point in leadership gives Blade Master a 2.5% chance to regain 1 AP after skill is used. Some skills have double the chance meaning a guaranteed 1 AP refund for them at Leadership = 20
- Some skills now tier based on the "Best of" of several abilities. This way Leadership gained some extra skills, while sharing a few of it's own with either Perseverance or Two-Handed
- Buffed some Leadership skills, especially "Wind of Change" and "Blinding Steel"
- Changed skills to match the fact that Taunt is now unresistable
- Added visual effects to honor skills
- Added proper sounds for all skills
- Fixed some broken effects
- Overkill at later tiers now properly applies extra damage

Last edited by Erikem; 08/02/18 09:04 PM.
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Version 1.0.0.0 has been released on Steam. Enjoy
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1299264769


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