This version of the mod is for people who DO NOT use Reeron's pack. If you do use Reeron's pack, see the comments for the work by Pleasework to make the two compatible.
This mod is an attempt to make the druid's wildshapes more balanced and interesting. It completely disregards PnP rules.
Major Changes:
1. Shapes no longer ignore physical stats. Gone are the days of druids having three dump stats. Instead, each shape allows the druid to replace one ability score with his wisdom score, as well as conferring other abilities. The +12 to stats limit is still in place, so druids with more than 12 difference between their wisdom scores and the stat being mimicked will see a disparity.
UPDATE: Racial adjustments are now maintained while shapeshifting.
2. Natural Spell only works in some shapes. Shapes that can cast receive natural spell automatically. A version of the druid's feat list is included that grants natural spell automatically, in order to prevent you from taking it by accident.
UPDATE: Epic druids can cast in any form.
3. Wildshape features are dependent on total level, not druid levels. Druids also receive their first use of wildshape at level 3, and one additional use every odd level. This makes more multiclass wildshape builds possible.
4. Properties of all items from all slots are merged when transforming into an animal.
UPDATE: Including bracers.
The shapes:
Bear shape: Bears use their wisdom in place of their strength. They also gain a BAB equal to their level.
Boar shape: Boars are pure toughness. They use their wisdom in place of their constitution. Boars also have the highest natural AC and natural damage reduction.
Badger shape: The druid transforms into a small furry mammal and attempts to escape the notice of his enemies. The druid gains a sanctuary effect with DC equal to 12+WIS (i.e. as if it were a second level spell). This increases to 16+WIS at level 12. I wish this were rat or bat shape, but I'm not going to go messing with .tlk files.
UPDATE: The DC is now 1/2 level +10, to a maximum of 20, plus your wisdom bonus.
Wolf shape: The wolf uses his wisdom score in place of his dexterity. He gains weapon finesse and track as bonus feats. He also gains bonuses to hide, move silently, spot, listen, and track as if they were maxed out class skills. Lastly, he gains sneak attack progression as a rogue of equal level, up to 10d6.
Shambling Mound: The druid becomes a mass of sentient vines covered with poisonous thorns. He uses his wisdom score in place of his dexterity score, and throws poisonous darts that cause wounding and slowness in his enemies. If they get too close, he ensnares them in his tangle.
UPDATE: The poison thorn now merges your ammo properties if you have a missile weapon equipped.
Treant: The treant is the first shape that the druid can cast in. It uses its wisdom score in place of its constitution, and gains powerful immunities to magic, martial attacks, and the elements. However, it is almost completely rooted in place and moves at greatly reduced speed.
If you are using my druid feat override, you will receive magical beast wildshape automatically at level 21. All magical beasts can cast spells, and also provide powerful auras to their allies.
UPDATE: Auras now actually work.
Winter Wolf: All allies receive bonuses to their attack, damage, and speed. The additional damage is cold damage.
Celestial Leopard: All allies receive bonuses to their saves and AC, as well as regeneration.
Phase Spider: The druid and all allies become ethereal.
UPDATE: The Phase Spider exudes an aura that causes negative levels on enemies who fail a will save.
Minor changes:
There is a druid skills 2da included that adds hide and move silently to the druid's skill list. Nature in general and plants specifically are often associated with stealth, and the druid receives spells and abilities (including a feat that is effectively "Ignore medium armor penalties outdoors"), so it seemed like a natural fit. This makes the druid the only stealthy divine caster in the game.
The druid receives low light vision, natural spell, and creature weapon proficiency automatically at level 3.
UPDATE: The druid no longer has access to creature weapon feats. Weapon feats do not seem to affect polymorphed creatures, so it was basically a waste.
Sacred fist code of conduct will be corrected for, but the creature weapons will not count as unarmed weapons for purposes of the attack bonuses provided by that class.
There is an optional script that will allow flame weapon to also work on ranged weapons.
Is it balanced?
I think so. Essentially the druid exchanges spellcasting, access to his inventory, and the use of activated abilities in order to mimic the abilities of another class. However, monk druids can now use wisdom as their defensive stat as well as attack stat, with a choice between full BAB and sneak attack progression. I haven't tried it, but I suspect monk/druids are severely overpowered using this pack, so fair warning.
If you don't want the druid to receive extra feats, delete cls_feat_druid.2da. If you don't want the druid to receive hide and move silently as class skills, delete cls_skill_dru.2da
Posted by Dromano at 2012-04-17 07:52:33 Voted 9.50 on 04/17/12
Thanks so much for this mod -- makes it actually fun to be able to wild shape into wolf, for instance, in order to track. Great idea. In treant form, however, I can't seem to cast spells until I am epic level -- I thought that was the form I could cast in from the get go?
Alright, while it's great that wildshape is actually useful now, and I absolute love everything you've done with all the forms, making Natural Spell useless has crippled my druid. Is there any way I can remove the Spell Failure or make Natural Spell useful again? (Without knowing code?)
Posted by purtellfr at 2009-06-05 19:41:30 Voted 9.25 on 06/05/09
Way better than the bleak version that is we currently have.
Posted by DarkOak at 2009-02-24 20:26:37 Voted 9.25 on 02/24/09
Stock druid wildshape was quite useless, especially with the added fact that you don't get your gear bonuses. This balances that out quite wonderfully. _________________________ The Obsidian Shore Link
Posted by pleasework at 2008-12-18 04:17:04 Voted 8.00 on 12/12/08
hmmmm I kinda stole your idea of adding skins.
I put the panther back in 7 times, each time Identical apart from a change in skin(creature armor),
at level 5 you get 1d6 sneak attack as a "bonus feat" as part of the skin.
then every 2 levels (like the rogue) you get Further advances in sneak attack up to level 17
case 402:
if (nDuration >= 17)
nPoly = 168;
else if (nDuration >= 15)
nPoly = 167;
else if (nDuration >= 13)
nPoly = 166;
else if (nDuration >= 11)
nPoly = 165;
else if (nDuration >= 9)
nPoly = 164;
else if (nDuration >= 7)
nPoly = 163;
else if (nDuration >= 5)
nPoly = 162;
break;
I applyed the bonus feat to armor, since I*bleep* find out how to add it to weapon.
I tested it and it works, you gain a bonus sneak attack every 2 levels, and loose it when you shift out.
Tho I just noticed that as a rogue I am 5 levels behind since rogues get sneak attack starting at level 1, not level 5.
I will try and upload what I have done, and if you like It you could intergrate it into your druid changes.
It's possible to give the appropriate sneak attack. The problem is taking it away. You could grab the character's current sneak attack, figure out the appropriate increase for druid level, calculate the feat necessary, and then apply the feat as an item bonus feat to the natural weapon.
Yeah, I admit that my code is horrendous. In my defense, this the first code I've written since some very basic HTML back in college. I'm definitely working on getting better.
Since buffs are stripped on the overland map in SoZ, the power problems I was worried about won't be the issue I thought they would. I intend to update this after some very important actual work deadlines pass in a week or so.
Posted by pleasework at 2008-12-12 13:20:02 Voted 8.00 on 12/12/08
Is it possible to give a form sneak attack gaining each level?
I was thinking about adding a claw/creature weapon that had sneak attack but that will be stuck at at set level.
I was aiming for the WoW style druid with a Rogue based form with the main damage comming from sneak attack and Dex AP. _________________________ Casters for life
Posted by pleasework at 2008-12-12 12:54:11 Voted 8.00 on 12/12/08
Thanks for this its Great fun to play about with.
Bear arms! Feels like Warcraft 3 all over again, Unbearable!
One small Comment! ....
PRETTY PROGRAMMING!
Format your code, Or use Auto format on somthing like Netbeans.
And comments would also help.
I added Reeron's code to yours for the Wis/Cha/Int fix.
Just bosh this in somwhere;
// this at the top
#include "x2_i0_spells"
void RunAbilityBonus( object oTarget, int nSpell, float fDuration, effect eInt, effect eWis, effect eCha );
object oCaster = OBJECT_SELF;
// this with your globals
int nInt = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,3);
int nInt2 = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,3,TRUE);
int nInt3 = nInt-nInt2;
int nWis = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,4);
int nWis2 = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,4,TRUE);
int nWis3 = nWis-nWis2;
int nCha = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,5);
int nCha2 = GetAbilityScore(oTarget,5,TRUE);
int nCha3 = nCha-nCha2;
effect eInt = EffectAbilityIncrease(3,(nInt3));
effect eWis = EffectAbilityIncrease(4,(nWis3));
effect eCha = EffectAbilityIncrease(5,(nCha3));
eInt = ExtraordinaryEffect(eInt);
eWis = ExtraordinaryEffect(eWis);
eCha = ExtraordinaryEffect(eCha);
// add this at your effects / poly
ApplyEffectToObject(DURATION_TYPE_TEMPORARY, eInt, oTarget, HoursToSeconds(nDuration));// Added by Reeron
ApplyEffectToObject(DURATION_TYPE_TEMPORARY, eWis, oTarget, HoursToSeconds(nDuration));// Added by Reeron
ApplyEffectToObject(DURATION_TYPE_TEMPORARY, eCha, oTarget, HoursToSeconds(nDuration));// Added by Reeron
//and finally shove this after everything outside of the main
void RunAbilityBonus( object oTarget, int nSpell, float fDuration, effect eInt, effect eWis, effect eCha )
Thanks for your very thorough comments, Filaminstrel. You bring up some very interesting points.
Unforunately this will conflict with Kaedrin's work, and that is unlikely to change in the very near future, only because Kaedrin has made other changes to the relevant scripts and I am a lowly beginner, so I am nervous right now about altering his scripts without taking the time to understand their interdependencies.
Regarding the few bugs you mentioned: I am going to change the shambling mound's save to a straight strength check, as I think that is more appropriate given that the tendrils are meant to be sentient and should be able to reliably grab anything that moves through them. The spider seems to grant a sanctuary effect sometimes and etheralness others, and it seems to be random when it does one or the other. However, the effect never has a save, so should work just fine whichever comes up. Poison at those high levels seems virtually useless, which was why I didn't worry about automatically canceling the effect. The spider and winter wolf being basically improved versions of the badger and wolf shapes is by design, although I agree the winter wolf is not much improved.
I have actually found the shambling mound quite useful, although I have only experimented with it in the OC. The thorns do next to no damage, admittedly, but the slow and wounding effects seemed to make it worthwhile. I am surprised that the wounding is physical. I set it as acid in the toolset and then tested it on creatures that are immune to critical hits, which I thought meant that they were immune to physical wounding. Apparently I was mistaken, so I will have to do something about that.
I have not touched the elemental shapes. I made all the others so much more powerful I was starting to worry about going too far. I am thinking they should have some kind of area damage effect, as that is functionality that is currently missing from wildshapes and seems appropriate for them, or at least for the water, fire, and air elementals.
For the the future, I have begun the process of unraveling Kaedrin's work in the hopes of making these compatible. I am hesitant to make this a PrC, because I find wildshapes and by extension druids virtually useless in their current implementation, and not in the spirit of PnP druids or shapeshifters in general. Also part of my goal is to touch as few shared files as possible. The effects will have to be revisited when SoZ comes out, as well, because automatically maxing 5 skills for the wolf makes it moderately useful in the current game, but in SoZ would essentially make the druid unstoppable on the map.
Posted by filaminstrel at 2008-11-04 09:53:02 Voted 7.50 on 11/04/08
I like it, seems to be mostly bug free and work as intended, although I also have Kaedrin's stuff in my override, so I'm not sure if they will conflict with each other. (lol, maybe they do, Kaedrin's panther shape becomes cow shape when I put your pack in the override)
For the treant, if you're going to make it a duskwood treant, how about adding some magic damage to its creature weapons, like the magic damage on duskwood quarterstaves?
The phase spider seems to become sanctuaried rather than ethereal, although there doesn't seem to be a save related to the spider's sanctuary, so maybe that's intended. I don't like how attacking cancels the shape; the spider has a poison attack that one might want to use (I think it does, anyway).
You mentioned the celestial leopard being the epic "fighter" shape, but with so much less AB than the bear, I'm not sure if it can really compare. It does pierce adamantine DR, but its innate DR, innate SR, and innate magic-DR-piercing abilities can all be gotten by the bear. Maybe the leopard could get a minor divine damage bonus, or a movement speed increase, or an attack bonus, or some or all of those? Or maybe it could take a cue from the NWN1 panther and get stealth bonuses and sneak attacks?
My favorite alteration is the shambling mound, although the save DCs for its effects seem to be a bit low. Also, the thorns don't do much damage, and they don't seem to do any acid damage (the damage bonus is piercing, and the residual damage upon a successful poisoning is physical).
I still think, especially with the phase spider doing pretty much the exact same thing the badger does except better, that the badger should get ranger HiPS.
The boar should maybe have DR like the barbarian's or DwD's, that is, 10/- (or greater); I don't see why its resiliency would be bypassed by adamantine.
The winter wolf doesn't seem to have much that the dire wolf doesn't, except for cold damage and true sight, the latter of which the druid has in his spell list... maybe the winter wolf could get a cold/freezing aura and throw ice shards, kind of like the shambler?
The merging of the weapon's properties (and possibly other equipment properties) onto the creature weapon doesn't seem to apply for elementals or dragons (or the poison thorn).
I agree with nicethugbert about maybe putting these changes into a custom PrC.
Posted by MokahTGS at 2008-09-16 21:02:02 Voted 10.00 on 09/16/08
Following up on what LadyD said about making it a new class and the spell book issue.
You could make it an "extended-prc" that is taken at early levels by druids only, say at levelup after level 1 or 2. You can then just up the max level to like 30 and whamo you almost have a base class with the druid spellbook. The only thing is that you would probably want to make it mutially exclusive with a regular druid which mean you would have to make a prereq 2da for the regular druid. There could be other isues as well but they are surmountable.
I have to agree with ladydesire on the skill note, removing spellcraft from a spell-casting class = no epic spells at all for a single classed character, and "lore" is very generalazied skill from pnp, one of its encompassing skills was previously "knowledge nature"
The only changes here that I disagree with are removing Lore and Spellcraft from the Class Skills list; Lore (Knowledge in PnP) represents any kind of learning, not just studying books, and Spellcraft represents skill in identifying and using spells. Everything else is fine with me. As for making it a separate base class, it will take special scripting to get the spellbook working.
yeah I think making it a new base class when 2da and tlks are loaded before character generation would work really well. I like the ideas that went into making the class. _________________________ Baldur's Gate: The Sword Coast Chronicles
Posted by nicethugbert at 2008-04-20 07:08:01 Voted 7.00 on 04/20/08
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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