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About this mod
You're gonna catch something. Adds status effects from monster bestiary descriptions that were missing from the actual monsters. Boosts the duration or power of existing ones that were negligible, and more.
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Critical effects caused by monsters
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Noonwraith/Nightwraith blindness effect:
In vanilla this disorientating effect removes the lock-on/aim assist and more and fades almost soon as it's finished triggering (lasts about 0.5 seconds) so you never get to experience it.
Now, when the aforementioned enemies attack you in an immaterial form, you will be blinded for 15 seconds. However, in material form, the duration of blinding depends on the current health of the enemy (at least 3 seconds) – the lower it is, the longer the effect. So, the lower the enemy's health, the greater the risk of missed hits – and the better chance they have of regaining their lost health. Be careful!
Bestiary description:
Noonwraiths are also able to manipulate the physical world to a limited degree, kicking up clouds of dust which temporarily blind and disorient their opponents.
Vampire (Katakan, Ekima, Fleder, Garkain) bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in a description:
Bestiary description:
The witcher knew [...] that its blows would cause heavy bleeding
The vampire had [...] the ability to regenerate lost life quickly, cause heavy bleeding with its claws
Wyvern poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as the description recommends Golden Oriole against it.
Oszluzg poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in the description and was missing in-game.
Bestiary description:
Like wyverns, slyzards also attack with venom-spiked tails.
Grave Hag tongue attack poison effect:
Gave it the effect on tongue attack hit as one of the loading screens mentions her tongue attack being poisonous (and how you can cut it off) and the tongue attack caused no damage nor effect in-game.
Loading screen tip: You can cut off a grave hag's tongue while counterattacking. Then she won't be able to poison you.
The witcher knew this grave hag would put up a fierce fight. He would have to watch out for [...] her long, venomous tongue.
The BlockingEnemyEffects module from Counterttack Fixes is highly recommended to avoid stun when successfully cutting off the tongue!
Endrega Worker poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in the description and Golden Oriole is listed in their vulnerabilities:
Bestiary description:
Like all of their kind, endrega workers are highly venomous. Their bite is toxic, as are any wounds dealt by the bony growths on the ends of their limbs. They can also spew acid to great effect from a distance of several paces.
Burning effect from Ifrit’s attacks:
An Ifrit can cause its aura to burn (if not extinguished), as well as ranged attacks... but NOT melee attacks, even though they all have corresponding visual effects. Now, literally any successful attack of his will make you smoke a little.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
Garkain’s critical effects:
Garkain is the only poisonous vampire. However, it didn't seem fair to deprive him of the ability to cause bleeding or give his attacks two effects at the same time. So now his rougher attacks (jumping or knockdown) cause bleeding, while others cause poisoning.
Gryphon/Basilisk/Cockatrice critical effects:
- Some of their attacks that look clearly bludgeoning (without using claws) will no longer add any effects.
- Those attacks that involve claws will cause poisoning (Basilisk) or bleeding (all others).
- Mouth attack (Archgryphon) and acid spit (Archgryphon/Basilisk) will cause critical poisoning, which, in addition to increased damage, blocks the ability to parry and counterattack. The effect lasts for 10 seconds.
- Acid spits now have a certain range around the place where they hit the ground. You must roll just before spitting to successfully avoid this.
Noonwraith/Nightwraith blindness effect:
Gave the wraith blindness effect on-hit to all base game noonwraiths and nightwraiths instead of only their boss variants, to better characterize them and make them a consistent threat. Only their boss variants retain the on-touch/on-contact version of this effect.
Bruxa/Alp bleed effect:
Gave them the effect on-hit as they already can trigger the effect with one of their special attacks, in the night to remember trailer you see that once the bruxa breaks through geralt's blocks her attack leaves him bleeding, and since in-game their attacks can be blocked and aren't that strong this makes the times when they do wear down your stamina (see Stamina Regen Nerf) and get a hit in more interesting.
Bestiary description:
Bruxae use their sharp claws to attack and can easily break through an opponent's guard by buffeting him with a hail of blows from all directions. They will try to bite their prey and drink its blood once it is weakened,
Botchling bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit to make for a less anticlimatic/no pressure fight against what is otherwise a bloated alghoul.
Bear bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit to make up for what would otherwise be some very anticlimatic pit fights against a slow, easy to dodge opponent.
Forktail’s tail bleed effect:
To add variety, attacks with spikes on the tail cause bleeding, while other attacks cause poisoning.
Grave Hag tongue attack stagger & stun effect:
Gave it the effect on tongue attack hit which guarantees that whenever she lands a tongue attack she can follow it up with a guaranteed full-damage melee attack while you're stunned - meaning that simply drinking golden oriole won't completely negate the effectiveness of her unique tongue attack. This is because the grave hag is a one of a kind monster in the game and would otherwise just play like a weaker version of a common Water Hag if you could simply entirely counter its poison tongue attack with golden oriole (it causes no significant melee damage). This now gives you good reason to try to cut off its tongue with a counter/parry as explained in the game's loading screen tips.
Grave hags use their tongues in combat to grab or flog their victims.
The witcher knew this grave hag would put up a fierce fight. He would have to watch out for her [...] long tongue.
Loading screen tip: You can cut off a grave hag's tongue while counterattacking.
Scolopendromorphs can now poison with melee attacks instead of just spitting.
Poisoning from any monster's ranged attack now lasts 10 seconds instead of 2.
Removed some inappropriate effects:
- Bleeding or poisoning from the screams of the Alps/Bruxes/Griffins/Echidnas.
- Poisoning with normal poison from Kikimores attacks – now it's only toxicity venom.
Essence regen
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Werebear essence regen:
In-game they regen their health/essence at the rate of 5 per second, which is negligible, increased it to the minimum essence regen value of werewolves: 30.
Bestiary description:
Descriptions of their fighting prowess paint them as invulnerable to pain and able to heal any wound received almost at once.
Katakan/Ekimma essence regen:
Katakans have the essence/health regen effect defined in their abilities, as well as in their descriptions and have devil's puffball recommended against them, but the effect doesn't trigger in-game. Ekimas don't have the effect in their abilities but it exists in their description. Made sure they all have a working base regen of 50 which is what's defined in Katakan abilities (but wasn't triggering day or night, no matter the fight stage).
Ekimas have a regen of 70 to have a real difference from Katakans. Logically, this can be explained by the fact that the former evolved to heal faster, while the latter evolved to hide better.
Bestiary description:
They should be fought with a silver sword, remembering that they can regenerate back health over time. One should thus never attempt to tire them out or, gods forbid, wait for it to bleed to death. Instead, cut then down as quickly as possible and, if possible, burn the body to ash and scatter it to the four winds.
Fiend/Chort essence regen:
In-game they regen their health/essence at the rate of 5 per second, which is negligible, since these are supposed to be powerful, dangerous monsters, increased it to the max monster regen value found/countered in the base game: 90.
Bestiary description:
Furthermore, any wounds they receive heal at lightning speed. [...]A fiend's only weakness is its fear of loud noises – bombs such as Samum or Devil's Puffball are thus quite effective when fighting this monster.
the regenerative powers of their body allow any wounds they receive to heal at a rapid pace.
All werewolves now regenerate by 30 points per second by default. After falling into a rage, the indicator increases to 70 points.
"there rarely is an opponent that can match their [...] fast health regeneration."
A good way of dealing with werewolves is a [...] Silver Bomb that will temporarily block the creature's regenerative power.
When fighting werewolves a witcher should [...] have a large supply of Devil's Puffballs handy
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
B&W vampire’s essence regen:
Continuing the concept that vampires, as a class, heal quickly:
- Give the monster hunt Garkain the highest base essence regen in the base game: 90.
- Alp, since it is technically Bruxa without invisibility, has an advantage of 70 essence regen (similar to Katakan and Ekima).
- Regular Garkain and Bruxa get 50 essence regen (as Katakan).
- The weaker fleders get 30 essence regen (as Werewolf base).
- Detlaff in half-human form gets 30 essence regen, because it's just weird if the most powerful vampire doesn't have it at all. In winged form, there is no regeneration, because it can break the boss battle. Logically, this can be explained by the fact that in this form, all the resources of the body are directed to combat, not healing.
- Alp/Bruxa after a successful bite or Detlaff, when it starts additional regeneration (in the first battle), restore 1 % health per second. So, don't forget the Black Blood potion and the Silver Dust bomb!
The damage of critical effects don’t stops the regeneration of monsters more – so, use Silver Dust bomb for this.
Immunities of monsters
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Archgryphon fire immunity:
They take half of the direct fire damage and can't catch burn.
Gave it the effect as it was in the Opinicus description:
Once again it fell to the witcher to clean up after amateurs. He knew neither Igni nor bombs dealing fire damage would have any effect against this fire-loving creature.
Armored Arachas – immune to backstab attacks
There are three types of Arachases in the game. The normal one is able to pull you up with a spider web and spit poison at a distance. Venomous can also release a poisonous cloud around itself. Armored... can't do any of this. He literally doesn't have anything to surprise you with. So, I decided to make Armored Arachases invulnerable to backstab attacks (they have a solid shell there, don't they?). Uses the same mechanics as Trolls and Scolopendromorphs.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
All venomous creatures (Garkain/Archgryphon/Echidna) are now immune to poisons. This seems like a logical concept – if someone is poisonous, then using poisons against them is useless.
Ghouls and Alguls are immune to the poison, just like other necrophages.
All ice creatures (Giants, Golems, Trolls, Wild Hunt Hounds), as well as all ghosts, are immune to any cold-related damage or effects.
Gargoyles, Silvans, and Oszluzgs only take half of the direct fire damage in addition to being unable to ignite.
Wight gains immunity to the alternate Axii because he behaves very strangely, instantly destroying its Barghest minion when receiving this effect or after attempting to summon a new minion. So, it is better to set the Barghest against the Wight than the other way around.
You can still stun a Wight with the usual Axii.
Leshys and Spriggans are immune to bleeding because they look and sound distinctly like trees when hit – and you can hardly make a tree bleed to death.
All vampires randomly gain 40-60% of their bleeding resistance, since their regenerative ability should prevent this.
Weaknesses of monsters
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Noonwraith/Nightwraith Igni vulnerability:
Removed their immunity to the Igni fire sign as their boss/contract versions variants are said to be vulnerable to Igni in their bestiary descriptions:
The best way to force her out of this state is to set a trap with the Yrden sign, then quickly follow up with Igni while she is caught.
Once thus forced into materiality. she should be attacked with strong blows or the lgni Sign.
Wild Hunt Hounds are now vulnerable to Axii, as it is explicitly listed as a weakness in the bestiary. Now you can interrupt furious regeneration just like you do with ghouls and alghouls.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
All necrophages (particularly Drowner and Rotfiend) are vulnerable to bleeding because they obviously have blood. This change is no related to the description of necrophages, but to the description of the level 3 Black Blood potion, which 'causes bleeding in vampires and necrophages'.
The Superior Black Blood redesign mod is highly recommended, which makes this potion more sane and balanced.
Ifrits are immune to cooling (an effect that slows down movement), but they are vulnerable to the White Frost bomb (which is even listed as a vulnerability in the description), which doesn't make sense. So, now you can cool their ardor in another way.
Arachnomorphs are now vulnerable to poison. Since they do not poison the player themselves, unlike other opponents in this category, and are also extremely prone to running away from you, it might be a good idea to be able to stun them with an Axii inside the poison cloud from the Devils Puffball bomb.
This is a bit of a controversial change, since nothing in the game makes it clear that poison is an effective way to fight arachnomorphs, but there is no opposite indication either. We will remove this change if many people don't like it.
Noonwraith/Nightwraith – slow down by Yrden:
I think everyone knows that Yrden makes these ghosts take on a material form. But have you ever noticed that these are also the only monsters in the game that Yrden doesn't slow down? In fact, if you hit them with a Silver Dust bomb, the base Yrden becomes useless against them!
So, to increase the interest, now, Silver Dust and Yrden separately only cause them to take on a material form, however, when they are under affection of both of these effects, the slow down is also activated.
Other features
Vampire vampiric effect (Bruxa/Alp excluded):
Gave them the ability to heal for 10% of the damage they cause. This is to create a more meaningful interaction between vampires and the black blood potion (they feed off the blood from the wounds they cause) as in the vanilla game black blood works no differently on most vampires than it does on necrophages. By reflecting 15% or more of the damage received black blood effectively counters the vampire's ability to heal each time it bleeds the player. So bruxas/alps aren't the only vampires who do some vampiring.
Bestiary description:
They also do not suck blood from the necks of virgins with a delicate, kiss-like bite – they tear them to shreds using long, sharp claws and then slurp the splattered blood off the ground.
Healing Ifrits from fire attacks:
Yes, you heard right. Now any direct fire damage will heal these fire creatures, and in five times the amount of its value. So, don't use Igni on them if you don't want the battle to continue indefinitely!
Gryphon/Basilisk/Cockatrice/Melusine (contract Siren) scream damage
- Gryphons and similar opponents, when their health is low, start shouting to stun Geralt before starting a long flight. To be honest, this attack doesn't make much sense.
- Sirens shout if they are knocked to the ground and Geralt is some distance away from them. In a pack, this makes sense, because stun makes it easier for other sirens to attack. But Melusine is only one, and because of the way the sirens ' attack mechanics work, she's an extremely easy enemy.
So, I decided to give these screams more meaning by adding some damage to them, similar to Bruxas' screams. This is relatively less damage than the rest of their attacks, but still significant. In contrast, the ability to ignore both damage and stun from screams by dodging has been added.
Many thanks to Arkwulf for the tests!
Optional addon – strengthened blindness and hypnosis effects:
In the vanilla game, these effects, in addition to blocking the use of crossbows, bombs, parries and counterattacks, also block the ability to direct sword strikes at the target. However, mods that edit targeting (for example, ESGO) often prevent the use of this mechanic. So, for such cases, it was decided to strengthen these effects so that it would make more sense to avoid them or use a decoction from Noonwraith.
- Blinding completely eliminates the possibility of a critical sword hit.
- Hypnosis (an effect that Fiends cause) disables the ability to use Signs.
Of course, you can install this without targeting mods if you want to challenge yourself.
No Dodging Status Effects highly recommended for use alongside this so that you can't easily dodge and ignore an enemy's status attacks. Effect durations balanced with how frequently monsters attack with Faster Fatties.
FCR3 highly recommended if you're on oldgen (most of it was integrated into the next gen/PS5/XSX version of the game).
Fixed and improved enemy categories highly recommended that all monsters have the correct categories.
Install:
Same as installing most other TW3 Mods. Avoid Vortex, TW3 Mod Manager recommended if you need a manager. Place any \modxxx folders directly inside your <TW3 game install>\Mods (or \mods) folder, place any \dlcxxx folders directly inside your <TW3 game install>\dlc (or \DLC) folder. Merge everything with Script Merger.
How to install most simple TW3 Mods for newbies/klutzes:
Uninstall:
Delete \modstrongerstatuseffects and \dlcstrongerstatuseffects (if it exists/oldgen). Unmerge the files if you merged them before.
Compatibility:
Brothers in Arms: compatible, just merge everything.
Part of a series of mods for the combat aspect of the game.
Special thanks to Levitatin for posting an 4.0 update of the mod in the comments section.
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Noonwraith/Nightwraith blindness effect:
In vanilla this disorientating effect removes the lock-on/aim assist and more and fades almost soon as it's finished triggering (lasts about 0.5 seconds) so you never get to experience it.
Now, when the aforementioned enemies attack you in an immaterial form, you will be blinded for 15 seconds. However, in material form, the duration of blinding depends on the current health of the enemy (at least 3 seconds) – the lower it is, the longer the effect. So, the lower the enemy's health, the greater the risk of missed hits – and the better chance they have of regaining their lost health. Be careful!
Bestiary description:
Noonwraiths are also able to manipulate the physical world to a limited degree, kicking up clouds of dust which temporarily blind and disorient their opponents.
Vampire (Katakan, Ekima, Fleder, Garkain) bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in a description:
Bestiary description:
The witcher knew [...] that its blows would cause heavy bleeding
The vampire had [...] the ability to regenerate lost life quickly, cause heavy bleeding with its claws
Wyvern poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as the description recommends Golden Oriole against it.
Oszluzg poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in the description and was missing in-game.
Bestiary description:
Like wyverns, slyzards also attack with venom-spiked tails.
Grave Hag tongue attack poison effect:
Gave it the effect on tongue attack hit as one of the loading screens mentions her tongue attack being poisonous (and how you can cut it off) and the tongue attack caused no damage nor effect in-game.
Loading screen tip: You can cut off a grave hag's tongue while counterattacking. Then she won't be able to poison you.
The witcher knew this grave hag would put up a fierce fight. He would have to watch out for [...] her long, venomous tongue.
The BlockingEnemyEffects module from Counterttack Fixes is highly recommended to avoid stun when successfully cutting off the tongue!
Endrega Worker poison effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit as it was in the description and Golden Oriole is listed in their vulnerabilities:
Bestiary description:
Like all of their kind, endrega workers are highly venomous. Their bite is toxic, as are any wounds dealt by the bony growths on the ends of their limbs. They can also spew acid to great effect from a distance of several paces.
Burning effect from Ifrit’s attacks:
An Ifrit can cause its aura to burn (if not extinguished), as well as ranged attacks... but NOT melee attacks, even though they all have corresponding visual effects. Now, literally any successful attack of his will make you smoke a little.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
Garkain’s critical effects:
Garkain is the only poisonous vampire. However, it didn't seem fair to deprive him of the ability to cause bleeding or give his attacks two effects at the same time. So now his rougher attacks (jumping or knockdown) cause bleeding, while others cause poisoning.
Gryphon/Basilisk/Cockatrice critical effects:
- Some of their attacks that look clearly bludgeoning (without using claws) will no longer add any effects.
- Those attacks that involve claws will cause poisoning (Basilisk) or bleeding (all others).
- Mouth attack (Archgryphon) and acid spit (Archgryphon/Basilisk) will cause critical poisoning, which, in addition to increased damage, blocks the ability to parry and counterattack. The effect lasts for 10 seconds.
- Acid spits now have a certain range around the place where they hit the ground. You must roll just before spitting to successfully avoid this.
Noonwraith/Nightwraith blindness effect:
Gave the wraith blindness effect on-hit to all base game noonwraiths and nightwraiths instead of only their boss variants, to better characterize them and make them a consistent threat. Only their boss variants retain the on-touch/on-contact version of this effect.
Bruxa/Alp bleed effect:
Gave them the effect on-hit as they already can trigger the effect with one of their special attacks, in the night to remember trailer you see that once the bruxa breaks through geralt's blocks her attack leaves him bleeding, and since in-game their attacks can be blocked and aren't that strong this makes the times when they do wear down your stamina (see Stamina Regen Nerf) and get a hit in more interesting.
Bestiary description:
Bruxae use their sharp claws to attack and can easily break through an opponent's guard by buffeting him with a hail of blows from all directions. They will try to bite their prey and drink its blood once it is weakened,
Botchling bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit to make for a less anticlimatic/no pressure fight against what is otherwise a bloated alghoul.
Bear bleed effect:
Gave it the effect on-hit to make up for what would otherwise be some very anticlimatic pit fights against a slow, easy to dodge opponent.
Forktail’s tail bleed effect:
To add variety, attacks with spikes on the tail cause bleeding, while other attacks cause poisoning.
Grave Hag tongue attack stagger & stun effect:
Gave it the effect on tongue attack hit which guarantees that whenever she lands a tongue attack she can follow it up with a guaranteed full-damage melee attack while you're stunned - meaning that simply drinking golden oriole won't completely negate the effectiveness of her unique tongue attack. This is because the grave hag is a one of a kind monster in the game and would otherwise just play like a weaker version of a common Water Hag if you could simply entirely counter its poison tongue attack with golden oriole (it causes no significant melee damage). This now gives you good reason to try to cut off its tongue with a counter/parry as explained in the game's loading screen tips.
Grave hags use their tongues in combat to grab or flog their victims.
The witcher knew this grave hag would put up a fierce fight. He would have to watch out for her [...] long tongue.
Loading screen tip: You can cut off a grave hag's tongue while counterattacking.
Scolopendromorphs can now poison with melee attacks instead of just spitting.
Poisoning from any monster's ranged attack now lasts 10 seconds instead of 2.
Removed some inappropriate effects:
- Bleeding or poisoning from the screams of the Alps/Bruxes/Griffins/Echidnas.
- Poisoning with normal poison from Kikimores attacks – now it's only toxicity venom.
Essence regen
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Werebear essence regen:
In-game they regen their health/essence at the rate of 5 per second, which is negligible, increased it to the minimum essence regen value of werewolves: 30.
Bestiary description:
Descriptions of their fighting prowess paint them as invulnerable to pain and able to heal any wound received almost at once.
Katakan/Ekimma essence regen:
Katakans have the essence/health regen effect defined in their abilities, as well as in their descriptions and have devil's puffball recommended against them, but the effect doesn't trigger in-game. Ekimas don't have the effect in their abilities but it exists in their description. Made sure they all have a working base regen of 50 which is what's defined in Katakan abilities (but wasn't triggering day or night, no matter the fight stage).
Ekimas have a regen of 70 to have a real difference from Katakans. Logically, this can be explained by the fact that the former evolved to heal faster, while the latter evolved to hide better.
Bestiary description:
They should be fought with a silver sword, remembering that they can regenerate back health over time. One should thus never attempt to tire them out or, gods forbid, wait for it to bleed to death. Instead, cut then down as quickly as possible and, if possible, burn the body to ash and scatter it to the four winds.
Fiend/Chort essence regen:
In-game they regen their health/essence at the rate of 5 per second, which is negligible, since these are supposed to be powerful, dangerous monsters, increased it to the max monster regen value found/countered in the base game: 90.
Bestiary description:
Furthermore, any wounds they receive heal at lightning speed. [...]A fiend's only weakness is its fear of loud noises – bombs such as Samum or Devil's Puffball are thus quite effective when fighting this monster.
the regenerative powers of their body allow any wounds they receive to heal at a rapid pace.
All werewolves now regenerate by 30 points per second by default. After falling into a rage, the indicator increases to 70 points.
"there rarely is an opponent that can match their [...] fast health regeneration."
A good way of dealing with werewolves is a [...] Silver Bomb that will temporarily block the creature's regenerative power.
When fighting werewolves a witcher should [...] have a large supply of Devil's Puffballs handy
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
B&W vampire’s essence regen:
Continuing the concept that vampires, as a class, heal quickly:
- Give the monster hunt Garkain the highest base essence regen in the base game: 90.
- Alp, since it is technically Bruxa without invisibility, has an advantage of 70 essence regen (similar to Katakan and Ekima).
- Regular Garkain and Bruxa get 50 essence regen (as Katakan).
- The weaker fleders get 30 essence regen (as Werewolf base).
- Detlaff in half-human form gets 30 essence regen, because it's just weird if the most powerful vampire doesn't have it at all. In winged form, there is no regeneration, because it can break the boss battle. Logically, this can be explained by the fact that in this form, all the resources of the body are directed to combat, not healing.
- Alp/Bruxa after a successful bite or Detlaff, when it starts additional regeneration (in the first battle), restore 1 % health per second. So, don't forget the Black Blood potion and the Silver Dust bomb!
The damage of critical effects don’t stops the regeneration of monsters more – so, use Silver Dust bomb for this.
Immunities of monsters
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Archgryphon fire immunity:
They take half of the direct fire damage and can't catch burn.
Gave it the effect as it was in the Opinicus description:
Once again it fell to the witcher to clean up after amateurs. He knew neither Igni nor bombs dealing fire damage would have any effect against this fire-loving creature.
Armored Arachas – immune to backstab attacks
There are three types of Arachases in the game. The normal one is able to pull you up with a spider web and spit poison at a distance. Venomous can also release a poisonous cloud around itself. Armored... can't do any of this. He literally doesn't have anything to surprise you with. So, I decided to make Armored Arachases invulnerable to backstab attacks (they have a solid shell there, don't they?). Uses the same mechanics as Trolls and Scolopendromorphs.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
All venomous creatures (Garkain/Archgryphon/Echidna) are now immune to poisons. This seems like a logical concept – if someone is poisonous, then using poisons against them is useless.
Ghouls and Alguls are immune to the poison, just like other necrophages.
All ice creatures (Giants, Golems, Trolls, Wild Hunt Hounds), as well as all ghosts, are immune to any cold-related damage or effects.
Gargoyles, Silvans, and Oszluzgs only take half of the direct fire damage in addition to being unable to ignite.
Wight gains immunity to the alternate Axii because he behaves very strangely, instantly destroying its Barghest minion when receiving this effect or after attempting to summon a new minion. So, it is better to set the Barghest against the Wight than the other way around.
You can still stun a Wight with the usual Axii.
Leshys and Spriggans are immune to bleeding because they look and sound distinctly like trees when hit – and you can hardly make a tree bleed to death.
All vampires randomly gain 40-60% of their bleeding resistance, since their regenerative ability should prevent this.
Weaknesses of monsters
Added to match descriptions in the bestiary:
Noonwraith/Nightwraith Igni vulnerability:
Removed their immunity to the Igni fire sign as their boss/contract versions variants are said to be vulnerable to Igni in their bestiary descriptions:
The best way to force her out of this state is to set a trap with the Yrden sign, then quickly follow up with Igni while she is caught.
Once thus forced into materiality. she should be attacked with strong blows or the lgni Sign.
Wild Hunt Hounds are now vulnerable to Axii, as it is explicitly listed as a weakness in the bestiary. Now you can interrupt furious regeneration just like you do with ghouls and alghouls.
Relatively arbitrary decisions:
All necrophages (particularly Drowner and Rotfiend) are vulnerable to bleeding because they obviously have blood. This change is no related to the description of necrophages, but to the description of the level 3 Black Blood potion, which 'causes bleeding in vampires and necrophages'.
The Superior Black Blood redesign mod is highly recommended, which makes this potion more sane and balanced.
Ifrits are immune to cooling (an effect that slows down movement), but they are vulnerable to the White Frost bomb (which is even listed as a vulnerability in the description), which doesn't make sense. So, now you can cool their ardor in another way.
Arachnomorphs are now vulnerable to poison. Since they do not poison the player themselves, unlike other opponents in this category, and are also extremely prone to running away from you, it might be a good idea to be able to stun them with an Axii inside the poison cloud from the Devils Puffball bomb.
This is a bit of a controversial change, since nothing in the game makes it clear that poison is an effective way to fight arachnomorphs, but there is no opposite indication either. We will remove this change if many people don't like it.
Noonwraith/Nightwraith – slow down by Yrden:
I think everyone knows that Yrden makes these ghosts take on a material form. But have you ever noticed that these are also the only monsters in the game that Yrden doesn't slow down? In fact, if you hit them with a Silver Dust bomb, the base Yrden becomes useless against them!
So, to increase the interest, now, Silver Dust and Yrden separately only cause them to take on a material form, however, when they are under affection of both of these effects, the slow down is also activated.
Other features
Vampire vampiric effect (Bruxa/Alp excluded):
Gave them the ability to heal for 10% of the damage they cause. This is to create a more meaningful interaction between vampires and the black blood potion (they feed off the blood from the wounds they cause) as in the vanilla game black blood works no differently on most vampires than it does on necrophages. By reflecting 15% or more of the damage received black blood effectively counters the vampire's ability to heal each time it bleeds the player. So bruxas/alps aren't the only vampires who do some vampiring.
Bestiary description:
They also do not suck blood from the necks of virgins with a delicate, kiss-like bite – they tear them to shreds using long, sharp claws and then slurp the splattered blood off the ground.
Healing Ifrits from fire attacks:
Yes, you heard right. Now any direct fire damage will heal these fire creatures, and in five times the amount of its value. So, don't use Igni on them if you don't want the battle to continue indefinitely!
Gryphon/Basilisk/Cockatrice/Melusine (contract Siren) scream damage
- Gryphons and similar opponents, when their health is low, start shouting to stun Geralt before starting a long flight. To be honest, this attack doesn't make much sense.
- Sirens shout if they are knocked to the ground and Geralt is some distance away from them. In a pack, this makes sense, because stun makes it easier for other sirens to attack. But Melusine is only one, and because of the way the sirens ' attack mechanics work, she's an extremely easy enemy.
So, I decided to give these screams more meaning by adding some damage to them, similar to Bruxas' screams. This is relatively less damage than the rest of their attacks, but still significant. In contrast, the ability to ignore both damage and stun from screams by dodging has been added.
Many thanks to Arkwulf for the tests!
Optional addon – strengthened blindness and hypnosis effects:
In the vanilla game, these effects, in addition to blocking the use of crossbows, bombs, parries and counterattacks, also block the ability to direct sword strikes at the target. However, mods that edit targeting (for example, ESGO) often prevent the use of this mechanic. So, for such cases, it was decided to strengthen these effects so that it would make more sense to avoid them or use a decoction from Noonwraith.
- Blinding completely eliminates the possibility of a critical sword hit.
- Hypnosis (an effect that Fiends cause) disables the ability to use Signs.
Of course, you can install this without targeting mods if you want to challenge yourself.
No Dodging Status Effects highly recommended for use alongside this so that you can't easily dodge and ignore an enemy's status attacks. Effect durations balanced with how frequently monsters attack with Faster Fatties.
FCR3 highly recommended if you're on oldgen (most of it was integrated into the next gen/PS5/XSX version of the game).
Fixed and improved enemy categories highly recommended that all monsters have the correct categories.
Install:
Same as installing most other TW3 Mods. Avoid Vortex, TW3 Mod Manager recommended if you need a manager. Place any \modxxx folders directly inside your <TW3 game install>\Mods (or \mods) folder, place any \dlcxxx folders directly inside your <TW3 game install>\dlc (or \DLC) folder. Merge everything with Script Merger.
How to install most simple TW3 Mods for newbies/klutzes:
Spoiler:
First you gotta locate your The Witcher 3 game install location. Usually it's somewhere like "C:\GOG Games\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt GOTY" for Good Old Games versions of the game or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3" for Steam versions of the game.
Mandatory:
Script Merger
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working.
Optional but highly recommended:
TW3 Mod Manager
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working. Installing it all to some place like C:\TW3Modding\ should work.
Mod Limit Fix
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working
Enable the Debug Console. Press the keys on your keyboard until you figure out which one activates the console.
After that you can install most mods by downloading them manually (VORTEX NOT RECOMMENDED WITH TW3 MODS, IT WILL EVENTUALLY CAUSE PROBLEMS). Extract their contents somewhere (rightclick on the downloaded mod file->extract) and then place their files&folders in the right places in your game install yourself OR let TW3 Mod Manager extract and place them correctly for you (Recommended).
If you're not using TW3 Mod Manager you need to make sure all of your mod's \modxxx folders end up directly inside your <TW3 game install>\Mods folder (or <TW3 game install>\mods, wherever your other mods are). If there's no mods folder in your TW3 game install folder (TW3MM would've created one for you) you can create one by rightclicking on some empty space there -> "New" -> "Folder" and write Mods as its name. That means your \modxxx folders ends up as <TW3 game install>\Mods\modxxx. TW3MM would place it there automatically for you so you wouldn't have to.
If your mod has \dlcxxx folders they similarly need to be directly inside your <TW3 game install>\dlc folder (or <TW3 game install>\DLC wherever your other dlcs are). They should end up as <TW3 game install>\dlc\dlcxxx ( never <TW3 game install>\dlc\dlc\dlcxxx !). TW3MM would do this automatically for you.
Your mod's mod menu file xxx.xml would have to end up as <TW3 game install>\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc\xxx.xml. Again, TW3MM would do this automatically for you. If you happen to have more mod menus tham what can fit on the mod menu list you can easily edit & group mod menus together into subgroups yourself using something like notepad++, example: 1-> 2 (that mod menu was placed in a "combat" subgroup, example from Menu Strings).
If your mod has custom keybinds you probably have to add them to your <My Documents>\The Witcher 3\input.settings file using some editor like notepad++. Once more, TW3MM will usually do this automatically for you.
After your mod's files & folders are in the right places you need to run patched Script Merger and merge any conflicting files that can be merged together (that means both .ws scripts and .xml bundled files).
Sadly, not all mods will automatically merge together, most probably won't (though all LEGO merge automatically with each other, obviously), but some unresolved conflicts can be solved with a little manual help:
The bottom half is the output/result of your merge, the yellow <Merge Conflict> line is the conflicting line that SM can't figure out automatically.
Right click on the merge conflict and you get some simple options:
^There you picked the line from mod 2, but you can also pick the lines from both mods, in any order:
Or you can even write your own code in there. Of course knowing which lines to choose or how to make them work together does require you to somewhat understand what the code does. When in doubt you might try asking the concerned mod's authors & users for help in the comments sections.
However keep in mind that there's no guarantee that any 2 mods can be effectively merged together, nor is there any guarantee that 2 mods are working well together even if they merged automatically and the game seems to be running ok.
That's why to be extra safe you should carefully read each mod's install instructions to make sure there aren't any special instructions or requirements for the mod to work (some mods might require other mods to work such as the unification/community patch or shared imports) or incompatibilities, and then merge & run the game after each new mod install to make sure it's running well.
Show
First you gotta locate your The Witcher 3 game install location. Usually it's somewhere like "C:\GOG Games\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt GOTY" for Good Old Games versions of the game or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3" for Steam versions of the game.
Mandatory:
Script Merger
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working.
Optional but highly recommended:
TW3 Mod Manager
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working. Installing it all to some place like C:\TW3Modding\ should work.
Mod Limit Fix
Download, run/install it, run what it installed to be sure it's working
Enable the Debug Console. Press the keys on your keyboard until you figure out which one activates the console.
After that you can install most mods by downloading them manually (VORTEX NOT RECOMMENDED WITH TW3 MODS, IT WILL EVENTUALLY CAUSE PROBLEMS). Extract their contents somewhere (rightclick on the downloaded mod file->extract) and then place their files&folders in the right places in your game install yourself OR let TW3 Mod Manager extract and place them correctly for you (Recommended).
If you're not using TW3 Mod Manager you need to make sure all of your mod's \modxxx folders end up directly inside your <TW3 game install>\Mods folder (or <TW3 game install>\mods, wherever your other mods are). If there's no mods folder in your TW3 game install folder (TW3MM would've created one for you) you can create one by rightclicking on some empty space there -> "New" -> "Folder" and write Mods as its name. That means your \modxxx folders ends up as <TW3 game install>\Mods\modxxx. TW3MM would place it there automatically for you so you wouldn't have to.
If your mod has \dlcxxx folders they similarly need to be directly inside your <TW3 game install>\dlc folder (or <TW3 game install>\DLC wherever your other dlcs are). They should end up as <TW3 game install>\dlc\dlcxxx ( never <TW3 game install>\dlc\dlc\dlcxxx !). TW3MM would do this automatically for you.
Your mod's mod menu file xxx.xml would have to end up as <TW3 game install>\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc\xxx.xml. Again, TW3MM would do this automatically for you. If you happen to have more mod menus tham what can fit on the mod menu list you can easily edit & group mod menus together into subgroups yourself using something like notepad++, example: 1-> 2 (that mod menu was placed in a "combat" subgroup, example from Menu Strings).
If your mod has custom keybinds you probably have to add them to your <My Documents>\The Witcher 3\input.settings file using some editor like notepad++. Once more, TW3MM will usually do this automatically for you.
After your mod's files & folders are in the right places you need to run patched Script Merger and merge any conflicting files that can be merged together (that means both .ws scripts and .xml bundled files).
Sadly, not all mods will automatically merge together, most probably won't (though all LEGO merge automatically with each other, obviously), but some unresolved conflicts can be solved with a little manual help:
The bottom half is the output/result of your merge, the yellow <Merge Conflict> line is the conflicting line that SM can't figure out automatically.
Right click on the merge conflict and you get some simple options:
^There you picked the line from mod 2, but you can also pick the lines from both mods, in any order:
Or you can even write your own code in there. Of course knowing which lines to choose or how to make them work together does require you to somewhat understand what the code does. When in doubt you might try asking the concerned mod's authors & users for help in the comments sections.
However keep in mind that there's no guarantee that any 2 mods can be effectively merged together, nor is there any guarantee that 2 mods are working well together even if they merged automatically and the game seems to be running ok.
That's why to be extra safe you should carefully read each mod's install instructions to make sure there aren't any special instructions or requirements for the mod to work (some mods might require other mods to work such as the unification/community patch or shared imports) or incompatibilities, and then merge & run the game after each new mod install to make sure it's running well.
Uninstall:
Delete \modstrongerstatuseffects and \dlcstrongerstatuseffects (if it exists/oldgen). Unmerge the files if you merged them before.
Compatibility:
Brothers in Arms: compatible, just merge everything.
Part of a series of mods for the combat aspect of the game.
Special thanks to Levitatin for posting an 4.0 update of the mod in the comments section.