What is this?
Very small mod that changes the behavior of the spell Flesh to Stone & Flesh to Gold. Now it works just like Contagion and how it works in DnD 5e, where you have to succeed 3 times to overcome the effect, otherwise you get petrified in stone or gold, permanently. Also, I changed the behavior to make Flesh to Gold permanent instead of temporary (didn't even know this was a thing until I tested it).

Why? No one is ever going to burn a Lv6 Spell Slot on such an underwhelming spell.
Most people think that damaging or incapacitating spells are supposed to be used in combat since casting them outside of it would just initiate a fight without you having done any free damage and potentially not even getting a surprise round. It's easy to come to this conclusion since everything in the game points at this, you're incentivized to either talk to NPCs or preemptively attack them for free damage + surprise, no need to think too hard on it. This is mostly correct and a great thumb rule, but let me tell you, when you realize that some spells that any normal person would consider assault if they were casted on you, are considered by NPCs as harmful as accidentally bumping into them, the world's your playground.

In other words, casting Flesh to Stone on a neutral NPC is not considered a crime, it won't even incur in negative reputation (Sorta, please read note). You can literally stand next to any NPC in the game, cast Flesh to Stone on them, and see them slowly get petrified. This is all vanilla behavior, my mod hasn't changed any of this.

NOTE: Although casting Flesh to Stone on an NPC and them getting turned to stone/gold isn't a crime, when they finally get petrified after they fail the last saving throw of the spell effect, any witnesses to this event will realize you've assaulted a person and you will lose reputation. However, this will only happen if you're visible. If you become invisible or are hiding out of sight, you will be forced to roll a stealth check, and if you pass it, you're 100% innocent in the eyes of the AI, and the NPCs will just hang out with a statue like it's normal.

AFAIK, there's no way to skip rolling the stealth check, this presents a problem, you both need relatively high Dex/Stealth Proficiency AND high spell save DC. The Stealth Check generally isn't super high, but you want to stack the odds in your favor. Since every other party member isn't implicated in the assault no matter what, only the caster is, this means your party can hang out and, say, be concentrating on Pass Without Trace (Lv2 Spell) to give you an easy +10, there's even a ring in Act 2 that gives you the spell for free every short rest. Not only that, there's a slew of spells and equipment that give you Stealth Check Advantage, making it even more reliable still. Just make sure your armor isn't giving you Disadvantage

Also, keep in mind that some very important NPCs and some creatures camouflaged as NPCs have extra flags added to them, so despite the initial Flesh to Stone cast being totally harmless in the eyes of most NPCs, some quest related ones will take great offense to this and might make quests end prematurely.

To give you a very specific example, spoilers: 

Spoiler:  

Show

Casting it on Gortash makes him immediately aggressive but casting it on Nine Fingers does not. Also casting it on any of the Dopplegangers in the first Dolor ambush initiates combat but not the ones that aid Dolor on the second ambush that hang around outside the room where he's in. NGL, there's some trial and error, I wish it was cut and dry but it's not. Fair warning, casting it on Orin while she's shapeshifted pretending to be an NPC breaks her entirely, don't do this lmao.

Why is any of this important? With all this being said, you can weaken or sometimes entirely trivialize a lot of annoying Act 3 fights by just having the foresight to neuter a couple of enemies. Maybe this is still not worth your highest spell slot, but it is definitely worth it if you have a spare scroll or two, and a lot of vendors at this point in the game restock them frequently, like the Stone Mephit that can make you a statue of yourself.

Keep in mind, petrification is permanent, not "until Long Rest", so you can prepare way ahead of time, even in-game days in advance to soften whatever target you're murdering later.

Other fun possibilities:

• Bestow Curse (Lv 3 Spell) also isn't considered a crime to cast on NPCs, and you can impose Constitution Saving Throw disadvantage. You can basically guarantee that the NPC will be petrified with this combo. They're both concentration so you need 2 characters for this.
• Find Familiar: Rat (Lv1 Ritual Spell) has a basic attack causes the Infected condition, which also imposes Constitution Saving Throws AND -1 Constitution. Attacking IS assault, but as long as you're not grouped together with your familiar, the familiar by itself will be considered the "perpetrator" and will get arrested or attacked. Simply dismiss the familiar and you're good to go. Or rescue the rat from prison, idk, that does sound fun.
• Get another party member to cast Greater Invisibility on you and sneak, so you can petrify enemies that aren't strictly ambushes and that would attack you on sight.
  

That's great and all, but what does your mod change?
There's 2 mods:

• Better Flesh to Stone: Changes Flesh to Stone & Flesh to Gold so that the enemy has to succeed 3 saving throws cumulatively to overcome the effect, otherwise they get petrified permanently. This makes it so casting the spell is way more reliable.
• Scribe Flesh to Gold: It allows you to scribe the Signed Trade Visa item into your spellbook, allowing you to cast Flesh to Gold indefinitely.
  

These mods are standalone, so you can pick either mod if you don't care to use the other. If you're using both mods, you must load Scribe Flesh to Gold before Better Flesh to Stone.

Is this your thing now, making mods for garbage spells?
Yes. My goal is to signal to people that some spells that take a lot of set up or aren't clear in what the best use might be, are actually really strong if used in specific circumstances 😃. Here's a freebie, the Web Spell is fantastic for most undead enemies since none of them can jump and have terrible Dex saves.

How to install?
NOTE: You don't have to start a new playthrough, you can install this at any point 😊.

• Download the archive (.zip)
• Import archive with Baldur's Gate Mod Manager
• Drag to active column
• Export load order
• Play Wizard/Warlock or just find a scroll 🧙‍♂️😈📜
• Get to Lv 11 ⏳
• Become a "Stone" cold killer 🥶 (get it?)
  

How to uninstall?
Delete the mod through the Mod Manager

Special Thanks
⭐Effe (Bestie)⭐

Other mods by me!

• Fast Precision Attack
• Elements of Battle
• Superior Recovery
• Sunwalker's Gift Fix
• Better Enthrall
  

Other mods by my Bestie

• Consort Dyes