Unable to write mage spell

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I've got kind of a strange problem that I think is a mod related bug, but I wanted to post and see what others thought. I have an Icewind Dale installation (the original version) which had all the expansions installed and also has the following mods installed:

G3 mods --- Item Upgrade IWD v1, IWD Tweaks v10, IWD Unfinished Business v1, and widescreen v3.05

other mods --- BG Portraits, IWD lvl 40, IWD XP Cap, Torment portraits, Auril's Bane

I'm having a peculiar problem where I cannot write the 4th level spell Tenser's Giant Strength to my mage's spell book. I have a 19 INT and only 18 spells in the level 4 tab. Other spells will write. Since this spell is something the mods added, could it be the spell itself? Does anyone know the .2da file I need to check to see what's going on?

Thanks!

 

It could be because you have 18 spells, and the mod introduced a limit.
Check intmod.2da and see if MAX_SPELLS_PER_LEVEL is set to 18 or 99 for an INT of 19.

http://gemrb.org/iesdp/files/2da/2da_tots/intmod.htm

 

Hmm... I took a browse of the install directory and couldn't find an intmod.2da file anywhere. Are you talking about IWD:EE or IWD? Could I somehow be missing the file and that's why I'm having the issue?

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There is an intmod.2da in my Baldur's Gate stuff, but not Icewind Dale. Could there be another mechanism that IWD uses?

 

The file isn't there because it's archived along with other files. The only files that actually appear in the install directory are the ones that override the original files (like patches and mods).

Download NearInfinity and load IWD's chitin.key file into it. That'll allow you to browse all the files of the game. 2DA files are just simple tables, so you shouldn't have any trouble deciphering them once you find the right one.

 

Thanks for the tip on NearInfinity. It's pretty awesome! Here's what my intmod.2da looks like.

2DA V1.0
0
LEARN_SPELL MAX_SPELL_LEVEL MAX_SPELLS_PER_LEVEL
0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0
2 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
4 0 0 0
5 0 0 0
6 0 0 0
7 0 0 0
8 0 0 0
9 35 4 6
10 40 5 7
11 45 5 7
12 50 6 7
13 55 6 9
14 60 7 9
15 65 7 11
16 70 8 11
17 75 8 14
18 85 9 18
19 95 9 99
20 96 9 99
21 97 9 99
22 98 9 99
23 99 9 99
24 100 9 99
25 100 9 99

As you can see, everything looks OK. Do you think it could be something wrong with the actual character file or save?

 

I'm not sure I understand entirely what the problem is in the first place. Does the writing of the spell always fail? Can you copy a spell that didn't come from a mod into your book above the 18 limit? If you delete a spell and try to write it into the spellbook, does it work then?

 

I'm pretty sure at this point that it is the spell itself. I can't copy it to any of my other mages or bards either. I'll have to dig through the mod file and see where it came from.

I inadvertently left out one of the installed mods in my earlier list. I also have Auril's Bane installed.

 

This may be a dumb question but did you save the game after failing to memorize the spell the first time? According to your table you have a 95% chance to learn a spell with a 19 intelligence. Once you fail with a spell you will always fail with that spell -- at least that's the way pnp rules work and I thought IWD adopted the same convention with this.

 

Only until you gain a level and I don't recall this mechanic being a thing in any of the IE games (although I rarely play mages).

 

Well, that's a good thought but I have tried with all my characters that could possibly learn it. All have the same result. My save game is actually from right before I tried memorizing the spell. I even tried chugging enough potions to set my INT to 25. The result is the same.

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I think I may have found the problem. The spell is in file SPWI429.SPL in the Auril's Bane mod. The NearInfinity editor showed the Spell type as Priest instead of Wizard and the level as 5 instead of 4. Other info in the .spl file looked a little strange also. I'm going to see what it looks like in a fresh file I pull from the installer.

I did try backing up the old file and changing the values to "Wizard" and level 4, but it still does not seem to work properly. I've never edited spells though so it's probably me doing something wrong.

 

Even if the mechanic was implemented, you could save scum until you succeeded. That I know worked because I'd do to that to learn rare scrolls. That was true for ALL the Infinity Engine games.

 

I actually have tried save scumming --- that's how I verified that it wasn't working. With a 95% chance to learn I shouldn't have 10 failures in a row. I'm reasonably convinced that it's an Auril's Bane mod problem judging by the contents of the SPWI429.SPL file. Does anyone know if the author is still active? His web site hasn't seen anything new for a while...