Major overhaul of most demon family AI, spellcasting, and balance.
Also some minor fixes.
v0.45
Total Summary of the Mod: LINK
All Patch Notes: LINK
Detailed Creature Strength/Weakness Sheet: LINK
In this patch----------------------
Rebalances
*MAJOR* Constructs (Golems, Retrievers, etc..) - The rules around how constructs work have been dramatically modified from the base game. Instead of blanket immunities to everything, constructs follow the same rules as all other entities in the game regarding their susceptibility to different forms of magic and attacks.
However, they still retain their flavor, in that *all* constructs are extremely difficult to affect with spells that require saves (and are *even more* difficult to affect with things that, in tabletop, they are immune to, such as mind affecting magic and the like). They also have extreme spell resistance. In Worldcrawl, the “lore” around this is that it is *(almost) always* possible for a spell to affect anything in the universe… but that in some cases it is simply much harder. For example, a domination spell is designed to be used on a “living” creature, but the same “sentience” that gives golems their ability to function can also be overwritten…. It just takes a *much more powerful* spellcaster to force the spell to do so. (Note that the only exceptions to these rules are divine entities, and entities who’s entire being revolves around the spell type. Ie. an avatar of a god of death is not going to be affected by death spells, regardless of their power, unless the death spell is bolstered by divine “hax”)
The biggest difference you will feel when actually playing the game is that, as opposed to vanilla, with a powerful enough character, you *CAN* break through their spell resistance and affect them with many (but not all) spells. *However*, this will generally not be the best way to deal with them, especially when you are facing constructs that are around your level of power.
In general, constructs are *incredibly* dangerous to casters, but are somewhat vulnerable to AC tanking and a strategy of slowly wearing them down with things like force/sonic/etc.. damage and the like. (some specific types of constructs may have bolstered defenses in these areas though…. *scout* and check what you are fighting before engaging in combat! :)
(In this patch, only demonic constructs have been updated, but a patch later this month will cover the rest of the constructs in the game)
~120 units were modified in this rebalance - i’ve covered them by the general family they are a part of to save pages and pages of changelog notes
Ooliodroo Family - AI rewritten from scratch and stats rebalanced - now these things are very dangerous illusion/enchantment focused casters that will cause you much pain unless you deal with them quickly - they are also very agile and love to hide :)
Demodand Family (Titanspawn) - AI rewritten and rebalanced to be extremely good at dealing with and destroying lawful and good outsiders - they are very resistant to specific forms of planar damage - lawful parties will have a hard time dealing with them
Derakni - These are already quite dangerous in the base game, so the rebalance here was a “massage” of their stats to make sure they feel like big bugs. :)
Echo of Deskari - Stats somewhat rebalanced and Divine Rank ½ applied - the echo is basically an avatar of Deskari and so get’s some minor divine power. I will probably revisit this mini-boss a bit later, though i’m unhappy with it’s graphics (it’s just a normal derakni right now… unsure if Owlcat will be updating the graphics on it) - perhaps a project for some custom modeling later on
Gallu - Brain rewritten from scratch and stats modified to push Gallu towards the role of being high damage-per-hit warriors that are extremely dangerous to parties utilizing DR or summon-based tanking strategies (also has a few surprises in store for you…)
Gibrileth - Gibrileth are now extremely scary balls of Abyssal energy that you will *really* want to keep away from your characters. They are very difficult to kill (lots of HP) and utilize unholy damage in an area that ignores most defenses. Their melee attacks are… not the best, though (they have a bunch of baby arms! :D)
Incubus and Succubi - Only minor stat modifications to make them slightly more powerful in the mid-game. I’m happy with these demons being “lesser” in terms of their combat prowess, though in future rebalances i’m probably going to modify their AI a bit more to really punish parties that have low will saves (though they are already doing this *decently* well..)
Nabasu - Minor overhaul that pushes them towards being high-accuracy, extremely fast units that also threaten you with death-related magic early - removed some useless spells and AI actions to make them stop bumbling around so much
Nalfeshnee - Complete overhaul of this family of demon - Nalfeshnee are now *extremely dangerous* to parties that rely on planar damage (holy/unholy/negative/positive) - they are also now much more dangerous in their spellcasting, and are one of the most powerful spell casters you will meet in the mid-late game, focusing on Unholy damage and save-or-implode scary dark magic - they are basically the unholy pigs of carnage that the wonderful character model might suggest they should be
Painajai - Completely overhauled. Instead of being the minor roadbump that most of you might remember from the base game (or not remember, considering how fast and easy they die to almost everything), they now represent a very dangerous threat to any sort of AC related tanking strategy. They are still quite weak, in terms of their toughness, but they do *massive* amounts of unholy damage and have extreme bonuses to their to-hit. These might get a second rebalance pass to somehow help them live longer following some more play testing.
Vavakia - Already very deadly in the base game, changes to Vavakias mainly included making them tougher, as befits half-draconian greater demons the size of a house that usually own their own small parts of the Abyss (just under the power level of Balors)
Vrock - Only minor balance changes here, mainly increasing their toughness a bit due to their size
Vrolikai - Complete overhaul. Instead of being a laughing-stock of a greater demon, carrying a bunch of standard (not even mastercraft) daggers around in it’s hands, Vrolikai are now demons that have an extreme speciality in annihilating undead of all types, and their AI + stats have been totally reworked. Liches and other undead-centric parties may want to be *very very careful* when encountering these foes...
Devastators - Major overhaul. These quasi-divine engines of Abyssal destruction, towering three or more stories tall, are now extremely deadly foes capable of tearing apart entire squads of angels. Their AI and stats have been completely redone to position them as pretty much the most powerful Abyssal foes of heaven. If you are an angel, and/or you rely purely on holy magic, you are in for a ride. :)
Retrievers (all types) - Minor overhaul - generally made tougher to reflect how massive they are, these will still be the somewhat deadly foes you will have dealt with in the base game.
Fixes
Moroi Vampire - Fast healing no longer stacks - Fast healing now goes 5 -> 10 -> 20
Procedural Spawn System - Some small fixes to base-game units that had their CR set incorrectly - spawn system also tweaked a bit to reduce the chance of seeing things like scary minotaurs in the first few dungeons of the game
