Creating Items with Spell effects While Equipped
Note: This tutorial was made using BG2, the files used may have different names, or not even exist in BG1, IWD, or PST.
By: Death
Tools Needed
Item editing, Spell editing: IEEP
Item/Spell Browsing: NI(Near Infinity) OR InfExp(Infinity Explorer) for browsing/exporting
WinBiff(extraction from BIF only)
Step One....Find/Extract spells that you would like to have on your item. If you look in your game's handbook for spells that effect Self and have a duration other then Instantaneous.
Note: Instant spells won't work well.
Using NI:) Open NI and direct it to the main Directory of the game you chose, scroll till you find the file called CHITIN.key, bouble click it. On the left hand side will be a bunch of folders. click on the one labled .SPL, the spells are displayed in alphabetical order by type, SPCLxxxx are for special abilities, SPIN are innates, SPPR are Priest spells, and SPWI are Wizard spells. Spell levels are broken up by number, where SPWI1xxx are level 1 wizard spells, SPWI2xxx are level 2 wizard spells. Once you have found the spell you would like to use, go down to the bottom right and click Export, browse till you find the Override folder, rename the spell to its actual name(be sure to include the .SPL extension), and hit Save.
Repeat steps for a base item if desired(Save with .ITM extension)
You are now done with NI.
Using InfExp:) Open InfExp and direct it to the main folder of your game, it will tell you if it is an invalid directory. On the far left side is a bunch of folders(names with little "+"s), click on the one labeled Items. Scroll till you find the item you want, highlight it to see some of the information about the item. Go up to File, Save Current File, direct it to your Override folder, name the item what you would like, and add the extension .ITM to it, click Save. Now go back and click the folder labeled Spells, scroll till you find the right spell, highlight the spell, go up to File, Save Current File, direct it to your Override folder, name the spell, and add the extension .SPL to it.
You are now done with InfExp.
Using WinBiff:) Open WinBiff and direct it to the CHITIN.key file located in the games main directory. Scroll down till you find Items.bif and then scroll in the next window(right of the first) till you find the item you would like, in our case LEAT01.itm, highlight it, then go down to the button that just became white lettered, Extract Files, and click it. Direct it to the games Override folder and click OK. Then go back to the left hand window and scroll till you find the Spells.bif, in the right hand window, scroll till you find the spell you wish to extract, for us it is SPWI418.spl. Again highlight the file, click Extract Files, direct to the games Override folder, and save it.
You are now done with WinBiff.
Step Two....Create/Import your base item. Open up Item Maker in IEEP and either open an existing piece of equipment(extracted earlier), or create a new piece of equipment. For the purpose of this tutorial we will be using the standard Leater Armor(LEAT01.itm).
Open up Spell Maker in IEEP, and open up the spell you wish have "While Equipped", for the purpose of this tutorial we will be using Fire Shield:Red(SPWI418.spl).
Step Three....Begin recreating the effects found in the spell on the item. Go to the bottom right on Spell Maker and open the first Spell Effect, look to see the effects name, and note any parameter settings. On our spell the first effect should be Fire Resistence Bonus, timing mode set to duration, with parameter settings of 50, 0. Go to Item Effects bar in Item Maker, scroll down till you find Fire Resistence Bonus, set the Timing Mode to While Equipped, and the parameter settings to 50, 0. Create each spell effect exactly on the item, exept for the Timing Mode, which should be changed from Duration to While Equipped(any that are Delayed should not be transfered).