Latest Spellsword Change

[Kirito]

Just for clarity, that's Wizard level 21, not character level 21

[Nemain]

Oh, i think I may have got it so you can do GMW/Essence/Imbue (can't remember if I actually implemented it or just thought about it... work is crazy atm and my brain has turned to gooooo)

Confirming: been able to GMW an already imbued weapon, no problem. Essencing an imbued weapon still eats away the imbue's damage, however.

[Kirito]

Do it the other way round. GMW>essence >imbue

I've no way to stop essence stripping imbue damage currently

[Iceborn]

Not really a bug, more like some hilarious side effects of the coding.

[Kirito]

This might actually be a good thing! Do you know which spells you have been casting before This?

[Iceborn]

Shield
Shield
Shield
Shield
Shield
and
Shield

[Kirito]

That's less interesting then :/

[Nemain]

Yep, it doesn't clean up the prior imbue line when adding in a new one.... Then again, it does get cleaned up when dropping /placing the armor on a workstation to patch it up. I've also recently noticed the temporary 5% reduced ASF added to my armor, which wasn't there before.

Acid's currently applying its damage correctly, though at least on Acid Splash (cantrip), it applies no further damage on other rounds, even if I swing once and then run away to avoid new saves.

Conversely, Electric Jolt, also a cantrip, does jump to nearby enemies, though it seems they need to be side by side close, not simply anywhere in melee range of you?

[liver and bones]

Yep, it doesn't clean up the prior imbue line when adding in a new one.... Then again, it does get cleaned up when dropping /placing the armor on a workstation to patch it up. I've also recently noticed the temporary 5% reduced ASF added to my armor, which wasn't there before.

Acid's currently applying its damage correctly, though at least on Acid Splash (cantrip), it applies no further damage on other rounds, even if I swing once and then run away to avoid new saves.

Conversely, Electric Jolt, also a cantrip, does jump to nearby enemies, though it seems they need to be side by side close, not simply anywhere in melee range of you?

Electricity seems to hit things tens of meters away for me, but that was last week. I'll check again tonight.

[Kirito]

Electric has had its range halved, acid should be working now, although im not sure if the cantrips are classed as spell tier 0 or not... im away for a few days now though so can't check.

(I'll cl3ar up the imbue when I'm back too... it was in a vain hope of fixing it for other spells... seems not though :/ )

[Nitro]

Any plans on changing sonic? On-hit silence isn't particularly useful given anyone can just use a wand of haste on themselves to get a saveless silence aura around themselves.

[yellowcateyes]

The sonic imbue is fine. On-hit silence is efficient due to the action economy of applying it via full round attacks, rather than spending one round out of every three stuck in a wand use animation.

[Nemain]

Tested again: the acid cantrip applies for 0 rounds, while the electric cantrip does jump. It's kinda weird, since if one works as if it was tier 0, the other should, too, right?

[taoofbalance]

So, I found the person that should give the option to become a Spellsword. But, that option isn't there. My character is cross-classed into Wizard, so he's only level 2. I'm wondering if that matters.

And, I'm just curious on what additional school people give up and why.

*Edit. I"ll add that I know he is the right guy because on my other Wizard char, whose is level 7 and pure wizard the option is there.

[liver and bones]

So, I found the person that should give the option to become a Spellsword. But, that option isn't there. My character is cross-classed into Wizard, so he's only level 2. I'm wondering if that matters.

And, I'm just curious on what additional school people give up and why.

*Edit. I"ll add that I know he is the right guy because on my other Wizard char, whose is level 7 and pure wizard the option is there.

I heard that the first class you take on a character defines what's possible. Not sure if that's intended or is a bug or if that's even the truth.

[Diegovog]

So, I found the person that should give the option to become a Spellsword. But, that option isn't there. My character is cross-classed into Wizard, so he's only level 2. I'm wondering if that matters.

And, I'm just curious on what additional school people give up and why.

*Edit. I"ll add that I know he is the right guy because on my other Wizard char, whose is level 7 and pure wizard the option is there.

I think you need to get that 3rd wizard level before getting the option. I could be wrong tho.

Also make sure you went generalist wizard.

[Nemain]

Hm... Do you have a path on your other class? Maybe two different paths on the same char aren't supported? Also, did you take a specialist as your wizard? Those are a no-go for spellsword.

As for the schools, here's my take on them:

Abjuration - Shield, energy buffer, spell mantles and stone skin: must have.
Divination - True strike, True Sight and Premonition. I can't justify denying access to those.
Enchantment - Losing protection from spells and mass haste might not be ideal, but it's not as big a deal as losing the cookies from all other schools. More importantly: much like necromacy, Enchantment's spell selection is otherwise aimed toward the DC mage and feylock spammer- both of which the Spellsword is not.
Evocation - Most weapon imbuements and, thus, a great deal of the effect flexibility that spellsword allows come from this school: while still possible to do without, I don't recommend it.
Illusion - Not having access to invisibility can be mitigated with invisibility pots if Kirito makes spellswords able to drink pots from their banned school, and the loss of Shadow Shield, while hard, can also be with potions of warding. I'd prefer not to lose improved imvisibility's 50% concealment, but a choice to think about.
Necromancy - Neg ene imbue is so -sweet- you don't wanna lose this.
Transmutation - GMW, stat buffs, time stop.... Need I say more?

To sum up: I felt giving up on enchantment burned the least amount of bridges for my spellsword.

[Kirito]

So, I found the person that should give the option to become a Spellsword. But, that option isn't there. My character is cross-classed into Wizard, so he's only level 2. I'm wondering if that matters.

And, I'm just curious on what additional school people give up and why.

*Edit. I"ll add that I know he is the right guy because on my other Wizard char, whose is level 7 and pure wizard the option is there.

The option definitely should NOT be there for you (yet)

[taoofbalance]

Well...my character does have another path on his class. So...if that blocks him? And otherwise he is a generalist.

I'll just get a few more levels under his belt and see what happens!

[Iceborn]

Most trainers usually have a minimum level requirement. In the case, it's probably 5 - but the spellsword NPC should have some -clear- indicators that said guy IS the trainer.

On the matter of schools:

Abjuration has far too many useful defensive spells, making it quintessential to retain.
Conjuration we can't ban so who cares.
Divination has all sight spells, which are very important if you plan to make use of Darkness as well, and eventually you get as well Premonition, which if you are like me and HATE the stoneskin vfx, is a must.
Enchantment, enchantment may seem like a good idea to ban since most of its spells are DC stuff, BUT, enchantment still offers things like mass haste and protection from spells, and more importantly, it does offer Domination spells, which is the only way a spellsword may still use NPCs to fight alongside. If you do raise your intelligence to keep up with your damage bonus, you'll find that the DCs are often time beatable.
Evocation has a lot of elemental damage spells, which are essential to keep up with the imbues.
Illusion: Two words: Improved invisibility. This spell is flatly one of the best defensive spells you can have handy. Even then, it does still have other things that, whilst DC based, are still amazing spells - Phantom Killer and Weird namely.
Necromancy: Negative energy imbue. If it wasn't for this beauty, you could afford to ban necromancy since you can't any of the undead raise spells, the stat drop spells aren't particularly alluring and, well, that's pretty much it. This was my chosen school to ban, but I did so prior the imbue update.
Transmutation: LOL no.

[Jagel]

Ultravision is transmutation, though so technically you can do the darkness dance without divination.

[Nemain]

Which leaves Divination with see invisibility, true sight, true strike and premonition, versus Enchantment's Mass Haste (you can simply Haste just fine), Protection from Spells (very good, I'd say on par with premonition) and Domination. I'd say, of all the schools, these two are the ones that least hurt a Spellsword to ban... If, for no other reason, than the fact you can make do with alternatives from other spellschools and different tactics.

Every single school is useful and has its share of cookies, of course, but banning one is not an act of claiming "this is useless": it's a "I can work around this," along with "It'll hurt my specific build and concept least if this is the one school I can't use".

[liver and bones]

Will we see the ability to use items that utilizes spells from our prohibited school, or is it very convoluted to try and manage that? As of right now, it seems very strange for a partial wizard to be incapable of at least using an item that even those with zero magical experience can use (e.g. Charm Person on a Merchant's Ring).

Also, I seem to be coming across a bug. I'm capable of using some summoning books, but not others. Once I come cross the books again, I'll try and figure that out.

[Iceborn]

Whilst in PnP, if my memory serves me right, you can still cast (but not learn) spells from opposing schools, in the case of NWN, opposing schools are restricted and entirely blocked, and this is something that most mages have learned to justify IC, and adopt as the new standard.

This is not much as "not knowing or being capable to", as "having cut their ability to do so".

Just my two cents on that.

[Nemain]

You can also RP it as "categorically rejecting to ever use spells of that school for x reason". A spellsword who happened to ban necromancy, for example has an easy RP reason for it we can all imagine.

A chaotic aligned spellsword banning enchantment, could value freedom greatly: it'd explain their rejecting binding anything at all to their will- summons, dominated enemies... Nothing.

There's been specialist wizards since way before vanilla NWN, there's been Kensai and Trueflamers both in Arelith for quite some time, with each player coming up with their own unique twists to RP the mechanical limitations of their character. Even if spellswords didn't get the cookie of drinking potions, this won't really affect RP negatively if the player behind the character simply implements it into the RP itself.