Writing in Kits

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I've thought about writing in a Fighter Kit. partly, I want to do this to develop my skills at making programs, because I very seriously want to get involved with the game industry. As such, I'm trying to make some mods (including one for TES4: Oblivion).

So I was thinking about making a new kit for BG2. The idea was a Fighter-type character with some limited thief powers, mostly to carry the player through early sections of the game without Yoshimo or that crazy Gnome Jan.

As such, I was thinking it could have some passive thief-type powers, like a set % chance to detect traps and pick locks. These improve with level, like the Ranger's stealth, but you can't add any points in directly.

On the downside, the character kit has more limited armor selections, and probably a penalty when using some kinds of weapons (like axes, greatswords, etc.)

I was wondering what kinds of tools were available. It seems like an interesting thing to get started on, one which BG2 players might enjoy. Can I do this with Near Infinity?

 

Two things: This isn't really a modding site... if you want a site to help with mods, go to PPG or Chosen of Mystra. They are very helpful, especially if you don't know what the hell is going on.

Pocket Plane Group


EDIT: Here is a site with everything listed for you: Ta-Dah!

Second: You'll need a text editor for any mod, really. I suggest using ConText, but the choice is up to you. You'll also need Near Infinity. (Note, that might not be the most recent version, although, I think it is.) You will obviously need WeiDU (its the last download). Here's Shadow Keeper if you want too.


And here is a tutorial on creating Kits, if you want. I don't know how good it is, but you can always ask questions: Kit Creation Guide (PPG)


Good Luck!

 

Thanks. It looks like a lot of work, but I'll get right to it. Given the trouble with modding BG2, I must thank our WeiDU overlords for putting in so many shortcuts.

Since it looks like modding armor may cause some trouble, I'll probably limit the character's proficiencies considerably (3 stars max for all weapons sounds right). Ah, fun.

Thank you! Sorry for posting mod stuff in here. I wont bug you again.

 

The Fafhrd Kit -- Barbarian with some thieving skills!

 

Something like that. Sadly, you can't make kits for the actual Barbarian class.

The hard part will be to see if I can create an autodetect trap ability, since as a Fighter you can't have an Detect Trap button.

 

Perhaps you can try to edit the Find Traps-spell?

 

That's because the barbarian is already a kit (or sub-class, but then ranger and paladin were once sub-classes of fighter). I'm currently playing a cleric/thief and the thieving skills button is in the special abilities sub-bar. Why couldn't the button go there?

Or, why can't you delete one of the weapon slots?

Three stars is too much for a fighter/thief.

 

Thank you Taluntein.

Given the extremely limited utility of this particular class's thief abilities, T2Bruno, I don't think it's overpowered. The character will be getting effective points only towards Find Trap and Pick Lock, and will nto be as good as thief specializing in it. And remember, he doesn't get traps or backstab. This isn't a Fighter/Thief. This is a Fighter with a handful of Thief abilities, who gives up some damage dealing capacity to use them.

In any event, I think you can't mod Barbarians because no such mods will show up in the selection bar. As far as the game engine in concerned, Ranger and Paladin are totally seperate classes from Fighter. I believe the same goes for Barb and Monk and Sorcerer.

 

You're correct about Monk, Barbarian etc kits.

I'd suggest the best way to proceed would be to make it a Thief kit (as you cannot get the skill buttons otherwise) and then up the thac0 and perhaps give some bonus hit points.

 

Sorry Tal, I wasn't trying to redirect him away from SP or anything, because there are alot of people here, its just that in my experience, using PPG was a ton faster with specific mod questions. The other link also has tutorials and forums listed right there.

And smilingbandit, perhaps it could be made as an innate ability (the detect traps)? When making a .cre with NI, there are options to add innate abilites.

 

I changed the focus of the mod a bit. I'm calling it the Nomad right now, a mix of the Fighter and a teensy little Thief.

Still limited to 3 proficiency slots in all weapons. (I count this as a major limitation)

In exchange, Nomads get some limited Trap abilities. I'm deciding between making new (weaker) ones or if that will be too limited, since the class has no Sneaking. As it is, it's good for setting traps, then luring the enemy.

Nomads have 1 use of Detect Traps (as per the cleric spell) once per day per 2 class levels. They do NOT have any Lockpicking ability any more.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. I'm open to suggestions. if anyone has a neat idea, feel free to share.

 

You could give your fighter kit a Innate ability using the Lv. 2 priest spell "Find Traps" (SPPR205).
Also, you can use (SPWI207) Lv. 2 Wizard "Knock" for the open locks.

Other than that you may have to make it a Thief kit.

As per the tools, Saber's recommendation is good.

 

And you are still planning on modding this, or have already started, or have already finished?

What you suggest does not seem hard... although, I have not created a kit yet, I've just looked at various files and options for them.

And, can Nomads use any weapon, like a fighter, or are they restricted at all in those? And 3 proficiency slots in each category is still quite a bit... thieves can only have two.

 

Thanks for the ideas so far. Feel free to chip in ith any suggestions.

I've already put down the basics, making the .tp2 file. However, halfway through I decided I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction. I haven't made the critical CLAB file yet.

Nomads are not restricted in weapons. It's true they are better in combat than a thief. However, they don't get much in the way of thief stuff. A thief with Detect Traps is still more useful; "Find Trap" won't carry you very far and is only useful for things like treasure chests, or where you already expect a trap.

Here's the current plan:

Fighter base
-Max 3 in proficiencies (Hey, that's a pretty big deal!)
-Find Trap +1/day at levels 1, 6, 11, 16, 21 (They only get 4 in total.)
-Set Trap +1/day at levels 2, 8, 14 (They only get 3 in total, so they can't even set the max allowed in the system.)

Don't think of this as a Thief. It's a Fighter with some simple trap abilities. Handy but not life-saving. I'm not going to try to limit the character's equipment, but ideally a Nomad should be played in Studded Leather or less.

On that note, is there anthing I should add/remove? Something useful to the mod? Anything nomad-related you'd like.

 

I like the very basic idea of a Nomad, but the only thing is: is this mod solely for you, or do you want to distribute it? It might not have a large appeal if you do, because of the very slight upgrades to a fighter.

Perhaps adding the ability to unlock those locks that you can detect would be nice... adding Knock as an innate ability? That would be better, I think.

 

I would like to distribute it, since I assume someone wants it. I'd like to differentiate the character more, but I'm having trouble with the work of limiting the armor. I could use the restrictions from the Stalker Ranger, but the character could then use items like Monolio's Clasp and other Ranger items. There doesn't seem to be any other workaround. I may just try that. Ranger and Fighter are so close there shouldn't be any other issues. The characer would be able to use items like the Boots of Stealth or some spellcasting-related items which are useless to the Nomad, though.

If I did add that in, however, would you like to see some new add-ins, like faster movement or some defensive spell-like abilities?

Here's a list of potentially useful abilities. Normally, these aren't good. However, if treated as spell-like abilities, they may be mor valuable.

Wizard Spells:
Protection from Petrification
Detect Invisibility
Luck
Resist Fear

Cleric Spells:
Entangle
Goodberry
Resist Fire/Cold
Slow Poison
Cure Disesase

 

Then you should make it a Ranger kit, after all AFAIK Nomad it's a ranger class on PnP.

In anycase, if you make it a Ranger, then it will be able to have priest spells. Other than that you will have to make each of them only a Innate ability.

Maybe a kit only allowed to be dual/multiclass to cleric or mage.

 

you can have a ranger cast mage spells, look at the stalker

 

Actually the mage spell that the Stalker can have are copies made in the priest selection, as Ranger you could not memorize a mage scroll.

But you could possibly made a copy of the mage spell that smilingbandit wants and put them as a priest spell selection.