Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

How in the world do you write a spell to your spellbook since the new update? There is no "Scribe scroll" option in the right click menu anymore. The feat, when used on a scroll, says "The spell will be studied when you use this item to cast the spell" or something like that, but when using the scroll, it casts the spell but you don't learn it. Besides, if it's a combat spell, that requires you to be in combat with a hostile creature to learn the spell?

Am I missing something here, or have we taken a MASSIVE step backwards with this update on things like this? Why in the WORLD would we take something that was working just fine (and was simple and easy to use) before the update and screw it up like this? It was a simple system - find a scroll, right click, click scribe, and boom, you're done. It was literally built into the game from the beginning.

I think that applies to more than just scribing spells, by the way. This entire update is a massive, complicated, unnecessary mess. This was already a complicated system before the update - now it's nearly impossible to figure out, especially when there aren't adequate descriptions of what most of the new updates do. There were plenty of fixes that needed to happen, but this is a video game and not PNP, and changing every single aspect of the game to make it more like PNP makes it that much harder to simply play at all.

There is a new feat that lets you study spell. Next time you cast it you learn it (if you pass your spell craft check)

chad878262 wrote:There is a new feat that lets you study spell. Next time you cast it you learn it (if you pass your spell craft check)

Erm...

wouldn't it be a better idea to just use the feat on the scroll to scribe it into spellbook?

Casting a spell to learn it doesn't make any sense for a wizard.

NegInfinity wrote:

chad878262 wrote:There is a new feat that lets you study spell. Next time you cast it you learn it (if you pass your spell craft check)

Erm...

wouldn't it be a better idea to just use the feat on the scroll to scribe it into spellbook?

Casting a spell to learn it doesn't make any sense for a wizard.

According to the in-game instructions, you use the feat on the scroll, then cast the spell from the scroll (which makes literally no sense). It also doesn't work. I've done it four or five times now and not learned any of the spells or even gotten a dialog about it.

Like I said in the original post, the game already had a perfectly good system set up for learning spells. Was there a "Spellcraft check" like in PNP built into it? No, but who cares? Seriously, who cares? Unlike PNP, if you get super unlucky and don't learn the spell after a bad roll, it's literally just a minor inconvenience that involves buying the scroll again. Why does it have to exist? And why oh why is it any better than the system for learning spells that's already built into the game?

It should also be mentioned that the description that is on the feat in-game doesn't actually explain how to use the feat to learn a spell. What it does instead is quote the PNP rules about learning spells. Which is completely unhelpful because this is a video game and not PNP.

[Edit] I just tested the Study Spell feature. It is working except for Summon Creature/Planar Binding/Gate spells.

Its a part of the new Prohibited Spell School system for specialised wizards. If you want the Study Spell feature to be removed, so will the ability to choose your own prohibited spell school.

I agree the Study Spell feat could use a revamped description.

Remember, though, that BGTSCC's developers are donating their free time to implement these things for our enjoyment. A sprinkling of gratitude and a tone of constructive feedback (ie. point out what you don't like but in a positive manner) would certainly go a longer way in motivating them to continue to refine all these updates, some of which have been in the works for more than three years.

Tsidkenu wrote:[Edit] I just tested the Study Spell feature. It is working except for Summon Creature/Planar Binding/Gate spells.

Its a part of the new Prohibited Spell School system for specialised wizards. If you want the Study Spell feature to be removed, so will the ability to choose your own prohibited spell school.

I agree the Study Spell feat could use a revamped description.

Remember, though, that BGTSCC's developers are donating their free time to implement these things for our enjoyment. A sprinkling of gratitude and a tone of constructive feedback (ie. point out what you don't like but in a positive manner) would certainly go a longer way in motivating them to continue to refine all these updates, some of which have been in the works for more than three years.

I get what you're saying about the developers, and I agree, to a point (when the option was available I was someone who would routinely donate to the upkeep of the server), but I also get the impression from talking with people OOC that many of the things that have been implemented are not changes that seem to have been implemented with a consensus of player consideration. In the run-up to the major update there was a TON of discussion about how changes should be made incrementally, but any of that input seems to have been disregarded in favor of a sweeping update that has fundamentally changed the state of the server. There have been so many changes, almost all of which have been undocumented save for vague notes in the update logs (is there even a list of the new spells anywhere with their descriptions? How about the new classes? How about instructions for operating the new systems for managing spells, scribing spells, removing spell effects, changing spell effects, changing the types of summons, or all the other things that seem to have been included?) that can anyone say what the state of things is right now on the server?

Yes, there are a TON of fixes in this update that were needed. Things like the practiced spellcaster fix and the ability to select your opposition school are welcomed. But...did anyone take the time to think that all of these changes would be welcome on the server? Or were they all made by the developers we're supposed to be grateful for, without regard to whether the players would like to see them happen?

I'm sorry if I don't seem grateful, but maybe that's because I'm not - not for many of the unwelcome and unnecessarily complicated changes, anyway. And maybe there's nothing wrong with that, even if you think there is. This is, after all, a video game, and not PNP. There are certain things that just can't work here because of the very nature of the game, but the attitude seems to be that anything that makes the server more like PNP is better. That simply isn't true. It's especially untrue when it comes to complicating an already complicated system, and the idea that I should be grateful just because somebody worked hard on something that I don't think works is silly.

Tsidkenu wrote: Remember, though, that BGTSCC's developers are donating their free time to implement these

In that scenario it would make sense to put all spell/feat scripts onto github and let other people review the code and contribute.

It would be still possible to keep loot table code secret even in this setup.

I don't exactly understand why BGTSCC devs never did that for spell system scripts. It would reduce number of bugs and could speed up development process.

Kayan wrote:is there even a list of the new spells anywhere with their descriptions? How about the new classes?

You can see both of those during character level up. All existing spells will be visible during levelup when you gain next spell level, and all classes will be visible in character levelup screen.

The new classes page is up-to-date and available here.

The new spells are still a work-in-progress on the forums (its a tedious job to update them all) but they are relatively up-to-date on the BGTSCC Wiki.

Tedious, but hopefully thankful. It is a valued resource.

DM Ninox wrote:The new classes page is up-to-date and available here.

The new spells are still a work-in-progress on the forums (its a tedious job to update them all) but they are relatively up-to-date on the BGTSCC Wiki.

Awesome. Thanks for pointing that out!