Artisan

Artisan class for NwN2
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kevL 2018 march 31 beta 1
idea by mindrider
forum thread: New Prestige Class - Artisan

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The Artisan is a dedicated enchanter and skilled craftsman. A character may advance up to 5 levels as an artisan, and must have at least 1 level in a stock spell-casting class to become one. Spellcraft and Lore skills must both be at least rank 8. This is a prestige class that's intended to fast-track a character into Crafting.

It is strongly recommended to also use The Complete Craftsman Reboot

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INSTALLATION:
If you have a non-English edition of the game, you'll probably want to merge the entries in this download's (English) Dialog.Tlk file with your current (non-English) Dialog.Tlk file. See brief instructions below. Go ahead and translate the entries to your preferred language, if you like. The general instructions that follow assume an English edition ....

Download and unzip the archive into a temporary folder (on your desktop, i suppose). There should be Dialog.Tlk and a subfolder "Artisan". Move the "Artisan" folder to your user/Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/override folder. Check your user/Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2 folder for an already existing Dialog.Tlk - if it exists, you would/will need to merge this with that (or vice versa). If it doesn't exist, move Dialog.Tlk to that folder. (See further information about Dialog.Tlk and merging core files below.)

Then, if necessary, check your /Override for duplicate files. If any are found you should merge them, or remove any dupes. This is called "resolving conflicts".

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NOTES:
A class add-on for Nwn2 requires changes to fundamental game-files.

Dialog.Tlk
Classes.2da
Feat.2da
Packages.2da

This download contains modified versions of the stock SoZ files. Other add-ons and indeed any campaign/module that you play can also modify those files. They could be in .haks, campaign-folders, a module itself, or your override directory. This add-on - for the Artisan class - should go into a subfolder of your override directory.

A file in your override will take precedence over a file of the same name anywhere except in a hak-file (a hakfile is associated directly to a module and would be in your hak directory). You should never have duplicate files in your override directory or any of its subdirectories. If you have a conflict ... whether it's duplicate files in override, or a custom feat breaks in a module you're playing, or descriptions of other custom classes disappear, etc ... it could be because two or more of the above noted files are fighting for precedence.

Unfortunately I can't debug your system - there are simply too many variables in a program as modifiable as NwN2. But I can briefly describe how to resolve whatever confict you yourself have pinpointed among the above core files.

• in Classes.2da, the row #250 needs to *replace* the row #250 in your Classes.2da [the Artisan class]
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• in Feat.2da, the rows #9001..#9008 need to *replace* those rows in your Feat.2da [Spellcasting Progression feats for Artisan]
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• in Packages.2da, the row #203 needs to *replace* the row #203 in your Packages.2da [default Package that's used only when auto-leveling; ie. not required. Note to builders: This class has NOT been tested or designed for NPCs ... or for auto-leveling Companions, really.]

Dialog.Tlk is special. It contains nearly all the stuff you read, in your local language. The stock edition of this file resides in your NwN2 installation folder. Any custom edition of the file should go in your NwN2 player folder (under User/Documents). But there's a catch: the game will use the file in your player folder (if it exists), while the toolset uses the one in your installation folder. I'll let you ponder the significance of that ...

• in Dialog.Tlk, the entries #10001..#10014 need to be *replaced* (they should be blank in the stock Dialog.Tlk).

ps. MAKE BACKUPS.

The recommended app (3rd party) for editing/merging .2da and .Tlk files is TlkEdit2.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that numbering of the rows remains consistent before saving a file. There is a function in the menus of TlkEdit2 that can do it for you if/when they go out of synch. (Be patient with large files like Feat.2da and especially Dialog.Tlk - i suggest strongly, in fact, that you do NOT re-number Dialog.Tlk. Simply copy and paste the strings into the existing, blank entries, so that re-numbering is unnecessary. It's not that I expect anything would go wrong; but I'm guessing it'd take 5 to 15 minutes for the function to complete. And you never know, so uh don't do it.)


I have tested but not play-tested the Artisan so this is a beta release. One of the files ( packsparts.2da - default spell preferences ) is at the moment only a placeholder. When leveling up, and clicking "Recommend", default spells would automatically be chosen from among those listed in packsparts.2da ... (hint: don't click Recommend when leveling up, pick spells/feats/skills yourself when leveling). The table should, eventually, be filled with a variety of spells that are frequently used for enchanting items ....

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MANIFEST:
dialog.TLK - English language strings (very large file)

classes.2da - core file containing classes
feat.2da - core file containing feats

cls_bfeat_arts.2da - bonus feats for artisan (spellcasting progressions)
cls_feat_arts.2da - feat choices for artisan on levelups
cls_featmap_arts.2da - defines inter-class relationships for spellcasting progressions
cls_pres_arts.2da - defines the requirements to become an artisan prestige class
cls_skill_arts.2da - defines skills as class or cross-class

packages.2da - packages for auto-leveling
packftarts.2da - feat package for artisan
packskarts.2da - skill package for artisan
packsparts.2da - spell package for artisan (placeholder)

ic_artisan.tga - bordered icon for artisan
ic_b_artisan.tga - transparent icon for artisan

ReadMe_Artisan.txt - this.


If you find something's not working right or could be improved, etc. Please post some feedback on the forum thread (link at the top of the page). I've never made a class before and sorta sense that stuff got overlooked.