Bard Specialization for DA2 - BETA

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Update 10/14/21:  Updated the Bard Spec scripts to be more in line with my scripts for Mage Specs, updated so that the upkeep cost for songs *should* be consistent for all players, and changed the Persuade ability to be temporary rather than permanent.  Also included an optional file to cast songs free of charge.  The bard_specs folder has also been updated so that there should be no need for an alternate version, but just in case, I've left that in the optional files.

If you're updating:  if you already have the addins folder working, you don't necessarily need to update that.  You can just replace the erf in your Override.

What:
This mod adds Bard as a new specialization for Rogues -- a completely new Talent tree with new abilities.  It's not quite a port of the DAO specialization, but it's based off of the DAO spec, and I attempted to follow in the same spirit as the original spec.

Please note that I am by no means an expert at scripting, and this was another one of those mods where I mostly wanted to see if I could do it -- I've been wanting to add new spells/etc. to DA2 for a while, and this is my first working attempt at achieving that, so there are likely kinks that need to be worked out (hence this being considered a beta).

Installation:
This mod REQUIRES two different steps in order to work properly.  The first part of it is the main mod, the "Bard Specialization for DA" ERF.  This file can be placed directly in your Override, like most other mods.

The second part is to place the "bard_spec" folder in your DA2 "Addins" folder.  This is most likely to be something like:  C:\...\Origin Games\Dragon Age II\addins.  Drop the entire "bard_spec" folder in the addins folder.  This is necessary in order for the talktable to work.  Without this step, none of the new spells or abilities will have any names or descriptions.

*NOTE ON UNINSTILLATION*: doing it this way means that you cannot un-install the "addins" portion of this mid-game.  Any save you create after placing the "bard_spec" folder into your addins folder will require that folder to remain there.  However, there is absolutely no reason you'd need to take it out -- this is an almost-empty folder that is simply telling the game where to look for the talktable, and it shouldn't affect your game in any way.  Removing the "Bard Specialization for DA2" ERF from your Override will remove the mod itself.

Getting the Spec In-Game:
Once the mod is installed, there are a couple of ways to get the Spec added to you.  First, simply starting a new game should add the Bard Spec to Rogue Hawkes by default.

Additionally, four copies (one for each potential rogue in the main campaign) of the item "Old Orlesian Songbook" will be delivered to your Special Deliveries chest either in Gamlen's House or in the Hawke Estate.  Any Rogue that uses this item will be granted the Specialization.  (Note:  the items don't stack, and if you don't want them, either toss them or sell them.)

If for some reason you're wanting more copies of this item, opening the console and typing runscript get_songbook will add a copy of the songbook to your inventory.

Finally, if you just want to add the spec to a character yourself, you can do so by opening the console and typing the following commands:
runscript addtalent 220000
runscript addtalent 220001

List of New Abilities:

Sustained Songs
Ode to the Fallen
Based off of "Song of Valor" from DAO, Ode to the Fallen grants bonuses to health and mana regeneration.

Avvar War Song
Based off of "Song of Courage" from DAO, Avvar War Song grants bonuses to attack, critical chance, and critical damage.

Archon's Requiem
Grants bonuses to all spell damage types.

Bards can only have one Sustained Song running at a time.  Spell effects do not stack, so if you have more than one Bard singing the same song, you'll only get the bonuses for one.  Multiple Bards can sing different songs at the same time, however.

Activated/Debuff Songs
Sailor's Love Song
Silences hostile human targets in an area around the Bard for a short time.

Antivan Lullably
Puts hostile targets around the Bard to sleep for a short time.

Persuade (Experimental)
Turns a hostile human target into an ally, temporarily.  The duration of the charm effect is 15 seconds without upgrade, 20 seconds with upgrade.

Passive Ability
Unsung Heroes
Deactivating any of the sustained songs briefly drops the party into Stealth.

Notes:
Although I tested to make sure all of these works, the actual values of buffs and debuffs may need tweaking -- I didn't spend an extensive amount of time playing with them in different game modes.  There's also no Friendly Fire.  Note:  I haven't yet figured out how to get the sustained spells to turn off when a character dies; sustained spells will remain on the character and the party until they are deactivated or until the character is removed from the party.

Unfortunately, the talk table is English only -- so all descriptions for spells and abilities will be in English.  Sorry!!

Compatiblity:
It appears as though you can only have a total of eleven skill trees/specs for a given class, so if you're using a mod that will add more specs -- such as All Specs - All Abilities - For Everyone, that will be incompatible and result in the game layering all of the specs over each other.  I'm not sure if there's a workaround to this at this point, but for now, if you're using Bard Spec, that mod will be incompatible.

Optional Files:
Since a lot of people don't like Sustained spell effects, I placed an optional download that will get rid of those for you (even though I had a lot of fun making colored music notes, guys).   Now included also is a script to remove the upkeep cost from sustained songs.

Credits:
I used sapphim's Automatic Item Delivery - Tutorial and Template for delivering the Songbooks to Gamlen's House/the estate.