MM7 skill emphasis mod (#1)

[tnevolin]

Thank you for great feedback!
Please do not hesitate to propose changes to balance it better. I agree the mod is still in its medium-rare state.

some skill descriptions are old, not showing changes of your mod

Yes. My apologies. I was creating it as a copy-paste from MM6 one. Some text may need correction.

some spells seem useless now. What I mean: bless gives you 5+1/skill to attack. It was huge difference in vanila, but now weapon skills grant you +8 attack at average. So 38+6 not a big deal. Shouldn't it be changed toward something like 8+ 1/2/3/4 per skill?

Agree. I have spent like 2 months and many forum conversations trying to balance them all in MM6. Need to do the same work for MM7 but I don't have much time now. Can try to implement changes for proposed modification. Feel free to share your ideas.

Stealing skill is totally useless. Having effective 26 skill value (expert x 4+9 skill points) and can't steal even 50 gold bottle.

Are you talking about actual stealing things from people/shops (as in vanilla)? It is useless. Nobody cares about it.
That is why I added it additional meaning. But even with that it is a trash skill.

Low level combat magic is almost useles. For example, 4 rank in spear boost damage of crude spear to a ~ 18-43 per hit, while 4 ranks in fire gives you pathetic 4-16 fire damage for 2 SP. Considiring monster's increased HP, it's nothing.
Bows are same. Without bonus damage, pure bow damage are too weak, and monsters are too fast. Didn't bother even learn it on the second game restart.
Also, monster's range attack are overbuffed. I mean, their damage and attack bonus. I can easily beat goblins in melee, but their arrows are too powerful. So the only realy answer to it is strong melee composition.
I think you should choose either fast speed or powerful range, but not both. Having horde of zombies sprinting and shooting at you at the same time is just annoying.
And spells should be buffed too, imo.

All the same man - balance. Requires a lot of time for fine tuning. Please suggest what do you want to change and I'll implement. Don't have time thinking right now.

Some quests seem impossible now - druid shrine run, for example. Without scroll of invisibility and monster insane speed you'll be pulverized in the blink of an eye in Avelee(maybe Berserk will do a thing, have to try). And you will not have insivibility well, because you doing druid quest for Air Mastery.

You mean wiverns? Yea, could be.
Vanilla quests were quite imbalanced themselves. Some are extremely easy others are insanely hard. What can we do?
Keep in mind, this is not a first person shooter. It is an adventure game. Should not be absolutely perfectly balanced.

Also, new class-skill rank table can be very helpful to plan party

Yep. Though about it as well. Need to settle the balance first to not rewrite it multiple times. Will try when have time.

unarmed damage bonus doesn't apply to unarmed damage. Only half of it added while holding weapon

Unarmed adds damage when barehand. Vanilla.
Unarmed adds HALF of damage when wielding weapon. This mod (none in vanilla).

Identify simple bow costs 1950 gold for level 2 party. It doesn't seem right.

Intended to emphasize the skill and hirelings. Was trash skill in vanilla.
But again, propose a change and we can modify.

Mace user never had paralaze effects. This is strange, even 9% paralyze should have occurred more often

I think I tested it and it did. May need to recheck again.

No elemental resistance for expert+ leather users.

Tested it as well. Will recheck.

Guards, while fighting with enemies shoot arrows at YOU

Oh. That may be definitely a bug. I didn't even notice they can shoot arrows. Navigating missiles is a pretty tricky code. Will try to retest and fix.

[Tomsod]

Stealing skill is totally useless. Having effective 26 skill value (expert x 4+9 skill points) and can't steal even 50 gold bottle.

Are you talking about actual stealing things from people/shops (as in vanilla)? It is useless. Nobody cares about it.
That is why I added it additional meaning. But even with that it is a trash skill.

I actually just discovered that stealing (from shops) can be a decent alternative to Merchant if you get it early. It helps that Expert training costs much less for the former. The downsides are: (a) even a fully successful theft lowers reputation, so you must run to the temple after each stolen item as lower rep quietly penalizes the stealing skill; (b) some things like wands or good weapons are nearly impossible to steal, and you can't shoplift from guilds at all; (c) and the biggest issue, item/hireling bonuses to stealing skill just don't work. Hopefully Grayface will fix (c) someday. But it's still good for getting various equipment, scrolls, potions and an occasional mid-tier book from armor and magic shops, all at the price of two temple donations, which is much cheaper than even GM Merchant!