Suggestions, Feedback & Bug Reports (OOC) > Module Feedback and Suggestions

Item Request Thread (Read The First Post Before Posting) v2

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qwertyuioppp:

--- Quote from: Bluebomber4evr on February 25, 2007, 10:47:26 PM ---Okay folks, we'll open this up for you guys to request items you'd like to see in the module. Bear in mind that posting a request here is not a guarantee that the item will be made. Also, please only post item requests for the loot tables here. This is not a general item feedback thread or a thread for asking a DM to give you a special item or a new system or crafting component. Posts discussing things and/or derailing the topic will be deleted.

Here are the guidelines:

Basic Item Design

When designing items, be it either for your PC or stores, it's always ideal if you can make them usable for general purpose as well. This is both because of performance consideration, and also because it would benefit in creating a wide array of items available for other situations like loot etc. In the same manner, try to not create new items if some of the items on the current palette could easily equate your needs.

Be in line with the setting when creating items. Make them Ravenloft, classical, gothic, stoic, raw and gritty. Humorous items can be fun the first time, but they rarely stay that way when repeated, and thus, their use quickly fade.

Also, be sure to set the items to unidentified magical. This even applies to items you want sold in stores, as they'll always be marked as identified there. Make a description for them as well, preferably with a background story. Avoid describing the specific item as unique however, as it also greatly reduce the potential use. Often, you can simply describe how the first of the specific item was made and tell it's story that way.

Item balance and target prices

One of the best ways to judge an item's power is by the cost of that item. It's easily visible in the toolset so you can adjust items to fit our agreements fairly easily. While there's several downsides and loopholes of judging by item price, it's really still the most feasible and practical way of determining and comparing an items power and establish some standards. It will also make sure we don't blow our economy by having items that are sellable at excessive prices, and the treasure system is designed to judge what to spawn by gold value. If we feel that some items properties are excessively imbalanced price-wise, we can alter the 2das associated and up the prices they generate.

For all regular, non-magical items, the cost increase of the item properties should never exceed 200 above the version of the item with no item properties applied. This does allow for some simple item properties to be applied to things, but mainly things that are reasonable within what's non-magical properties (like +1 hide for a black cloak). If you want to design non-magical varieties of items that provide more significant advantages, make sure they have drawbacks too that put them within this price range. This is also a consideration of conceivability. For example, if an extra large and weightily greatsword gives only clear advantages, it's fair to assume that all greatswords were designed this way per default.

Some non-magical items can exceed this bar of price increase, but then, they should be considered of exceptional craftsmanship. However, applying extra cost to reflect aesthetic/material value, like a jeweled sword or a golden armor should not count against these limits.

For magical items, the price increase against the base item itself should never go past 8000.

You might find it hard to stay within these ranges, but applying some negative properties should make it fairly easy - and likely create some much more interesting items. Please don't use the purely price reducing property to reduce price to be within range, however. That breaks the entire balance. In same regard, when designing drawbacks, make some that matter. A greatsword with a wisdom or intelligence penalty would hardly impact the wielder, for example. Of course, to enhance the roleplay/story aspects of the items, you can still apply these penalties, but don't use them to balance out the end price - e.g., don't count them when determining if the item is within the price limits.

Weapons

Weapons should generally apply to the same standards, but with a modifier applied. This is because individual weapons need to be balanced toward each other still, and NWN doesn't automatically consider that when determining price. As an example, a bastard should still have the same relative advantage over a long sword, to keep the exotic feat worth it - and sacrificing wearing a shield by using a two handed weapon should provide some relative advantage as well. Thus, to calculate the price range of a melee weapon, use the maximum noncritical damage of the weapon, divided by 8 and apply as modifier. As an example, a greatsword with a maximum damage of 12 would have the modifier of 12/8 = 1,5 meaning a greatsword could go up to 8000*1,5 = 12.000 gp value increase and a scimitar with maximum damage of 6 would have a modifier of 6/8 = 0,75 meaning a scimitar could go up to 8000*0,75 = 6.000 gp value increase.

Item properties you should generally avoid:

Ability Modifier - Starting to bring in ability modifiers is opening the gates to a mayhem of imbalances, exploits etc. An example workaround could be that instead of giving a +1 to charisma to represent aesthetic value, you can give a +1 influence/perform.

Immunity: Ability Drain - This property has the problem that it not only makes the wearer immune to attack-induced ability drains, but also all other forms, including those applied by our systems, like subracial modifiers, making it a major factor of imbalance.

* use/day - In most terms of NWN, a day only represents the time between resting, thus items that have uses per day are quickly becoming much more frequently used. Since these items never run dry, we could end up with individuals carrying such items for every needed situation, effectively making them more powerful than a spellcaster and incredibly hard to toy with as a DM.

Overly restrictive usability - Items that are only usable by one or a few classes or one specific alignment has a very narrow usergroup. This isn't ideal since it greatly reduce the potential diversity other classes experience. Therefore, try to limit the usage of these restrictions.

NWN Engine Quirks The NWN has some quirks that differentiate it from PnP D&D, and it also uses 3.0 D&D, not 3.5, and many of those aspects are hardcoded and cannot be changed.

 :arrow: Attack Bonuses are more powerful in NWN because they bypass Damage Reduction (remember also, NWN uses 3.0 D&D DR, which is very different from 3.5's DR). Be careful about giving an item too many attack bonuses, such items are more powerful than they appear to be.

 :arrow: On-Hit: Cast Spell effects can cause performance issues. Most spells were designed under the assumption that a character could cast at most two spells in a round. When it is triggered on-hit, however, a spell can be cast much more often, potentially twelve times per round. Injudicious use of this item property can cause the game to lag. Also, no matter how many On Hit: Cast Spell properties you give an item, only one will ever be used, the highest gp-cost one.

 :arrow: On Monster Hit abilities only work on creature items

 :arrow: Armor and Shields can have On Hit effects as well as weapons, triggering when the owner is hit instead of when the owner hits something with a weapon.

 :arrow: Missile-launching weapons such as bows, crossbows and slings do not benefit from damage bonuses and do not trigger On Hit effects, as you do not actually hit with that weapon. These must be applied to the ammunition instead.

Custom Content Quirks: We have used haks to open up previously unavailable item properties. Some of them work, some of them do not. Also, as we have made some changes to spell, On Hit: Cast Spell effects may not work as intended.

 :arrow: The following item properties do not work: Boomerang, Dancing, Vorpal (use On Hit: Vorpal instead), Wounding (use On Hit: Wounding instead)

 :arrow: The knock spell has been altered on this server to give a large bonus to the Open Lock skill instead of instantly unlocking something. As such, you should avoid the On Hit: Knock item property.

 :arrow: Item Cost Parameter works, but should not be used. It is used in a few exceptions for mundane weapons that lack abilities they should have but don't due to hardcoded engine limitations (for example, nunchaku and sais should be able to be used with the Flurry of Blows feat, but since the engine won't allow it, the weapons were given a +1 Parry bonus to compensate). These exceptions are only handled by the Dev team and will not be considered or allowed on items suggested here.

 :arrow: Not all feats listed under "Bonus Feat" will work when added to an item, particularly if it is a feat that requires levels of a particular class (e.g. Barbarian Rage).

 :arrow: We have a custom poison system on PotM. To use it, select a poison type from the Poison property. Each poison has its own cost attached.

Materials:
Certain materials have different properties when armor and/or weapons are made from them. These will count towards the item's cost. You will have to add them manually.

Weapons:
 :arrow: Stone: Attack and Damage Penalty -2, Weight Increase 5 lbs.
 :arrow: Bone: Attack and Damage Penalty -2, Base Item Weight Reduction 40% of weight
 :arrow: Obsidian: Attack and Damage Penalty -1, Base Item Weight Reduction 80% of weight
 :arrow: Bronze: Attack and Damage Penalty -1
 :arrow: Copper: Attack Bonus vs. Racial Group Fey +2, Base Item Weight Reduction 80% of weight, Decreased Damage -1
 :arrow: Iron, Steel: no changes
 :arrow: Cold Iron: Attack Bonus vs. Racial Group Outsiders +1
 :arrow: Silver: Attack Bonus vs. Racial Group Shapechangers +1
 :arrow: Mithral: Base Item Weight Reduction 40% of weight
 :arrow: Adamantine: Enhancement +1 (light or medium weapons) or +2 (heavy weapons)
 :arrow: Alchemical Silver: as Silver, above

Wooden Weaponry: Only certain weapons can effectively be made of wood. The club, quarterstaff, sap, and all bows and crossbows can be made from wood without suffering a penalty. Any bludgeoning weapon can also be constructed of wood, but those not noted above suffer a -3 penalty on attacks and damage. Weapons that deal piercing or slashing damage cannot be made of wood.

 :arrow: Darkwood: weapons that can normally be made of wood without penalty gain Attack Bonus +1 and Base Item Weight Reduction 40% of weight when made of darkwood. There is no bonus gained for weapons not normally made of wood.

Armor and Shields:

 :arrow: Bone: maximum AC of 3
 :arrow: Wood: maximum AC of 3 for armor, no change for shields
 :arrow: Coral: maximum AC of 6
 :arrow: Shell: maximum AC of 3
 :arrow: Bronzewood: same AC as metal but gains Base Item Weight Reduction 80% of weight
 :arrow: Chitin: same AC as metal but weight is doubled
 :arrow: Bronze: AC is always -1 that of steel armor
 :arrow: Mithral: Arcane Spell Failure -05%, Base Item Weight Reduction 40% of weight
 :arrow: Adamantine: AC +1, Damage Reduction +1/Soak 5, Weight Increase x2
 :arrow: Darkwood: Base Item Weight Reduction 40% of weight (shields only)



Format:

-Item name
-Item type
-Description of the item
-Statistics
-Appearance (for weapons: list the part number and color for the top, medium, and bottom. For armor, list the appearance number for each armor part and approx. color, for "miscellaneous" items, take a screenshot of the icon used and post it)

For example:

--- Quote ---Item Name: EO's Hammer of Greatness
Item Type: Warhammer
Description:The original version of this hammer was forged in the depths of Toril by an angry dwarf who wished to create the most awesome hammer. Over time, many weaker replicas were made and some found their way into Ravenloft.
Statistics: +1 Enhancement Bonus, +1AC, +1/5- Damage Reduction
--- End quote ---

You should build the item in the toolset to get the right costs and appearance #s. DO NOT SUBMIT THE ITEM TO US. This is merely so you can get the appropriate costs. To do this, create a new module, then edit the module properties. Go to "Custom Content" and make sure the following haks are listed in this order, from top to bottom:

rl_2da_v2_30
rl_effects
rl_equipment
rl_gui
rl_heads
rl_palette
rl_creatures
rl_placeables
rl_placeables2
rl_mountain
rl_ruralcity
rl_jungle
rl_swamp
rl_ships
ctp_exp_elf_city
ctp_elf_interior
ctp_goth_int
ctp_goth_estate
cd_ee
keep
qcastle
dungcata
mountainforest
rl_tilesetaddons
rl_fixes
ctp_genericdoors
cep2_ext_tiles
cep2_add_tiles1
cep2_add_tiles2
cep2_add_doors
cep2_crp
cep2_custom
cep2_core7
cep2_core6
cep2_core5
cep2_core4
cep2_core3
cep2_core2
cep2_core1
cep2_core0
ctp_common
ctp_loadscreens
ee_dag01
ee_tcm02
ee_trm02
ee_trs02
ee_tss13
ee_ttf02
ee_tts02

Under "custom TLK file", make sure it says "ravenloft 2_30"

Then compile/rebuild the module and save it. You should be able to make your own items at this point. In our module, negative effects lower the cost of an item. So giving an item an ability score penalty (ex: -2 WIS), will lower the cost of the item, as will damage vulnerability, etc.

PLEASE DO NOT SUGGEST ITEMS THAT REQUIRE CUSTOM SCRIPTS.

--- End quote ---

Dumas:
Item Name: Cameo of Glamour

Item Type: Amulet

Description: Many tales have been whispered of the Great Moor of Mordent, but perhaps one of the most intriguing is that of the Crooked Coven. It is said that years ago, a coven of ancient witches once plied their dark wills amongst the gnarled trees and misty bogs of the Moor, preying on lost travelers for use in their nefarious rituals. While most of the residents of the scattered villages of Mordent knew very well to avoid such places, an occasional roaming adventure would seek to brave the bogs, determined to put an end to the dark tales. More often than not, they would fail to return.

However, as legend goes, a wandering Warden of the Fourth Sect of Ezra finally put an end to the witches dominance over the bogs. In a battle of faith against magic, faith proved stronger, and the entire coven was said to have been cut down by righteous steel.

In the years since, treasure hunters and otherwise have sought to recover baubles and items from the old lair of the Crooked Coven. These cameos, tied together with a strip of cured leather, are such. It may be believed that these peculiar necklaces possess the ability to charm and deceive, which may explain how the witches were able to claim so many victims, over the years. Beauty unnatural, usually comes with a price, however...

Statistics:
Cast Spell : Charm Person (10) [5 Charges/Uses] 50 charges
Skill Bonus: Perform [+2]
Decreased Skill Modifier : Spot [-2]
Material [Bone]
Material [Leather]
Material [Wood, Hemlock]

Appearance: itt_neck_088



Total Item Cost: 251

Added
-EO

Dumas:
Item Name: Lightless Halberd

Item Type: Halberd

Description: In the year 770BC, a battle took place in the Lightless Wood of Mordent, south of Blackburn's Crossing. With shot and pike, arrow and sword, the combined forces of a Mordentish army and the Company of the Fox of the Republic of Dementlieu were able to turn back the Valachani horde, but at great cost. The bloody battle lasted over two days, and during the desperation, many tales emerged. One in particular, is of how the Fox Company halberdiers stood firm against countless charges against Valachani swordsmen, and, if rumors are to be believed, shapeshifting giant cats or panthers that emerged from the fog with suddenness and stealth, striking at the stalwart soldiers with great brutality.

Amidst the shifting fogs and the heavy rains that plagued the muddied woods, dozens of simple halberds were lost in the muck and mire, most unrecovered and abandoned. Over time, it seems, some of these weapons have absorbed the lingering energies and emotions present at the battle, both good and ill... Since then, some of these polearms have been found, claimed by various folk throughout the Core.

Statistics:
Damage Bonus: Negative Energy [1d4 Damage]
Enhancement Bonus vs. Racial Group: Shapechanger [+2]
Massive Criticals [2d4 Damage]
Decreased AC : AC Dodge Modifier [-1]
Decreased Skill Modifier: Parry [-5]
Decreased Skill Modifier: Tumble [-5]
Material [Steel]
Material [Wood, Hickory]

Appearance:
Top: 3/4
Middle: 23/7
Bottom: 23/1

Total Item Cost: 1390

Added
-EO

Dumas:
Item Name: Waraji of the Lost Hero

Item Type: Boots

Description:
Outlanders know well of the dangers of the Mists, claimed as they were from their homelands by such. There is a tale from long ago of one such Outlander; a Hero who sought desperately to return to his home, and face a great evil there. Long did he travel about the Core and the Mists, searching with determination for a way to return. None are quite sure if he ever found the portal which he sought...

Over the course of his travels, he often found himself traversing treacherous terrain. Luckily, he was skilled at maintaining his equipment, and was able to fashion new sandals, or Waraji as he called them, from grass, reed, or other plant material with great dexterity, and some small help from minor magical scrolls. Sometimes it is said, the Lost Hero would discard his current sandals in favor of crafting new ones from stronger materials he found... a stronger type of vine, or a thicker piece of bark. His old ones were left alongside remote mountain trails, or deep forest paths. Such discarded sandals maintain some of their previous mastery of craftsmanship, and are exceedingly comfortable to wear for long journeys, giving one the endurance to keep moving, but the crunch of dried grass can give away one's position.

Statistics:
Cast Spell : Bear's Endurance (3) [5 Charges/Use] 25 charges
Decreased Skill Modifier : Move Silently [-4]
Material [Cord]
Material [Bark]

Appearance:
Top: 5/4
Middle: 1/3
Bottom: 1/9



Total Item Cost: 564


Added
-EO

Dumas:
Item Name: Dementlieuse Boarding Axe

Item Type: Battleaxe

Description:
During boarding operations, sailors of Dementlieuse privateer ships often find use for these large boarding axes. They are heavy, brute, and ugly weapons, favoring those with strong arms and a desire to draw up close in combat, and a disregard to defense of their own. With such a heavy iron head, these axes can even batter through the strong oak hatches and deck doors of enemy vessels, breaking down defenses with ease. One could imagine that any similar stout materials can be battered down and splint asunder by these frightening, heavy axes.

Statistics:
Enhancement Bonus vs. Racial Group : Constructs [+1]
Extra Melee Damage Type : Bludgeoning
Massive Criticals: [1d6 Damage]
Decreased AC : AC Deflection Modifier [-1]
Decreased Skill Modifier : Discipline [-2]

Weight Increase [Amount: 10 lbs.]
Material [Iron]
Material [Wood, Teak]

Appearance:
Top: 15/1
Middle: 15/3
Bottom: 13/2

Total Item Cost: 1584

Added
-EO

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