Cantrip Overhaul

Tired of having to recast Guidance every time you make a skill check? Want to finally get value out of True Strike? Frustrated with choosing between using Friends or cancelling Hex? My Cantrip Overhaul is designed to tweak and adjust certain cantrips to expand their use cases, bringing them more in line with cantrips that players often pick (at least, the ones I often pick). This should hopefully add some more variety to playthroughs without becoming extremely unbalanced. It should also enable playstyles other than "I hit everything with Fire Bolt until it dies."

Full Changes

Blade Ward
Bonus action. Lasts 10 turns.

Simple changes to make Blade Ward less cumbersome/costly to cast.

Dancing Lights
No concentration.

Why was this even concentration in the first place?

Friends
No concentration. Lasts until long rest.

I love this cantrip, but I hate that it's concentration. It makes playing Warlock such a hassle. And like most buff cantrips, I also hate reapplying it for basically every skill check.

Guidance
Applies buff to all companions/allies. 9m/30ft range. No concentration. Lasts until long rest. Not classified as a melee spell.

I love this cantrip. I hate reapplying it constantly, I hate having to reapply it if I switch to another character, and I hate that it's concentration. These changes make it far more useful.

Mage Hand
No cooldown. Lasts until long rest.

This does not need a cooldown. It's a 3 HP spectral hand that does 2 damage. This is not game-breaking at any level. Yet there are too many situations/encounters made needlessly difficult by the cooldown and short duration.

Poison Spray
Range to 4.5m/15 ft. Attack roll instead of CON save.

CON saves suck by mid-game because bosses have much higher Constitution. The short range also several limits its applicability. I didn't make the range significantly bigger because this is a 3d12 cantrip at Lvl. 10, which out-damages a lot of lower-level spells. This range should be enough to make it more useful without making it broken.

Resistance
Not concentration. Bonus action. Range to 9m/30 ft. Not classified as a melee spell.

I made many similar changes to Guidance, but I left enough differences to ensure this works best in combat, not out of it.

Sacred Flame
WIS save instead of DEX save.

Shadowheart should be able to hit her attacks more! I rewrote the description to make it seem more applicable to a Wisdom save.

Shillelagh
Lasts until long rest.

Do we need to cast this again every combat?

Thaumaturgy
Applies buff to all companions/allies within 9m/30ft. Infinite range. Lasts until long rest.

Thaumaturgy in vanilla is strictly outclassed by Friends. Its only redeeming quality is that it doesn't register as a crime. This change should prevent it from cannibalizing Friends and vice-versa while still making it less cumbersome/pointless to use.

True Strike
Bonus action. No concentration. All companions/allies benefit. Not removed on attack.

Don't need to explain this, right? I made it not remove on attack so it doesn't eat your bonus action every turn, but it doesn't last so long that you get the benefit of free advantage constantly.

Compatibility/Requirements

• I don't know if Mod Fixer is actually required, but I'm listing it as required anyway. You should already have it installed.
• Any mods that alter the same fields for the same entries will not be compatible. Not sure if mods that alter untouched fields in the same entries will be compatible, but I'm gonna say no.
  

Installation

• Download BG3 Mod Manager and set it up. The installation instructions are in the Github. I will not help you install this.
• Drop "Trev_CantripOverhaul.zip" into BG3MM.
• Move it to the "Active Order" list.
• Click the Save icon (or "File > Save order").
• Click the Export to Game icon (or "File > Export Order to Game").
• Done.
  

I don't know how to install this on Mac or Linux -- apologies. If someone in the comments posts a tutorial, I'll add it here and credit them.

I will not be providing Vortex install instructions. Use BG3MM.

FAQ

"[X] is broken."
Put it in the Bugs section if it's not already there. I'll get to it. Please make sure you don't have other cantrip-altering mods installed before submitting a bug report.

"I don't like how you changed this cantrip. Can you do this instead?"


"Can you make this cantrip into an individual mod?"


"The game was just patched 20 minutes go. Is this mod updated?"


"I'm using Vortex to install this mod and having issues. Can you help me?"


My Mods

• Cantrip Overhaul
• Simple Misty Step
  

Thanks

• Down by the River modding community for not kicking me out after fielding my 9 million questions.
• Astralities for reminding me that summon spells already clear an active summon when cast again.
• sakusakus for the Withers GIF.
• NellsRelo and Mr. Rando for the SE/CF and self-inheritance explanations.
• Kay for testing the mod