One-Shot Requests!

[Wids]

In an effort to cut down on the fifty-billion topics cluttering up the Suggestions & Ideas forum, how about a thread for all the short-but-sweet requests and ideas?  Maybe they'll be more likely to get read that way.

I'll start (and delete my old mini-topics as I Copy-Paste them in here).  8)

[Wids]

Can Osforn the Hermit buy Garlic and Belladonna too?  Even an extra 1 or 2 Gold might make Garlic and Belladonna worth carrying around, even if only to sell to Osforn.  8)

[Wids]

So have you ever tried using a healing kit on another healing kit? All you end up doing is losing a charge on the healing kit (or the healing kit itself, if that was its last charge). And after a good dungeon run, you're bound to have several of those healing kits that only come with one, two or three charges. They can clutter up your inventory in a hurry.



So instead of just using healing kits on creatures, what if using a healing kit on another healing kit instead took a charge off of one and added a charge to the other? Kind of like how you or I might take the bandages, ointments, antibiotics and suture thread out of one Home First Aid Kit and stuff them into another, so that you can throw one of the kits out and/or have a better-stocked First Aid Kit in your car before you drive your family out to the campgrounds for the weekend?



That's it. Thanks.

[Wids]

Even though they're just a minor scripting thing, and the Emote doodads can help characters do the Worship emote just the same, those Worship clickies do lend a satisfying splash of color to most of the shrines; Evil worshippers at Bane's shrine in Llorkh get oppressed, everyone else comes away feeling refreshed.



So I'm not sure if it's on the To Do list (since the Temple of Judgement area does have that little asterisk after its name, hinting at things to come...), but could we have one of those scripted Worship clickies at Kelemvor's altar, in the Temple of Judgement, in Hero's Rest along the Delimbyr Trail? Even though Kelemvor's the new kid on the block at this point, some of us (or at least our characters) do worship the guy.



(The area's TAG is kane_002, if it helps.)



And is there a Worship script for morally Neutral deities? Good temples and Good deities de-stress their worshippers, Evil temples and Evil deities crush their worshippers' hearts and tell them how worthless they are...what would a Neutral god in a Neutral temple be like? And would it matter if this particular morally Neutral deity happens to be the God of the Dead?



Thanks!

[Wids]

So by now, we all probably realize that the Forgotten Realms deities and their Domains aren't created equal, thanks to Neverwinter Nights' limitations and the daunting task of translating those Domains from tabletop to NWN; some gods (like Silvanus, Tymora and Sharess) have three or even four Domains for their Clerics to choose from, some gods (a la Kelemvor and Helm) have a mere two and some have even fewer than that; yes, the Red Knight, I'm looking at you.

So when it comes to including those deities who only have two, one or even zero available Domains, NWN servers and their developers often have to find ways to tack extra Domains onto those deities just to make them viable. Talona would be one of those "gods with only two available Domains in NWN" deities; in Third Edition, she is listed as having Chaos, Destuction, Evil and Suffering as her Domains. Unfortunately, NWN lacks the Chaos and Suffering Domains, and Bioware didn't give us the means to script them in to where they would be available for Level 1 Clerics. So we're left with Destruction and Evil for all the aspiring Talontar...not really much of a selection. But! I remember that one of the other servers on which I've played (Legacy of the North, I believe) gave Talona the Water Domain as a third Domain, and the DM team's given explanation made a fair bit of sense:

• The numerous diseases which are either spread and contracted through water (ie. cholera), alleviated by water (ie. tuberculosis) or worsened by water (ie. rabies).
• The numerous venomous aquatic creatures...lionfish, rockfish, jellyfish, water moccasins, even the friggin' platypuses...platypi...whatever. Many of these creatures possess venom which is morbidly deadly, to humans and otherwise.
• Stagnant bodies of water are also fertile breeding pits for mosquitoes, leeches and other creatures known for spreading pestilence and malady with their bites; these waters also tend to be rife with algae, fungus, bacteria and intestinal parasites which spell bad news for people. Many a swamp has been drained after its nearby populations started coming down with malaria, dengue fever, dysentery, trachoma, tapeworm infestations and similar maladies.
• The rote villainous deed of poisoning the town well to wreak havoc on an entire settlement through minimalist effort.
• How to get those water elementals to obey you or flee in terror from you? "Do as I say or I'll pollute your waters with the most virulent plague or horrifying toxin I can find!" See if they mind after a sizeable portion of their precious marine life (including merfolk, aquatic elves and other friends to the water elementals...) goes floating belly-up to the surface.
• And finally, the Water Domain allows Clerics to cast Poison as a Level 3 spell.

It's too late for a certain Talontar that I may or may not be playing on this server; she already had to settle on Destruction and Evil just to make it through character creation. I just figured that this suggestion could help players who might want to play other Clerics of Talona in the future.

Thank you. Thoughts?

[Wids]

How possible would it be to give smelters the option of making alloys with metal ores? Copper + Tin = Bronze. Copper + Silver = Sterling Silver. Silver + Gold = Electrum. Iron + Adamantine = Dwarven Steel. Copper + Silver + Gold = White Gold. And whatever else.



The portions of required ore don't necessarily have to be equal, of course; bronze, for example, is roughly 80% copper and 20% tin. So the Llorkh smelter might take 8 Copper Ores and 2 Tin Ores to make 1 Bar of Bronze, while the Clan Longhammer smelter might take 6 Copper Ores and 2 Tin Ores.



These alloys might be used to make certain armors, shields or perhaps even weapons, or they may just serve as a way for adventurers to get just a little more money when they don't quite have enough Copper Ore to make a complete Bar of Copper but oh, they also just so happen to have these two lumps of Tin Ore right here....



That's about it. Thanks for your time!

[Wids]

Because you never asked for them (but you're going to get them anyway), spirits for the Savage Frontier's many fine taverns! At long last!





Thayvian Amber Araq



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 1 Gold for five bottles

Description: "Bitter, with a very strong taste of anise (and little else), the meager quality of this cheap, mass-produced araq is all that one can expect from Thay's loveless slave labor."





Eighty Sails Black Bumbo



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 2 Gold per bottle

Description: "Though little more than fermented molasses mixed with crushed red grapes, this diluted rum has been a staple for the many pirate vessels which pillage whatever merchant ships stray too far from the Sword Coast."





Auld Granfattock Whiskey



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 3 Gold per bottle

Description: "A beverage of growing popularity in the vicinity of the Ten Towns, this aged, affordable barley whiskey is popular among the local lumberjacks."





Lord Forwarth's Blue Label



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 10 Gold per bottle

Description: "Named for a Sembian nobleman who pioneered its taste and its brewing technique, the recipe behind this vaunted caramel brandy remains a closely guarded family secret."





Manuacoacatl



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 12 Gold per bottle

Description: "Brewed from fermented agave pulp and boiled with infused pepper oils, this potent and flavorful mezcal is imported from Maztica's Valley of Nexal by way of Amn, where merchants who cater to those of exotic taste will gladly pay its import taxes."





Thousand Eyes Vodka



Potion, Alcohol: Spirits

Cost: Around 50 Gold per bottle

Description: "Thousand Eyes vodka (or Szithrel Solen in its native tongue) is a Drow beverage fermented from deep potatoes and White Rossela mushrooms. Often traded out of Skullport, this vodka comes bottled with several harvested rothe eyes (numbering far fewer than a thousand, alas), which drow elves, illithids and the occasional orc enjoy snacking on after a drink but which tend to induce nausea in other imbibers."





Get them all in one tidy little .erf file here: NewBooze.erf


I assume that this server's drinky-drinky script will suit spirits drinks in general, right? So how soon until these drams and draughts hit the many fine taverns of the Heartlands, Kalbaern?

[Wids]

First off, I understand that the titles which characters receive on achieving certain Alignment scores don't really mean all that much. But what if they did? For example, a small Experience award for attaining and maintaining the ideal of perfection for a certain Alignment?



Granted, not all titles are created equal; anyone who creates a True Neutral character gets a title right off the bat. So the more trouble the character went through to attain the title and become its ideal, the greater its rewards (however slightly greater; we don't want to punish the True Neutrals just for being True Neutral, after all).



So what about the idea of a small XP award every time that character logs in, once per reset? Something like...





1 XP per server reset:

"Reconciler" (Neutral 50, Neutral 50)



2 XP per server reset:

"Benefactor" (Neutral 50, Good 100)

"Judge" (Lawful 100, Neutral 50)

"Free Spirit" (Chaotic 0, Neutral 50)

"Malefactor" (Neutral 50, Evil 0)



3 XP per server reset:

"Crusader" (Lawful 100, Good 100)

"Rebel" (Chaotic 0, Good 100)

"Dominator" (Lawful 100, Evil 0)

"Destroyer" (Chaotic 0, Evil 0)





What do you think? Good idea, bad idea or meh?

[Wids]

So you know how certain chests at the ends of certain dungeons always contain a +1 magic item, be it body armor, a weapon or a shield?



Well, this is the typical appearance of a Small Shield +1, as found when looted:







And thanks to the crafting menu, you can change that shield's appearance to any other craftable appearance in the same series as the Bioware appearances. But what if you want a Small Shield +1 in one of the appearances not craftable in the same vein as the Bioware appearances, like these?




 


(There are alternate weapons, large shields and tower shields not found in the Bioware series as well.)







So what if the loot table for those chests also contained a less-than-common chance of generating one of those +1 gems that you can Use on any ordinary armor, shield or weapon to turn it into a +1 magic item, in lieu of the usual +1 items? You open a loot chest, you roll some hot dice and get one of those +1 Armor Class or +1 Enhancement gems, and then you Use the gem on the fancy-looking item of your choice. Voila! Now you have a more unique and snazzy-looking magic goodie.



(Do those gems only work on non-magical items, though? Otherwise, I could see problems with players using several of these gems on the same item and eventually coming up with something like a Bastard Sword +5. Or is there a way to prevent that with the gems' scripting?)


And would it also be possible to add clothing with a +1 AC bonus to those loot tables? Monks, Sorcerers and Wizards need love too.

[Wids]

Just a little something that I thought about when I was pushing Ashanti through chararacter creation recently: What about adding two more choices to the Deity Selector's menu?

1) An option to go Faithless and bypass the deity selection process, since even the Forgotten Realms setting isn't without its less-than-devout sorts, including your noncommittal deists, agnostics, atheists and all the others who will end up in Kelemvor's Wall of the Faithless when their time is up. Characters like Clerics and Paladins probably couldn't go this route, of course. (How anyone could possibly be an atheist in a setting where clerics are healing wounds, raising the dead and dropping Flame Strikes on undead right and left is beyond me, but supposedly they exist.)

2) A "fill in the blank" option for characters whose deities aren't in the Deity Selector (at least not yet). I found myself wanting this option with Ashanti, who — being a rural Chultan from the Tabaxi tribe (not to be confused with those other Tabaxi whom Ubtao brought from Maztica to Chult with them) — casts her lots with Ubtao. But Ubtao isn't in the Deity Selector, so I had to pick Nobanion instead. Nobanion's a cool god and all, but he's no Ubtao.

So this option would either copy whatever the player typed into the Deity box during the character creation client or would ask the player to type a name in then and there. A DM might have to review the choice later on to ensure that the player picked two appropriate Domains, in the case of Clerics (ie. if you pick Death and Destruction for Foo Foo the Bunny God, you had better have a solid explanation for the next DM who taps you on the shoulder). This option would also cover characters who follow dead gods (like Myrkul or Karsus the Momentary God), totems, devil princes, demon princes, nebulous forces of nature, ordinary objects (out of sheer insanity, probably) and so on. Did you know that back in D&D's first edition, a Cleric could worship and follow himself and still be able to cast 1st through 3rd Level spells? So says Murphy's Rules, anyway.

Thank you!


(Come to think of it, what Domains would be good picks for a Cleric of Malcanthet, anyway? )

[Wids]

Nothing fancy here, really. It's just a Block of Butter (or Bucket of Butter, or Churn of Butter...whatever) item with X many charges. You use the Block of Butter and it creates a Butter item in your inventory, like how the bags of flour create Flour, the jars of spices create Spices and the bags of sugar create Sugar.

The butter block would give us portable butter for when we're on the road, or at least relieve us of having to run into Kriero's store and buy another Butter every time we catch a trout.

Thanks!

[Wids]

While there are several supported monastic servers on this server (listed here), there are several more canonical orders in the Forgotten Realms setting, including:

Weeping Friars (Lawful Good)
Known throughout most of the Savage Frontier, the Weeping Friars believe that there is only a finite amount of pain and suffering in the world; the more they take unto themselves, the less other people must suffer.

Disciples of the White Rod (Lawful Evil)
A monastic order devoted to Loviatar, Goddess of Torture and Suffering. They are headquartered in an abbey in Calimshan, where the Order keeps and protects their namesake White Rod of Loviatar.

The Shining Hand (Lawful Neutral)
As devotees of Azuth, the God of Wizards, monks of the Shining Hand often multiclass as Wizards themselves. Despite the persecution of wizards in Amn, the Shining Hand is based in Amn and remains the oldest monastic order in that nation.

Brotherhood of the Scarlet Scourge (Lawful Evil)
Established in 927 DR, the Brotherhood of the Scarlet Scourge was created to unite all orcs on a spiritual level. (This order is almost certainly limited to orcs and half-orcs.)


I also remember reading about two more monastic orders for orcs and half-orcs: The White Hands (devoted to Yurtrus, God of Disease) and the Long Claws (devoted to Luthic, the Cave Mother). But I can't seem to find any references to them just yet.

[Wids]

So right now we have two NPC townies who send low-level adventurers on quests, then offer them a chance to shift their Alignments towards Lawful. Choosing the Lawful option for each NPC earns the adventurer 3 Lawful points as well as a higher Experience award. The other option results in a lower Experience award, but it's the only surefire way to keep the adventurer's Alignment unchanged; with Myrta, this option also results in a reward of several potions, while Timo gives precisely bumpkus.

This choice may not be desirable — or fair — for adventurers who are comfortably Chaotic or ethically Neutral, particularly if they're Barbarians, Bards, Elves (at least on this server) or any other sorts which don't mesh well with Lawful Alignments. So if we're going to sacrifice some of our XP rewards, can we at least Alignment-shift in a more favorable direction, perhaps with a few more post-quest dialogue options?


Myrta:

The current Lawful option: "Just ensure that the ring is destroyed and that's enough of a reward for me." (+3 Lawful/Chaotic points.)

The current No Shift option: "Now, you mentioned something about some potions?" (Awards a fair few potions, no Alignment change.)

A possible Chaotic option: "Hold on! A necromancer offered me a fat purse for that ring! Let's talk about coin for a bit...." (Awards some Gold instead of potions, and -1 or -2 Lawful/Chaotic points.)

A possible Good option: "We should find a proper priest to cleanse that ring and ensure its destruction!" (+3 Good/Evil points.)

A possible Evil option: "But what if I can use this ring to turn your husband into a useful lackey?" (Myrta snatches the ring from you in alarm, and -3 Good/Evil points.)


Timo:

The current Lawful option: "Here you go. And try to find a safer place to play, will you?" (+3 Lawful/Chaotic points.)

The current No Shift option: "Hey, don't I get a reward?" (No Alignment change...for shaking down a little kid. I wonder if we should change that. )

A possible Chaotic option: "By the way, the blue meanies want your oliphant back, and they're coming to Orlbar to get it!" (Timo wets his pants in fear, much to your amusement, and -3 Lawful/Chaotic points.)

A possible Good option: "I'll be telling your family about this. You could have been killed!" (+3 Good/Evil points.)

A possible Evil option: "If you ever ask me to fetch your stupid toy again, I'll bury you in that graveyard myself!" (-3 Good/Evil points.)


Thoughts so far?

[Wids]

New Idea:  Shapechange form-changing widgets or codes.

Picture this scenario: Your Shifter's going through a dungeon, and after a visit to the Rest Menu, you decide to use Greater Wild Shape II to turn your Shifter into a minotaur, because minotaur form dishes out some pretty good damage and has potential for massive Critical Hits.  But the orcs come in far greater numbers than you were prepared for, and your minotaur form just doesn't have the toughness to withstand that sort of assault.  "Okay, no problem," you figure, "I'll just drop Minotaur Form, then change to Werebear Form; the werebear's Damage Resistance should make this mob a lot more surviveable."

...except that you can only choose new forms through the Rest Menu.  And you can't access the Rest Menu in the middle of a fight.

So how possible would it be to introduce a widget with several Use functions (ie. "Use > Greater Wildshape II > Wererat"), and/or a command code (ie. "/wererat") to pick new forms on the fly, without any need to access the Rest Menu?  That way, Druids, Shifters and any other shapeshifters can pick new forms for their Wild Shape abilities without needing a ten-second pause in the action.  Sometimes you need to change to a new form quickly but the action just won't stop.

That's it.  Thank you.

[kalbaern]

I've started to follow this topic now. Expect more than a few suggestions to be implemented soon.