Taunts and Tentacles

Not much of an update as I have been working on conversations and such. The last cutscene for module #3 is about halfway done with the conversation script completed for it.

The Taunt-like feats have also been scripted and add to the spells and feat 2das. Still need testing and what not. There are six feats total each with their own modified icon (tinting, contrast and other tweaks). They all use a will check, many use a combination of taunt skill with another skill then each has unique effects.
The penalties and duration will be based on the taunt skill. With every 5 ranks in taunt the penalties will inflict another -1 and add +1 rounds to the duration.

Lineage Mockery:The ever infuriating insult to heritage, ancestry or anything that the varied races of the FR hold dear.
Taunt skill
Penalties: AC, to Hit, Concentration

Desecrate Corpse: A horrid and vivid description of what will be done to the enemies corpse after the battle trying more to instill fear then enrage the target.
Taunt and Intimidate Skill
Penalties: to Hit, Saving Throws, Skill Checks
Chance to instill fear into the target

Sarcastic Spellcasting Mimicry: The taunter does an amusing imitation of spell casting. The real trick to this taunt is the taunters ability to take the incantation of spells and twist them into horribly insulting or obscene rhyme that the spell caster can't get out of their mind while casting.
Taunt and Listening Skills (need to hear the incantations before you can make fun of them.)
Penalties: Concentration, Spell failure 10+taunt rank%

Belittling Cat-Call: Useful against both the opposite and same sex, no one likes unwanted suggestive comments from an ugly half-orc (except maybe another ugly half-orc).
Taunt and Spot Skills (Spot used to see the physical attributes and the reaction to the comments)
Penalties: Same as mockery
Makes target switch to melee weapon and charge taunter. Good to pull attackers off of weaker companions or bring archers and spell casters into battle.

Absurd Accusation: This is a bluff and taunt skill and deals more with confusing the target then enraging them. A comic version of this would be the Frenchmen in Monty Python's Holy Grail, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
Taunt and Bluff Skills
Penalties: AC, Saving Throws, Spell Resistance
Chance to daze the target as they try to figure out what you just accused them of.

Obscene Taunt: This will be a group taunt, with either an AOE around the target or a cone area from the taunter. The words and actions of the taunter are so insulting to most anyone or anything they all attack in a blind rage.
Taunt Skill
Penalties: Same as mockery only a group affect

Below are some screen shots of the tentacled horror from the last post. The exterior area it was shown in for testing just didn't fit the creature.When I finally get SOZ I will likely try the yaun-ti aberration in place of the wraith.

Back to Risen Hero

The Community Halloween Campaign is out and getting a lot of good feedback. That was an incredible accomplishment by all involved. I am definitely glad I was able to be a part of it. It was also my first mod release on the vault and a very encouraging experience. I do have to admit that so far I have only made it through about a third of the houses but I'm making some slow progress on the rest.

I am back to work on Risen Hero and the last month has been very productive after the summer slump.

The campaign is now fully compatible with Kaedrin's PrC Pack v1.33. I will have to update with future releases as they come out and yes I am already behind with release v1.34 but it will get done. Fortunately none of my custom content was in conflict so it was fairly easy to combine the 2das. The added classes and feats are a lot of fun. The final release will include this material as well as Tony_K's AI.

The conversations (The most dread part of modding) and most of the larger cutscenes for mod three are completed. Only 2 move larger cutscenes need to be put togther then several small converstions scattered throughout need to be completed.

A new companion will has also been added. Originally he was just going to be a henchman to help out in a battle heavy area, however, as I developed his character he was just too much fun to have only in one area. He is a half-orc barbarian/thug (taking advantage of Kaerdrin's new base class). My plan is that he will be far from a cliche tank. He will be a powerful fighter but will be an expert taunter. He is be that obnoxious guy who as the talent to enrage just about everyone he meets. He is able to throw insults and say it with just the right inflection and sarcasm to set anybody over the edge. While in the party he will have no problem interjecting in a conversation dashing any chance you may have had of talking your way out of the fight. The taunt skill is hard coded so he will receive special ability feats that will have taunt like abilities to use in combat. These will be given to him either when he is in the party at a specific time or encounter or some will be influence based and given during conversations with him. These taunts will increase in ability and have additional effects other than the standard taunt penalties.

I have gotten some great feedback about this on the bioware forums.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/myviewtopic.html?topic=654922&forum=111

Following the tutorial put together by Shagret's A Texture Tutorial, By (Semi)Popular Demand. I have created some visual effects for some of my custom monsters so they aren't just scale and tint jobs.
So far I have created one glow map for a flesh golem. I was trying to give it more of a freshly pieced together corpse with blood and oozing through the stitchings and connections. In addition to the glow map I took the mummy dust and made it a nice dark red and slowed it down to have a nice blood dripping effect.







By having the dripping attached to the hands it gives a nice splatter effect during the attack.

Here is the description from d20srd.org.


Once I started playing with the visual effect editor and gaining more confidence with it I went on to create this next aberration. It has tentacles attached to both it's hands and the spirit eater to it's back. The black cloud on it's body is mainly there to help hide/smooth the added effects but with during attacks and damage some of the tentacles will appear to be floating in mid-air. This creature comes from the converted monsters on enworld.com

This is how my level 5 fighter fared against it.

The third module is about half way complete with the bulk of the remaining work being conversation and starting to script custom taunt abilities (once I decide on what execptly they will all be). It is nice now that I can definately say I am on the down slope and the end is getting closer.