Buffs and Such

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1. First of all, one thing I hated about BG2 is how a spell like Stone Skin is almost mandatory if you want to be hard to kill. I am sure you could get by with out it but why would you want to? Well, I will tell you why it makes every single character you have look like they are made out of stone. I am nerdy and really enjoying making my characters look cool with the different inventory color options. But, now that I have Stone Skin I want to use it but hate the way it makes everyone look. Is there anyway or any mods out there that could make it so Stone Skin and spells like it (magic armor) just leave you alone? If I ever make an RPG I am going to make sure you can turn off the visual of any buff you have. Does this bother anyone else?


2. I assume all buffs such as Stone Skin, Mage Armor, Bull STR and Defense Harmony work on Animate Dead as well as your party?


3. Holy Power adds 4 damage to your character if I recall but is not included in the ultimate party guide while Defense Harmony is. Why? A Deflect bonus has to do with ranged attacks like arrows right?

 

1. Yeah, it bothered me as well. There are mods that remove a lot of those effects, and I typically use them.

2. Yes, as far as I know all of those buffs work on your summons as well.

3. I think the UPP is placing greater value on defensive spells over offensive in this case. Defensive Harmony is quick to cast, and gives your entire party a deflection bonus to their armor class (no, it doesn't directly affect ranged attacks). That said, Holy Power is a great spells as well for a battle cleric. This is the point where you are forming your own opinions, and that's good. If you want your cleric to hit harder, then by all means memorize a few Holy Powers too. Once you start getting deflection bonuses for most/all of your characters Defensive Harmony becomes less valuable, as it deflection bonuses do not stack (you always get the highest bonus).


By the way, are you following Project Eternity at all? It's not due out until 2014, but I think it will be right up your alley. It's a BG/IWD style game, but won't have the drawback of being 10+ years old. The first screenshot released today nearly brought a tear to my eye!

 

Oh my god yes!!! I am not sure if I have ever been more excited for a game. You can count on my donation as well, since this community has been so great.

If anyone knows of a mod that removes the Stone Skin player skin without doing anything else too radical please let me know. I am also thinking about using the mod that adds items to the game.

 

I don't know of any such mod, but it should be pretty simple to alter the spell to remove the visual effect with DLTCEP or IEEP.
I'll even give you instructions:
Download DLTCEP from Sorcerer's Place or it's homepage.
Install it, and configure it to load Icewind Dale II

First, back up your override folder, then launch DLTCEP.

1. From DLTCEP, click on the edit spells button in the upper right corner.
2. In the new window, click on "load spell".
3. Type stoneskin into the box near the buttom and click "search next"
4. Doubleclick on the stoneskin spell.
5. Click on the "extended effects" tab
6. Click on the second effect in the next window
7. click "remove"
8. Save the spell.
9. Make sure the saved spell goes into your override folder of the IWD2 folder.

That's it, Your stoneskin should now work without the fancy visual effect. You can use the editor to make your own mod for other spells.