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Blades of Exile Base errors


Celtic Minstrel

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I've lately been going over old threads discussing errors in the Blades of Exile Base to ensure that all reported errors have been fixed. Most of them were already, and I caught a couple more that had not even been spotted (such as Feldspar Charm, found by comparing to the preset scenarios).

 

There are, however, a few things that I'm still not sure of.

 

  1. The Dark Wyrm - should it or should it not have darkness breath? Someone suggested it should in another thread, but they seemed unsure. (I have E3, so I could check for myself if I knew where to find one at the beginning of the game with a god party - ie, not a hidden town.)
  2. I set asps to drop asp fangs with 60% chance, but maybe the percentage chance should be less? Also, I kinda wonder if any other preset monsters should have similar fixed drops.
  3. The scenarios disagree with the base on the stats of several of the missiles - arrows, bolts, and javelins. This would probably be troublesome when mixing these items from different scenarios, since they would stack, and whichever one was in your inventory first would take priority. Should I change them all to match the base? Or maybe change the base to more closely match the scenarios? I could also just give them a unique type flag so they don't stack with regular ones.
  4. Micah's Gloves has an ability strength of 1. Originally, it had an ability strength of 8, but the game ignored the ability strength. Should it be put back to 8? (For those who don't remember, Micah's Gloves boost your intelligence stat.)
  5. And finally... does anyone know of any additional errors that might have never been found?

 

I used this thread and the linked Lyceum articles as my primary reference, so if it's mentioned in one of those places, I probably got it.

 

The fixed bladbase is here; if you can get the scenario editor working and want to view it in the scenario editor, you can download that entire directory (one file at a time, unfortunately), then navigate to the "header.exs" file from the scenario editor (may require setting the file dialog to show "legacy or unpacked scenarios"). It's fairly human-readable too though, at least if you know what all those numbers mean (most are documented somewhere in the BoE documentation on calref).

 

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Pretty sure they've always had the Intelligence ability in Blades of Exile.

 

Glancing over the code, it looks like that currently both affects your effective intelligence level and separately affects the intelligence "stat adjust" used for magic. However, the only place the former is actually used appears to be in mindduels. So what you describe is pretty much exactly what they do, though I think the mindduel effect wasn't there originally.

 

More importantly... should the ability strength be raised? Based on the code, this would only affect mindduels, as the "stat adjust" only checks for the presence of the ability and ignores the ability strength. (In fact, if you wanted them to not affect mindduels at all, setting the ability strength to 0 would give that without any need for code changes; ignoring ability strength also means the stat adjust functions even when the ability strength is 0.) The only reason I suggested 8 for the ability strength is because that was the original ability strength set in the Blades of Exile Base.

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I'm confused. Are you saying that Micah's Gloves in BoE have always, by default, given +8 Intelligence on top of +1 to the Int-derived bonus stat? Or that it's an invisible bonus that somehow affects raw Int when it is invoked in the Mindduel routine, but not when it is invoked to look up the derived bonus stat?

 

The former seems pretty implausible, and if that's what they do now, I'd put money that it's the result of a coding change and not their original behavior. The latter seems weird, but I guess possible.

 

I still do not understand why any existing in-game mechanics are being modified (as opposed to new options being added) given that

(1) the library of scenarios created with expectation of the old mechanics is so incredibly vast,

(2) the library of scenarios created with expectation of new mechanics is currently zero, and

(3) there doesn't seem to be a working release of BoE (with any letters appended) that has 100% unaltered in-game mechanics and runs on modern platforms.

 

(Note for clarity: UI and graphics and filesystem improvements are separate from in-game mechanics)

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I'm saying they always had the "Intelligence" ability, without referencing exactly what that ability does; and that in BoE they had an ability strength of 8.

 

Calculation of the Int stat adjust does not reference the ability strength of Intelligence items, only checks for their existence, and that has not changed from the original code. I think the mindduel effect is new, though. It simply adds the total ability strength from Intelligence items to your total effective Intelligence for the purpose of mindduels (with a max of 20).

 

Given all this, I guess exactly replicating the original item means it should have an ability strength of 0. Ported Micah's Gloves from other scenarios currently get an ability strength set equal to their item level, but that could easily be changed to force it to 0 always to preserve the older behaviour (ie, no bonus in mindduels). I guess I'll go implement both of those.

 

Do you have any comments on the other points from the initial post?

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Okay. So, I really don't see any evidence to suggest that Micah's Gloves ever did anything with Intelligence itself. We know they affected the stat-derived bonus by +1, and we know some of those abilities were labelled in vague or misleading ways in BoE.

 

That mindduel effect is either new, or both Chokboyz and I missed it when we looked at mindduels in the old code dissection thread.

 

I don't understand why ported items are getting ability strengths assigned to them dependent on some other factor like item level. Why don't they just use the ability strength they previously had? If this is because it's a new parameter you've created, why in the world don't they get whatever ability strength assigned as would be precisely equivalent to what the effect always was in original BoE?

 

Re the other points: 1 and 2 I don't really remember. 3 definitely sounds troublesome. How much of a difference in stats are we talking? Creating multiple varieties with different names doesn't sound unreasonable -- that would be the closest approximation of the original, after all, in which your available ammo was apparently suddenly better or worse as you went on.

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I don't understand why ported items are getting ability strengths assigned to them dependent on some other factor like item level. Why don't they just use the ability strength they previously had? If this is because it's a new parameter you've created, why in the world don't they get whatever ability strength assigned as would be precisely equivalent to what the effect always was in original BoE?

The latter is generally what I've done, actually - I changed the scale of the ability strength for certain abilities, but set the porting code to adjust the strength accordingly. (I don't recall the details off the top of my head, but it's easily looked up in the cItem::import_legacy function in the code.) The question here was more inclined towards questioning whether the behaviour of Micah's Gloves was in error (and should be corrected in the bladbase only, for future scenarios; that wouldn't affect older scenarios that used Micah's Gloves), but after this discussion (and realizing that the ability had always been a flat bonus irrespective of level or ability strength), I'm inclined to think that perhaps the question was misguided from the start.

 

The asp dropping asp fangs is, similarly, something that would not apply retroactively to old scenarios, as it's a change to the Blades of Exile Base. Thus concerns of keeping things identical aren't quite the same as they are when fiddling directly with the game mechanics; several items have been tweaked already, such as Ogrish and Giantish Gauntlets (which were originally identical in effect).

 

3 definitely sounds troublesome. How much of a difference in stats are we talking? Creating multiple varieties with different names doesn't sound unreasonable -- that would be the closest approximation of the original, after all, in which your available ammo was apparently suddenly better or worse as you went on.

 

In Blades of Exile Base, the following stats are used:

 

Darts: level 6; value 1 (for simple), 3 (for iron), 15 (for magic)

Throwing Knives: level 9; value 2 (for simple), 7 (for iron)

Arrows: level 11; value 1 (for simple), 7 (for iron), 25 (for magic)

Javelins: level 12; value 2 (for simple), 8 (for iron)

Bolts: level 14; value 2 (for simple), 12 (for iron), 50 (for magic)

 

In Valley of Dying Things, the following stats are used:

 

Darts: level 6; value 1 (for simple), 3 (for iron), 15 (for magic)

Throwing Knives: level 9; value 2 (for simple), 6 (for iron)

Arrows: level 12; value 1 (for simple), 20 (for iron), 40 (for magic)

Javelins: level 12; value 2 (for simple), 12 (for iron)

Bolts: level 17; value 3 (for simple), 40 (for iron), 80 (for magic)

 

In A Small Rebellion, the following stats are used:

 

Darts: level 6; value 1 (for simple), 3 (for iron), 15 (for magic)

Throwing Knives: level 9; value 2 (for simple), 7 (for iron)

Arrows: level 11; value 1 (for simple), 8 (for iron), 25 (for magic)

Javelins: level 11; value 2 (for simple), 8 (for iron)

Bolts: level 14; value 2 (for simple), 12 (for iron), 80 (for magic)

(As a side note, Smoky Crystal also doubles its value in ASR - 200 instead of 100.)

 

In The Za-Khazi Run, the following stats are used:

 

Darts: level 4; value 1 (for simple), 3 (for iron), 15 (for magic)

Throwing Knives: level 7; value 2 (for simple), 7 (for iron)

Arrows: level 9; value 1 (for simple), 20 (for iron), 40 (for magic)

Javelins: level 8; value 2 (for simple), 12 (for iron)

Bolts: level 14; value 3 (for simple), 40 (for iron), 80 (for magic)

 

Basically they're kind of all over the place. It seems particularly weird that they're the same items (same name and everything), but in several cases they do different amounts of damage (because different item levels). I could imagine that this was done to balance the individual scenarios, but the issue is, what if someone brings arrows from a previous scenario? I need to make them all the same, make them not stack, or carefully codify what happens when slightly different items are combined (which is to say, make an intentional decision and implement it, rather than just letting it work out however the code happens to be).

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My suggestion is to make all of those missiles match bladbase, because regardless of those three, all other scenarios in existence are working off bladbase.

 

Slarty, regarding Micah's Gloves, BoE always assigned them the Intelligence ability, from the beginning. I remember that clearly. It's possible Jeff made the change to simplify things, or something. Hidden stats isn't really something any abilities do except for the Mindduel one whose name I forget. (I think Intelligence was given Mindduel effects because of original advertisements so rather than just because, IIRC, right, CM?)

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Part of the reason this thread is so confusing is that people keep talking about "the Intelligence ability" without clarifying what they mean. We are talking about a number of permutations of several things that could all easily be meant by that. Can you please be more specific?

 

1. The gloves had an ability listed called "Intelligence"

2. They added +1 to the Int-derived magic bonus

3. They added +1 to Intelligence (visibly)

4. They added +1 to Intelligence (invisibly in a way that affected Mindduel but not the Int-derived magic bonus)

5. They added +8 to Intelligence (visibly)

6. They added +8 to Intelligence (invisibly in a way that affected Mindduel but not the Int-derived magic bonus)

7. Something else

 

Which one or more of these items are you saying applied to Micah's Gloves in original BoE?

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There is an item ability called Intelligence. It is not, despite what one may think, a simple boost to the Intelligence stat. I don't know the specifics of what it does. Celtic Minstrel seems to be implying it never affected Mindduel in original BoE but that tendency was added in OBoE. Backward compatibility/legacy behavior is being maintained. I suggest changing the name of the item ability to avoid confusion.

 

I believe Will, another item ability which I mentioned but couldn't recall the name, always claimed to affect Mindduel but actually did nothing at all. I'm not sure though.

 

EDIT: Furthermore, no legacy behavior which affects gameplay has been changed for the purposes of legacy BoE to OBoE, except where we feel reasonably certain that no existing scenario relied on it or took it into account during the design/balancing process. If such changes were made, and there are many (bug fixes, making things work as advertised, etc.), legacy-scenario compatibility checks are put in place to prevent altering the behavior of legacy scenarios.

 

The only big change that I can think of is the addition of additional races, including the option to start with Vahnatai PCs, and the ability of designers to add PCs with their own races and stick them in the party. Existing NPC "races" like Bug, Reptile, etc. have specifics for inclusion in parties as well. The specifics of implementing that is something else that can be discussed and tinkered with, I suppose.

Edited by The Almighty Doer of Stuff
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no legacy behavior which affects gameplay has been changed... except where we feel reasonably certain that no existing scenario relied on it... such changes... there are many

This is exactly the impression I've gotten from the conversations here. Lots and lots of tiny changes that you don't think matter. Maybe most don't; but as we well know, not everything in BoE worked as advertised, and many designers knew about and accounted for those departures from expected behavior whether or not it was obvious that they did so. Look, I'm not saying don't make the version with all of those changes; I'm saying there would be no need to defend them in the first place if there were also a version without those changes -- presumably a less effort-intensive task, anyway.

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I said I don't know what it does, not that I don't know what it doesn't. It is NOT to do with the Intelligence base stat, which is something you asked. I also provided information about a similar ability, Will, and answered your concerns about legacy compatibility.

 

I don't wish to get in any more griping matches with you about pointless things, Slarty. You criticize my every post whether there's anything wrong with it or not, as if you're just looking for excuses to make me look bad and ruin my day, and I don't have time for that negativity in my life. You can be helpful to me sometimes, and I'm grateful for that, but it's getting more trouble than it's worth. I am contributing to this project and I am being helpful. If you want perfect answers, this is an open-source project and you can look it up yourself.

 

EDIT: You posted while I was posting but you ellipsised out all the parts that specifically addressed what you were complaining about. Nice.

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Respectfully, erring on the side of caution would mean making original BoE functional, so there is always that option to fall back on.

 

Is there at least a list of the in-game mechanics changes that have been made, and for those with legacy checks, how they are checked?

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Part of the reason this thread is so confusing is that people keep talking about "the Intelligence ability" without clarifying what they mean. We are talking about a number of permutations of several things that could all easily be meant by that. Can you please be more specific?

 

1. The gloves had an ability listed called "Intelligence"

2. They added +1 to the Int-derived magic bonus

3. They added +1 to Intelligence (visibly)

4. They added +1 to Intelligence (invisibly in a way that affected Mindduel but not the Int-derived magic bonus)

5. They added +8 to Intelligence (visibly)

6. They added +8 to Intelligence (invisibly in a way that affected Mindduel but not the Int-derived magic bonus)

7. Something else

 

Which one or more of these items are you saying applied to Micah's Gloves in original BoE?

#1 and #2 applied. They also had an ability strength of 8, which was ignored by the game and had no effect.

 

EDIT: Furthermore, no legacy behavior which affects gameplay has been changed for the purposes of legacy BoE to OBoE, except where we feel reasonably certain that no existing scenario relied on it or took it into account during the design/balancing process. If such changes were made, and there are many (bug fixes, making things work as advertised, etc.), legacy-scenario compatibility checks are put in place to prevent altering the behavior of legacy scenarios.

Other than bug fixes (like using the archery skill for archery, instead of... I think it was defense?), I think there might be a few numbers that are off by one or two compared to original BoE. There are some definite mechanical changes (or bigger bugfixes) that are disabled with a special flag in the scenario, such as resurrection balm being required for resurrection, or timers being triggered while resting (that was Ormus IIRC). There are likely also a few mechanicla changes which are unintended consequences of one thing or another, which could be considered bugs and eventually fixed (I think I recall something related to dumbfounding).

 

So does anyone else have comments on the mysterious item stat changes in the preset scenarios? Or even on the Dark Wyrm?

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Other than bug fixes (like using the archery skill for archery, instead of... I think it was defense?), I think there might be a few numbers that are off by one or two compared to original BoE. There are some definite mechanical changes (or bigger bugfixes) that are disabled with a special flag in the scenario, such as resurrection balm being required for resurrection, or timers being triggered while resting (that was Ormus IIRC). There are likely also a few mechanicla changes which are unintended consequences of one thing or another, which could be considered bugs and eventually fixed (I think I recall something related to dumbfounding).

Ahhh... the special flag seems like a good solution provided it defaults to being on for all scenarios that predate the new code.

 

Is there a list of

1) changes like the defense/archery thing (which sounds fair since IIRC it wasn't known about till the code release?) that are always applied

2) changes that are applied only when the special flag is set to use the new version

3) unintended consequence changes (those that are known anyway)

 

The possibility of #3 growing without anyone realizing it is one of the really good reasons to have a version with no extra changes.

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I'll try to compile a list. #2 is easy since I can just search for the flag in the source (in fact there's a list already in the repository, which I think is still complete); #1 and #3 are a bit harder and would hinge more on memory and/or old bug lists... or even comparing against the original code.

 

(And the legacy flag is indeed set to true in ported scenarios and false in newly-created scenarios; there's no UI way to toggle the flag, though the scenario editor will offer to turn it off if it's on; it doesn't force it though. To turn it on you'd have to edit the XML.)

 

Can we get back on topic now? This thread was supposed to be about the Blades of Exile Base, not mechanics.

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I noticed a few more weird things - the Archer's Bow and Wand of Nullity have the concealed ability flag. The former has no ability at all, and the latter's ability seems somewhat obvious from the name. Are these items supposed to have a concealed ability? Is the Archer's Bow supposed to have some special ability?

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IIRC the special thing about the Archer's Bow was just the bonus defense it offered. I can't remember, but maybe one of the Exiles showed "No ability" or something in that box by default, and Jeff didn't want the Archer's Bow to be presented as mundane.

 

Was the Wand of Nullity a cursed item? Experience draining or something? All the cursed consumables had concealed abilities I think.

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In regards to Dark Wyrms, the only ones I remember in E3 where in one artifact quest in a dungeon under the mutant giant one, and one town in the province locked away due to alien beasts, so not easy to get to with a new party at all.

 

OTOH, would scry monster show what type of breath it has? Cause then I'd imagine old saved games from near the end might have them, scrying all the monsters was a big part of the game for many people.

 

I was also surprised to see "darkness" breath in BoE the first time I saw it, I don't remember it in E3 at all, or maybe I'd confused it with some other breath type.

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I think you can't tell unless you see it use its breath weapon. In BoE, the animation is the same a cold or electricity, and it deals unblockable damage, so wouldn't be affected by items that protect from cold or electricity. I'd guess the message in the transcript would be the best way to tell.

 

It wouldn't really surprise me if people just assumed the Dark Wyrm should have darkness breath because of the name, but I would like to be as certain as possible. (Maybe someone could hack a Dark Wyrm into the crystal soul in a save file and test it that way?)

 

EDIT: Also, does anyone else have opinions on what do do about the different missile stats in the three original scenarios? And the different value of the Smoky Crystal in one case.

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A unique flag so that they don't stack seems to make sense, maybe some arrows are just different. I don't like the idea of changing the items to match some of the scenarios, you still have to pick a value for each and change things to match. Don't like the idea of changing the official scenarios...there's also area descriptions that probably should be one time only, but then I'd argue that the scenarios should be left as is.

 

However, in any case...does anyone actually use missile weapons? Certainly, it'd be better if there weren't errors, but not sure how often it'd actually affect anything. So I don't really have a strong opinion on this.

 

The Dark Wyrm...well, people can edit their own monsters to have whatever breath they like without any issue. Asps can be summoned by Sticks to Snakes, however, so their stats matter.

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Don't like the idea of changing the official scenarios...there's also area descriptions that probably should be one time only, but then I'd argue that the scenarios should be left as is.

I don't really agree on this and have plans to eventually make changes to the scenarios to have them make use of some of the new features, such as quests. (I guess someone who really wants to play the unaltered version could download the original .exs and play from that instead.)

 

However, in any case...does anyone actually use missile weapons? Certainly, it'd be better if there weren't errors, but not sure how often it'd actually affect anything. So I don't really have a strong opinion on this.

Well, I assume some people do. The reason why I need to deal with it one way or another is because when two items stack, one of the items is destroyed and its charges are added to the other item's charges. In other words, it's effectively arbitrary whether you get the stats from one item or the other. (Technically, I believe you'll always get the stats of the item you're already carrying, meaning the stats of the scenario item will be lost.)

 

Asps can be summoned by Sticks to Snakes, however, so their stats matter.

Hmm, good point. Player-summoned monsters never drop "glands", but monster-summoned monsters do, so this would have an effect if an enemy (or ally!) casts Sticks to Snakes. Maybe I'll reduce it drastically... 5% or 10% maybe?

 

I believe that the fact that asps don't drop their fangs would be surprising to a new player (once they know asp fangs are an item), and it would certainly be surprising to someone who'd only played Exile III.

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Emphasis on "eventually". I have no intention of doing any functional work on the scenarios when the programs themselves aren't working properly. I'll be using different scenarios (some of my own, a tutorial scenario, and possibly Bandit Busywork) as an aid for testing any new features before I consider using any of those features in the original three scenarios.

 

Seriously, you don't need to jump on me every time I mention nebulous future plans or ask opinions on how to handle things. I know legacy compatibility and consistency is important. I know bugs are more important than feature creep.

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Well, I assume some people do. The reason why I need to deal with it one way or another is because when two items stack, one of the items is destroyed and its charges are added to the other item's charges. In other words, it's effectively arbitrary whether you get the stats from one item or the other. (Technically, I believe you'll always get the stats of the item you're already carrying, meaning the stats of the scenario item will be lost.)

 

Ah, but if you were just giving a new flag to those items, what's to stop that flag number having being used in some other scenario for something else? Actually, what's to stop that happening normally, without worrying about odd things in the official scenarios?

 

Hmm, good point. Player-summoned monsters never drop "glands", but monster-summoned monsters do

 

Why is that? To stop player summoning monsters and killing them for their stuff or something? Seems odd.

 

(Getting a bit off-topic, but unicorns dropping unicorn horns which, IIRC, have no value except you can sell them to one person in E3...that sees a bit pointless in BoE unless people are in a scenario that specifically does something with them)

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Ah, but if you were just giving a new flag to those items, what's to stop that flag number having being used in some other scenario for something else? Actually, what's to stop that happening normally, without worrying about odd things in the official scenarios?

 

The short answer is nothing: the hope is that there are enough possible flags and people will select randomly enough to avoid an accidental collision. It's not an ideal system.

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Why is that? To stop player summoning monsters and killing them for their stuff or something? Seems odd.

I'm not sure why. It's just how it is.

 

(Getting a bit off-topic, but unicorns dropping unicorn horns which, IIRC, have no value except you can sell them to one person in E3...that sees a bit pointless in BoE unless people are in a scenario that specifically does something with them)

Unicorn horns aren't included as an item in the base anyway, so I hadn't planned to make unicorns drop them. Asp fangs on the other hand are universally useful as an alchemical ingredient.

 

Ah, but if you were just giving a new flag to those items, what's to stop that flag number having being used in some other scenario for something else? Actually, what's to stop that happening normally, without worrying about odd things in the official scenarios?

 

The short answer is nothing: the hope is that there are enough possible flags and people will select randomly enough to avoid an accidental collision. It's not an ideal system.

Yeah, it's very not ideal. Perhaps I should implement an additional check when stacking items - for example, don't stack them if the names differ, even when the type flag matches.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't know if you still wanted to know about Dark Wyrms but I did some research in Exile III. I found some wyrms and trapped them behind barriers. They didn't use a breath weapon but they did summon ghasts to attack me.

 

You can also see that the breath weapon for the drake lord is listed under it's ability which suggests exile 3 doesn't have a dedicated spot for breath weapons. The dark wyrm's ability is paralysis touch.

 

Pics for evidence:

 

I got mad saves in exile 3 if you need to know anything else.

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Interesting! I never would've guessed they'd summon ghasts... actually given their paralysis touch it kinda surprises me that they'd maybe have another ability too.

 

As long as you're investigating E3 stuff, I'd like to confirm the abilities of some of the monsters I've never encountered - particularly rakshasa and naga, where it's not obvious from the name what kind of abilities they should have. (I've also never encountered the golems or the efreet, but those are fairly clear, I think.) I also wanted to confirm whether the alien slime is supposed to have an ability besides summoning (I think it has paralysis touch in BoE), but given that that's near the beginning, I could probably do it myself with a god party. That's all I can think of right now.

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True, that possibility does exist. However, there were some that clearly didn't make sense, such as petrification touch on the cockroaches. This was almost certainly caused by a reshuffling of which magic number meant what, while failing to update bladbase references to it.

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You can also see that the breath weapon for the drake lord is listed under it's ability which suggests exile 3 doesn't have a dedicated spot for breath weapons. The dark wyrm's ability is paralysis touch.

 

Ah...now that I think of it, I can't think of a monster that has a breath weapon that has another ability, at least in E3. That makes sense.

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