Vampire Queen mod

[mivayan]

The Fly is very useful, but I'd change it ... Vampires fly as bats, so it would be nice if this flying movement wouldn't allow to attack cause it's assumed the Vampire is in his bat form ... well he could change aspect at will ... but we've to limit it.

Perhaps remove the flying ability and have it shapechange into a vampiric bat? The bat would be immortal, flying, head+misc+misc slots and have harpy-like stats.

But to get it consistent you would have to do the same for other vampires - shapechanging non-commanders might not work too well.

Removing regen would probably make the vq rack up a LOT of afflictions with the low base hp, but they go away quick. So why not?

[ April 20, 2004, 21:47: Message edited by: mivayan ]

[Jondifool]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
What makes vampires ethereal in the first place?

If it is a cloak (someone mentioned something about vampires and cloaks, thanks for him!), giving the Queen body armor would take the etherealness away. Make any weapon take away her life-draining attack, and take away one of her miscellanous item slots. She can't drain the blood if she whacks her enemies down with a sword, and surely some of those abilities come from magical amulets...

thats close to my take on it also. But I think that when modding for balance purpose its simple the matter of making the smallest change possible there solve the problem! (and not creating any new).
The problem is not that she can aniliate entire armys, thats ok, someone has to be able to do it! The problem is that some races don't have a counter to the SC Version of her, on a battlefield.

And with that I see 2 points lined out.

Either the elemental army is to strong for her, or her cost of having new magic path is to small.

Well taking away her armour sloth, or linking the etherealness to not wearing an armour would be a minor change, but with big impact.
Because how does that relate to other ethereal pretenders being able to wear armours? (well maybe write a story that she is to selfobsessed to wear an armour ...)

Changing the cost of magic path sounds elegant, but that actual just disallow her to be played as a rainbow pretender. Besides that I dont know if a change of the cost of new magic paths would give all nations a battle change against her. would she just be buffed a little less and still be unkillable? Bringing me back to let her be without a armour sloth (if thats enough)!

[Vicious Love]

Originally posted by Jondifool:
Changing the cost of magic path sounds elegant, but that actual just disallow her to be played as a rainbow pretender. Besides that I dont know if a change of the cost of new magic paths would give all nations a battle change against her. would she just be buffed a little less and still be unkillable? Bringing me back to let her be without a armour sloth (if thats enough)!

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Soul Vortex+basic life drain attack+mad combat skillz and plenty of item slots makes for a truly spectacular SC, but one not nearly as powerful as a Fire Shielded, mistformed, Mirror Imaged, Invulnerable(If you feel like giving her a robe rather than heavy armor to go with her 0 encumbrance), Quickened, Breath of Wintery and, above all, Phoenix Pyred VQ.
Mind you, Soul Vortex, Phoenix Pyre(And other fire 2 or fire 1 spells), 0 encumbrance and a life drain attack still make for some spectacular bang for nearly any conceivable buck, but there are ways to get around such an SC's inexhaustible fatigue. I suspect raising the cost of new paths for the VQ, and probably raising her base cost a bit, too, would resolve this issue nicely.

[tinkthank]

I'm also unburying this thread from page 2 because I just had a tiny idea.

Comment1: In a current MP game I did very well against an enemy VQ in at least one battle early game (she had no items) with nothing but elephants (those merc ones). Trample seems to be very nice, and there is no defense against it except etheralness, unless I am mistaken.
Comment2: Wont any undead units be really good against a VQ since she cant drain them?
Together with comment1: Behemoths would do the trick nicely.
(Just as a counter; VQ still is a good indy-conquerer.)

Question: Would anybody find it out of theme to remove her Etheralness? I thought vampires should be staked through the heart etc., never pictured them as etheral. People found that etheralness was one of her big strengths when paired with her other abilities (not that it couldnt be added with a Robe of Shadows or Body Etheral).

Suggestion: Ditch the etheralness, jack the price to 140, (Reduce Magic Resistance to 16 (I know that is bizarre)??), leave everything else alone. (Seems as a master of magic she shouldn't have to pay more than 50 at the most for new spell paths, and it seems she *should* be a master of magic.)


Well dunno just my newbie two cents.

[Pocus]

trampling is based on defence IIRC (base attack 10 vs the defence of the target)

[Reverend Zombie]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
I'm also unburying this thread from page 2 because I just had a tiny idea.

Question: Would anybody find it out of theme to remove her Etheralness? I thought vampires should be staked through the heart etc., never pictured them as etheral. People found that etheralness was one of her big strengths when paired with her other abilities (not that it couldnt be added with a Robe of Shadows or Body Etheral).

This is an excellent idea, in my newbie opinion. Very in keeping with the traditional idea of vamps. While Dracula did have a "mistform" in the book and movies, this was more spell-like in nature, and not an always-on ability. When in a form able to hurt someone else, vamps themselves are usually all too corporeal in the literature.

[Catquiet]

Here is a third Version of the VQ mod:

Changed name to Spectral Queen
Removed regen, stealth, and vampire recruitment
Replaced life drain attack with bane blade
Raised HP to 30
Changed paths to 1 Death , 1 Astral

Tell me your thoughts.

#modname "Spectral Queen"
#description "This mod by Catquiet replaces the VQ pretender with a Spectral Queen"
#selectmonster 862
#name "Spectral Queen"
#clearmagic
#magicskill 4 1
#magicskill 5 1
#clearspec
#amphibian
#coldres 100
#ethereal
#fear 0
#female
#flying
#immortal
#neednoteat
#poisonres 100
#undead
#startdom 2
#hp 30
#pathcost 40
#weapon "bane blade"
#descr "At the hour of her nation's greatest need, the spirit of an ancient queen has returned to lead her people to victory."
#end