Game Mechanic Changes

[Jesse the Thief]

Some changes aren't classes, or feats, or spells, but core functions of the game. Those things go here.

Confused Effect

Confusion in NWN 2 is rather rough, not allowing any possibility of normal action and often acting as a Stun for all practical purposes. The odds of behavior occurring have been changed as follows to balance and match the intended effect better:

30% Act normally
30% Wander aimlessly
20% Babble incoherently
20% Attack nearest creature

Frightened Effect

In its stock form Frightened is an awful effect, more powerful than intended due to imperfect conversion from PnP to PC. In effect the spell essentially paralyzes the creature as long as no enemy is within 15 feet. If a foe comes that close, he runs away all willy-nilly for a round. Of course, this means even when no hostiles are present he is still paralyzed and helpless, and enemies can easily puncture the frightened victim with dozens of arrows while he stands there wringing his hands as long as the distance is greater than 15'.

To tone down the power of fear effects and more closely match PnP, the effect has been changed in a few ways:

-Frightened creatures flee as long as they can see any other hostile creatures, regardless of distance. Creatures hidden by Invisibility or stealth will not cause the creature to flee.
-Frightened creatures may attack enemies who are close by, particularly when cornered. Players cannot control who they attack while Frightened if they do indeed attack, although only enemies will be targeted.
-If a frightened creature no longer has a threat in his line of sight, he can, on his next round, act normally. Thus a frightened creature who completely fled the battle could recognize the spell which waylaid him, drink a potion to remove fear, and be ready to charge back into the fight. If a frightened creature escapes all hostiles for a few rounds but sees another hostile creature before the fear effect has ended, he will then panic and take off running again even if he had been able to act for several rounds.

Petrification Effect

This effect is rather brutal in NWN 2 rules, being a paralyzation which uses Fort instead of Will and can't be dispelled. Monsters using petrifying attacks are especially problematic, as victims can be effectively trapped until some one with the right spell comes along who can fix them. To balance things out Petrification has several changes.

First, petrified creatures are extremely resilient to most forms of attack. Whatever would logically have a difficult time harming a statue will have a difficult time harming a petrified victim. Whatever only effects living creatures (such as Negative Energy effects) will not harm a petrified character. This means elemental spells must bypass very high damage resistance (50 in most cases) and the petrified target is immune to virtually all status ailments such as sleep, level drain, blindness, etc. A petrified victim is an inert object in every sense of the work until restored to flesh and bone.

Physically a petrified character is notably more vulnerable, though with certain protections a living creature lacks. He is immune to critical hits and Sneak Attacks (having no vitals to poke) and has damage reduction of 5/Bludgeoning. Note that being completely immobile renders a victim's armor class very low, however, so even a mage with a club could reduce a victim to rubble with a little time and work! Woe be unto the petrified when a warrior with a Warmace comes his way.

Secondly, most sources of petrification allow victims to receive a new Fort save every round to escape its effects. For spells like Flesh to Stone this means characters roll until free or the spell duration ends, whichever comes first. A few creatures' petrification attacks and a rare few spells will still last indefinitely, although the superior defenses make this more survivable.

Shaken Effect

NWN 2's stock Shaken effects are haphazard in application and use. Their effects don't match descriptions and are only used in a few places.

I've instead created a custom Shaken effect which inflicts -2 penalties to attack rolls, all saves, and all skills. This is now a standard effect which will show up on spells such as Cause Fear and Scare.

Spellcraft

Spellcraft grants some pretty hefty save bonuses against spells by default; +1 for every 5 ranks, modifiers included. Thus a level 20 Wizard is easily going to have a whopping +6 to saves against spells!

This has been adjusted via scripting to reign in excessive bonuses. Spellcraft now grants +1 to spell saves for every 10 ranks, modifiers included. The same Wizard as above will now have +3 to spell saves, for example.