Store mods: too powerful items?

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OK I got the Volcano pack mod this weekend, as I was in ToB. Have you tried it? There was a two-handed sword which was unindentified, and priced 68000 gp, for my Rep20 and CHA of 16. Curious, I bought it, (which nearly costed my whole gold) and after a quick identify..wow. Just wow. That Volcano sword is cool beyond words, +6, does massive (1d12+6) damage plus 4d4 fire damage, grants invulnerability to fire, +40 MR and most importantly, immunity to Time Stop! It is rather slow (speed:10) and heavy (45 lbs!) but cool. And guess what? I had Sarevok with me. And was succesful at redeeming him to CG. Yay. He sure loved the blade. This is so evil, as three of my party can cast Time Stop:My Wild Mage, Immy, and Kelsey. This causes never ending time-stops, in which Sarevok cuts the enemies into ribbons with GWW attacks. Improved Demogorgon was too easy, his own TS allowed Sarevok to attack the big baboon with ease, and improved Comets (5d10 cold, 5d10 crushing dmg, ignore MR like DB) scattered his summoned army of demons like dolls.

Have you tried this blade? Personally, I would hate to make my game easier but this is just so cool!

Then again I will try the Four mod (Sikret's mod!) in my next run, and I guess its super-items would be welcomed too.

Though I admit I uninstalled a new shop mod I got, it introduced new stores, odd stores, and one dimensional store, which could be conjured via a book. The items were too powerful even for me. Do you have this mod too?

What do you think about store mods with uber items? Too easy? Unbalancing? Cool? Do you know any other cool store mods?

[ September 27, 2006, 22:43: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Most store mod just adding uber items, so they tend to make the game too easy. I only have the two bonus merchants, they also have tough, cheap weaponry, wich makes things easier...

 

i tend not to like store mods. The bonus merchants are ok, but that's it. I used to use the mod Dark Ritual, but there was a store in it that unbalanced the game so I removed it.

 

Since its name was mentioned here, just note that "The Four" is not a store mod. The four new items are not sold anywhere; They are rather in the inventory of four groups of tough enemies (guardians).

 

Yes, store mods do tend to unbalance the game. The thing is with store mods, the only thing you can do to make the items difficult to acquire is to make the items ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately, that never works as gold will never be much of an issue in SoA, and is a complete non-factor in ToB. In ToB, everyone is walking around with +3 armor and +3 weapons, meaning you're earning a couple thousand gold pieces per kill.

 

Most stores tend to unbalance game, true. Had I any modding skills, I would be making intresting, not too overpowered items. Like weapons that really have both a serious curse and a good side, so that you would have to wonder: "Is it really worth it?"

In PnP, our DM sometimes decided to put that kind of things here and there, and they worked really fine. Like the axe that had 15% chance per round to become incredibly heavy, falling down, and possibly even dragging the user down if he failed to let go of it. OTOH, it could also make the enemy fall down, throw it back or even scorch it.
Such good times...

 

I always stay away from item mods for precisely that reason. In fact I bet most new kits are also unbalanced. The oversight mod added HLA's for monks that were ridiculous, like temporary immunity to timestop and invisibility without the possibility of detection.

Even some of the original items might be said to be overpowerd. Crom feyr = permanent 25 strength. one of the best mods to have, even if you dont use hammers at all. robe of vecna plus timestop and improved alacrity = dead bodies everywhere.

 

Sikret, I know your mod's items are heavily guarded. And I do have big expectations from those battles:at least fifteen reloads, and a few hours of extra struggling.

So you all dislike store mods? This is suprising to know. Personally, they are a fresh-change to some extent, but that summoned up shop's item list was too much...really. I like Volcano Blade though, it sure suits Sarevok very well! I will challenge Ascension on insane I need some cutting edge, you know? But now that I think about it, it will also help a lot against Oversight Sendai on insane:she likes Timestops, you know?

 

Silverstar, I hope that (at least) guardians of the gloves (in The Four mod) will satisfy your expectation of truly hard battles.

And if you install Improved Anvil, some of the hardest battles (specially, JD plot battles, Twisted Rune, Improved Irenicus at hell, Improved Yagashura, Improved Draconis, and Improved challenge Dragon) will even be more challenging. In particular, winning the second battle of JD plot is only possible if the player knows so many clever tactics. It's perhaps the hardest battle ever designed for this game.

 

That's why I also tend to avoid store/item mods like the plague. The only one I tried were the merchants from the Song & Silence mod who sold mostly bard-specific items.

I didn't think they were *too* unbalancing, but anyway, the whole deal with the bard is that it takes a bit from every class (literally when you get Use Any Item), so I'm not too excited about bard-specific items.

...unless it's the melodic chain. I think I used that all the way into the end of ToB.

@ Proteus: I agree with kits, as well. I made one myself (an Amazon fighter kit) and had the hardest time trying not to make it too powerful. I'm not 100% sure I suceeded anyway.

There's a guide out there (I think it's available here in SP) called Riverwind's Guide to Kits. To my surprise, it talked mostly about kits introduced by mods, and man, there were some awful ones over there. They were either things that bended the rules so much that they just screamed "MOD!" or ridiculously unbalancing.

 

I think everyone has the tendency to say:

I really like Paladins, so I'm going to create a paladin class that gets +1 to hit and damage and AC every 3 levels. Ooh and I hate level drain, he'll be immune to that too, and fear and timestop. But he needs some drawbacks. Lets see, I never use missile weapons, so that will be fine to ban, and they arent very good clerics so I'll take that away too. Seems limited enough hey?

I'm not saying everyone is like this, and I'm not saying the designers of games are incapable of bias, but I think having more than one person working on a mod tends to make things more balanced because more opinions are expressed.

 

LMAO at the above post.

And there's another common mistake: minimum required stats. The kits featured @ the guide I mention were taken over by those.

Of course, at PnP, a minimum stat requirement is a severe drawback. But on BG2, the engine will always make sure you roll at the least the minimum required for your class, so it's the exact opposite of a drawback!

Anyway, I think I got off topic, sorry for that...

 

Minimum stat requirement is still a drawback if it's not placed on the kit's main attributes. The drawback is that the player won't be able to decrease that particular stat too much just to add to his main stats.

 

You're right. And then it's a clever drawback (for example, a Fighter kit that requires a high WIS - nothing a good background can't justify - or something).

But at most, they were were Ranger kits that required a high dexterity or Cleric kits with high STR or CON or whatever. So I guess that while I was a bit wrong in my statement, these drawbacks were still being used as "drawbacks"

 

The Song and Silence mod adds a store, which provides items I like to think aren't excessively powerful. http://www.gibberlings3.net/sns/index.php

 

Unusual Oddities Shop also has items that aren't particularly overpowered.

http://www.rpgdungeon.net/cms/content/view/64/27/

 

Store mods, along with any Item Upgrading mods are cheesey things that make a very beatable game too easy.

 

Klorox, you are so right, but trying new items are fun for a while.

Rastor, I already have the mod, it looks cool! I will see it in my next run! Thanks!

 

Improved Anvil offers item upgrades, but it also enhances the difficulty of the game more than enough to compensate the power of the new items.

Moreover, the required components (and the high cost and price) of forging the relatively more powerful items are hard to attain.

[ September 28, 2006, 19:38: Message edited by: Sikret ]

 

I was browsing the readme of Improved Anvil but 2 hours ago and that's exactly what I've noticed. That the items were VERY powerful but were very expensive (and the cost of each upgrade would grow exponentially).