Scribing System

[Esteten]

Ok, can someone explain the logical thing with Scribing the Memorised Unused spells when sitting on scribe chair?

An ordinary visit to an inn means that you have no spells left, and need to regain them, and when you wake up, you find all you spells will be gone by scribing them, which will force you too sleep again.

I could just skp the scribing part and cast them memorised :/

Am I missing something? I'm sure I am

And we do have to change all the descriptions of the spells, removing the "to a maximum of *insert number of dices* "

I could voulenteer for that. I lvoe doing that kinds of things when I'm bored anyway

[Griffyn Starfire]

I think the system is to scribe your spells and use them as a backup when you are in a pickle.

[Ima Dufus]

An ordinary visit to an inn means that you have no spells left

I guess that depends on the player to some degree. In my group the wizards often have at least a few spells left over when resting. Maybe not so much at first or second level, but once you get a wider variety of spells, you don't usually come across every situation that your spells cover each day, so some of them go unused.

The idea is that you can carry forward (for a price) any unused spells from one day to another.

So if you are always using up all your spells before resting then it isn't much use to you.

On the other hand, if you usually have a few spells left over (or occasionally a lot of spells) then you can turn them into scrolls at a cheaper rate than buying them in stores. After a while you can build up quite a reservoir of spells to use during particularly tough dungeons. For example, you might need to use a bunch of elemental damage spell scrolls when going through the Nevermores, to finish off all the trolls. Or you might use your stock of Ray Of Enfeeblement scrolls when facing giants. These are the sorts of situations where you will almost certainly not have enough memorized spells to cover all the creatures, so being able to fall back on scribed scrolls is very useful.

The usefullness of this has probably been reduced with the current setup where you have to walk all the way back to an inn though. This means that you are far more likely to wait till you are out (or nearly out) of spells before heading back, or just rest in the wilderness.

Originally the scribe system was set up when my campaign had a home for the PCs that they could portal back to most of the time, with a fairly small amount of walking involved. So they would nearly always rest in their own beds. This meant they were far more likely to have more spells left over to scribe first.

As I have said in the sleeping system discussion thread, I'm not overly happy with the current setup with the inns, as most players won't use them. Something needs to be done to fix it all, but I don't know what that is. So if you have any ideas, please let me know.

[Ima Dufus]

And we do have to change all the descriptions of the spells, removing the "to a maximum of *insert number of dices* "

I could voulenteer for that. I lvoe doing that kinds of things when I'm bored anyway

I'd be very grateful if you wanted to do this Esteten.

I have only updated a handfull of the standard talk table strings (mostly armour related). So if you wanted to go through the spell descriptions and work up a list of those that need to be updated, that would be great. I'll warn you now though, that it might be quite a few.

I have put brief descriptions of some of the updated spells on the website (in the For Players section), so you can use this to find out exactly what those spells currently do. It isn't a complete list though (but it's a start). Not all of them will probably need updated descriptions, since in some cases the changes are minor enough.

Let me know if you want to go ahead with this, and we will co-ordinate the details. For starters I can provide an exact list of all the spells that have currently been changed.

[Esteten]

Well, since I (somehow) love these boring jobs, I'm up. I'll check the Homepage and you could send me that list of changes.
Should I jsut open up a random module and change the description, or should I open a SS module?

[Dolomel]

esteten said:

Should I jsut open up a random module and change the description, or should I open a SS module?

I think it dosen't matter, because you'll still just be exporting the files to give it to Ima.

[Esteten]

Sure. I'll start ASAP and change the desciptions then
First off I'll start removing the CAP from, later on I can change the other things when IMA send me the list

[Ima Dufus]

Well, since I (somehow) love these boring jobs, I'm up. I'll check the Homepage and you could send me that list of changes.

Here is a list of all the (currently) modified spells:

ID  Label                      ImpactScript      SpellDesc
 0  Acid_Fog                   _sp_spot              6096
 2  Animate_Dead               _sp_summon            6098
 3  Barkskin                   _sp_single            6099
 4  Bestow_Curse               _sp_single            6100
 6  Bless                      _sp_spot              6102
 7  Bless_Weapon               _sp_single            6103
 8  Blindness_and_Deafness     _sp_single            6104
 9  Bulls_Strength             _sp_single            6105
10  Burning_Hands              _sp_spot              6106
11  Call_Lightning             _sp_spot              6107
13  Cats_Grace                 _sp_single            6109
14  Chain_Lightning            NW_S0_ChLightn        6110
15  Charm_Monster              _sp_single            6111
16  Charm_Person               _sp_single            6112
17  Charm_Person_or_Animal     _sp_single            6113
18  Circle_of_Death            _sp_spot              6114
20  Clairaudience_and_Clairvoya_sp_single            6116
23  Cloudkill                  _sp_spot              6119
24  Color_Spray                _sp_spot              6120
26  Confusion                  _sp_spot              6122
27  Contagion                  _sp_single            6123
29  Create_Greater_Undead      _sp_summon            6125
30  Create_Undead              _sp_summon            6126
31  Cure_Critical_Wounds       _sp_single            6127
32  Cure_Light_Wounds          _sp_single            6128
33  Cure_Minor_Wounds          _sp_single            6129
34  Cure_Moderate_Wounds       _sp_single            6130
35  Cure_Serious_Wounds        _sp_single            6131
36  Darkness                   _sp_spot              6132
37  Daze                       _sp_single            6133
38  Death_Ward                 _sp_single            6135
45  Dominate_Person            _sp_single            6142
46  Doom                       _sp_single            6143
47  Elemental_Shield           _sp_single            6144
49  Endurance                  _sp_single            6146
50  Endure_Elements            _sp_single            6147
53  Entangle                   _sp_spot              6150
54  Fear                       _sp_spot              6151
55  Feeblemind                 _sp_beam              6152
56  Finger_of_Death            _sp_single            6153
57  Fire_Storm                 _sp_spot              6154
58  Fireball                   _sp_spot              6155
60  Flame_Lash                 _sp_beam              6157
61  Flame_Strike               _sp_spot              6158
64  Ghoul_Touch                NW_S0_GhoulTch        6161
65  Globe_of_Invulnerability   _sp_single            6162
66  Grease                     _sp_spot              6163
69  Greater_Planar_Binding     _sp_summon            6166
70  Greater_Restoration        NW_S0_GrRestore       6167
71  Greater_Shadow_Conjuration _sp_summon            6168
74  Greater_Stoneskin          _sp_single            6171
76  Hammer_of_the_Gods         _sp_spot              6173
79  Heal                       _sp_single            6176
80  Healing_Circle             _sp_spot              6177
81  Hold_Animal                _sp_single            6178
82  Hold_Monster               _sp_single            6179
83  Hold_Person                _sp_single            6180
86  Identify                   _sp_single            6183
87  Implosion                  _sp_spot              6184
88  Improved_Invisibility      NW_S0_ImprInvis       6185
90  Invisibility               _sp_single            6187
91  Invisibility_Purge         NW_S0_InvPurge        6188
92  Invisibility_Sphere        NW_S0_InvSph          6189
93  Knock                      _sp_spot              6190
97  Lesser_Restoration         NW_S0_LsRestor        6194
100 Light                      _sp_single            6197
101 Lightning_Bolt             NW_S0_LghtnBolt       6198
102 Mage_Armor                 _sp_single            6199
104 Magic_Circle_against_Evil  _sp_single            6201
105 Magic_Circle_against_Good  _sp_single            6202
107 Magic_Missile              _sp_single            6204
109 Magic_Weapon               _sp_single            6206
110 Mass_Blindness_and_Deafness_sp_spot              6207
111 Mass_Charm                 _sp_spot              6208
114 Mass_Heal                  _sp_spot              6211
115 Melfs_Acid_Arrow           NW_S0_AcidArrow       6212
116 Meteor_Swarm               _sp_spot              6213
120 Ghostly_Visage             _sp_single            6217
121 Ethereal_Visage            _sp_single            6498
123 Mordenkainens_Sword        _sp_summon            6220
124 Natures_Balance            NW_S0_NatureBal       6221
127 Phantasmal_Killer          _sp_single            6500
128 Planar_Binding             _sp_summon            6501
132 Power_Word_Stun            _sp_single            6226
134 Premonition                _sp_single            6228
135 Prismatic_Spray            NW_S0_PrisSpray       6229
136 Protection__from_Chaos     _sp_single            6230
137 Protection_from_Elements   _sp_single            6505
138 Protection_from_Evil       _sp_single            6232
139 Protection_from_Good       _sp_single            6233
140 Protection_from_Law        _sp_single            6234
142 Raise_Dead                 _sp_single            6236
143 Ray_of_Enfeeblement        _sp_beam              6237
144 Ray_of_Frost               _sp_beam              6238
148 Remove_Fear                _sp_spot              6242
150 Resist_Elements            _sp_single            6507
151 Resistance                 _sp_single            6245
152 Restoration                NW_S0_Restore         6246
153 Resurrection               _sp_single            6247
154 Sanctuary                  _sp_single            6248
155 Scare                      _sp_single            6508
157 See_Invisibility           _sp_single            6250
158 Shades                     _sp_summon            6251
159 Shadow_Conjuration         _sp_summon            6252
160 Shadow_Shield              _sp_single            6253
164 Slay_Living                _sp_single            6257
165 Sleep                      _sp_spot              6258
166 Slow                       _sp_spot              6259
171 Stinking_Cloud             _sp_spot              6264
172 Stoneskin                  _sp_single            6265
174 Summon_Creature_I          _sp_summon            6267
175 Summon_Creature_II         _sp_summon            6268
176 Summon_Creature_III        _sp_summon            6269
177 Summon_Creature_IV         _sp_summon            6270
178 Summon_Creature_IX         _sp_summon            6513
179 Summon_Creature_V          _sp_summon            6509
180 Summon_Creature_VI         _sp_summon            6510
181 Summon_Creature_VII        _sp_summon            6511
182 Summon_Creature_VIII       _sp_summon            6512
185 Time_Stop                  _sp_single            6517
188 Vampiric_Touch             _sp_single            6519
189 Virtue                     _sp_single            6520
190 Wail_of_the_Banshee        _sp_spot              6521
191 Wall_of_Fire               _sp_spot              6522
192 Web                        _sp_spot              6523
193 Weird                      _sp_spot              6524
194 Word_of_Faith              _sp_spot              6525
354 Eagle_Splendor             _sp_single            6526
355 Owls_Wisdom                _sp_single            6527
356 Foxs_Cunning               _sp_single            6528
357 Greater_Eagle_Splendor     _sp_single           61918
358 Greater_Owls_Wisdom        _sp_single           61918
359 Greater_Foxs_Cunning       _sp_single           61918
360 Greater_Bulls_Strength     _sp_single           61918
361 Greater_Cats_Grace         _sp_single           61918
362 Greater_Endurance          _sp_single           61918
363 Awaken                     _sp_single            6529
365 Ultravision                _sp_single            6531
366 Destruction                _sp_single            6532
368 Ice_Storm                  _sp_spot              6534
369 Energy_Buffer              _sp_single            6535
370 Negative_Energy_Burst      _sp_spot              6536
371 Negative_Energy_Ray        _sp_beam              6537
375 Evards_Black_Tentacles     _sp_spot              6542
376 Legend_Lore                _sp_single            6543
377 Find_Traps                 _sp_single            6544
414 Divine_Favor               _sp_single              54
415 True_Strike                _sp_single             509
416 Flare                      _sp_single             510
417 Shield                     _sp_single             513
418 Entropic_Shield            _sp_single             521
421 Camoflage                  _sp_single            1064
424 Acid_Splash                _sp_single            1496
431 Inflict_Minor_Wounds       _sp_single            1570
432 Inflict_Light_Wounds       _sp_single            1571
439 Electric_Jolt              _sp_single            1857
440 Firebrand                  x0_s0_firebrand       1890
447 Isaacs_Lesser_Missile_Stormx0_s0_missstorm1      2375
448 Isaacs_Greater_Missile_Storx0_s0_missstorm2      2376
449 Bane                       _sp_spot              2664
450 Shield_of_Faith            _sp_single            2665
452 Magic_Fang                 _sp_single            2669
456 Expeditious_Retreat        _sp_single            2676
483 Invisibility               NW_S0_Invisib         6187
521 Horizikauls_Boom           _sp_single            3866
522 Ironguts                   _sp_single            3868
524 Mestils_Acid_Sheath        _sp_single            3872
534 Shelgarns_Persistent_Blade _sp_summon            3740
536 Deafening_Clang            _sp_single            3751
543 Ice_Dagger                 _sp_single            3766
549 Glyph_of_Warding           X2_S0_GlphWard        3784

The ID column is the SpellID, and the row number within spells.2da. The ImpactScript column is the name of the script (from ss_base.hak for builders) that has the current implementation. The SpellDesc column holds the talk table entry ID for the spells description within the dialog.tlk file.

Should I jsut open up a random module and change the description, or should I open a SS module?

You don't need to open any module at all.

All of the description strings are stored in the dialog.tlk file (in your NWN directory). You can find the ID from the spells.2da file (in the "SpellDesc" column). It would probably be best if you extracted the spells.2da file from the ss_base.hak file (just use the standard nwhak.exe program in the NWN/utils directory).

Now you can't actually edit the dialog.tlk file directly. What you will need to do is copy each of the standard strings into a new entry in the ss.tlk file and modify it there. You then need to set the SpellDesc ID to the new entry in ss.tlk plus 16777216. It would probably be best if you started the new descriptions at ID 28001 (using 28000 to say "IDs 28000 to 28999 reserved by Esteten"). So the description in entry 28001 would have the value 16805217 in the associated SpellDesc field.

To actually edit the talk files there are assorted tools on the vault. Just pick one(s) that you like. I can check which ones I use tonight if that will help. Alternately it might be easier to just edit an XML file directly using a text editor and then import it in one go into ss.tlk. Up to you.

That was a pretty brief overview of what needs to be done. Obviously you can ask me for the details on anything that doesn't make sense.

[Esteten]

Ok. Opened up both tlk's. copied in all the spells, and changed them in the tlk. Now I only have to change the spelldesc to: "the string number in the .tlk + 16777216??

Otherwise I think I've got it, starting right off

[Esteten]

After I while, I saw that alof of the spells had no changes, or changes that I wasnt aware of, and wasnt on the homepage.

Is there anyway there could be a list for this, or souhld I post al the spells that I dont know what to change on?

[Ima Dufus]

Ok. Opened up both tlk's. copied in all the spells, and changed them in the tlk.

That's great work. Good job.

Now I only have to change the spelldesc to: "the string number in the .tlk + 16777216??

If you are at all curious about that number, it is to do with how NWN differentiates the custom talk table (ss.tlk) from the standard one (dialog.tlk). Basically any integer ID that has 0 in the top byte uses the standard table, but anything with a 1 in the top byte uses the custom table. The decimal equivalent of a 1 in the top byte is 16777216. So anything below that is a standard string, anything equal or above is a custom string.

After I while, I saw that alof of the spells had no changes, or changes that I wasnt aware of, and wasnt on the homepage.

In a lot of cases the only real change is to the spell save DC (which is now based on caster level rather than spell level), plus some standard changes to the spell system (like how to determine the effective caster level). When it comes to the actual spell effects they are the same.

Is there anyway there could be a list for this, or souhld I post al the spells that I dont know what to change on?

Well the list is nominally that one on the website, but since it takes time to go through the scripts and write up the descriptions, I have only done a subset of them.

If you could remove from that list I sent you all of the ones that I have already described and post the (shortened) list back here, I will go through the scripts again and try to do the rest.

Thanks again.

P.S.: There are some details for a few spells that I didn't put on that page, so you might have to re-edit a few. For example, although you still only get 1 magic missile per two levels, I gave the caster effectively a free level. So instead of getting your second one at level 3 you get it at level 2 (and then the next at level 4, etc.). Same sort of deal with a lot of the other damage spells, such as Ray Of Frost (ie. you start with 2D4 instead of D4) or Fireball (ie. you get 1D6 per level on top of a starting D6). It just makes the difference between first and second level a little less extreme.

These are the spells that get a "free level":

Burning Hands
Call Lightning
Chain Lightning
Fireball
Fire Storm
Flame Lash
Lightning Bolt
Magic Missile
Negative Energy Burst
Negative Energy Ray
Ray of Frost

There should probably be others, but that is it for the moment.

I hope that made sense.

[Esteten]

So you mean that fireball does 2d6 at first lvl, and 3d6 at second?
Same goes for the others?

If you could remove from that list I sent you all of the ones that I have already described and post the (shortened) list back here, I will go through the scripts again and try to do the rest.

I'll change the desc, of all the spells that's described on the Website, and Leave all the others.
I can send you my custom .tlk and i've named the spells that I dont know what to change or if the description is alloved (had to change some of them more than others)

[Ima Dufus]

So you mean that fireball does 2d6 at first lvl, and 3d6 at second?
Same goes for the others?

Yup, that's correct.

I can send you my custom .tlk

Just put it in the "For Ima Dufus" folder on the FolderShare when you are done, and either post back here or PM me when you do. Don't forget to also include the modified spells.2da file.