Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II Mod Thread

[Tigranes]

Keldorn is great but will pale to Sarevok in TOB if you plan on getting that far. It also depends if you have any mods that nerf the frankly OP Inquisitor dispel.

I always thought the Keldorn thing was written well, even though it's still an implant of daytime soap drama onto fantasy setting. I always feel bad not letting him go.

 

[Surf Solar]

Wow that fight in the sewer system under the temple district is pretty tough on lower levels. That was fun!

 

[Gragt]

I always thought the Keldorn thing was written well, even though it's still an implant of daytime soap drama onto fantasy setting. I always feel bad not letting him go.

The whole thing is soap opera. I don’t think Bioware has ever done anything else than soap opera, and they got it pretty good in BG2 as I discover again. Not that soap opera is a bad thing, since, as for anything, you have good and bad soap opera.

Sarevok is on the menu later, probably to replace Minsc though since Valygar and Keldorn have other useful abilities. Fighter with great stats and a chance to deal 200 damage on every hit, and he gets along with any kind of party?

I’m usually against nerfs since I do not consider perfect balance, whatever that may be, to be a goal we should all strive to reach. If anything, I’d rather balance things out by improving the other side. So, Keldorn’s power is untouched. If anything, it is one of the main reasons to pick him up in the first place.

 

[hell bovine]

Is there a mod that disables party members fighting each other? I remember I had one like that to let me have Viconia and that Paladin in the same party without infighting.
Yeah yeah I know popamole etc. but I already have a party combination in mind and don't want to have that faggot cleric in my party.

I think if your natural (not item-enhanced) charisma is 18, it should prevent Keldorn from trying to murder Vicky, but I'm not sure, since the only time I've used Keldorn, it was to test the improved pit fiends component of Tactics.

The whole thing is soap opera. I don’t think Bioware has ever done anything else than soap opera, and they got it pretty good in BG2 as I discover again. Not that soap opera is a bad thing, since, as for anything, you have good and bad soap opera.

Sarevok is on the menu later, probably to replace Minsc though since Valygar and Keldorn have other useful abilities. Fighter with great stats and a chance to deal 200 damage on every hit, and he gets along with any kind of party?

I’m usually against nerfs since I do not consider perfect balance, whatever that may be, to be a goal we should all strive to reach. If anything, I’d rather balance things out by improving the other side. So, Keldorn’s power is untouched. If anything, it is one of the main reasons to pick him up in the first place.

Aerie certainly isn't that bad if you don't romance her, which frankly applies to the other NPCs too - BG is probably the only game series where I've always chosen a female character, simply to avoid issues. Sarevok has some funny dialogue with Minsc. Ascension restores his redemption path (failed to redeem him, because I fail at playing good aligned characters, ending was interesting).

 

[Tigranes]

I always thought the Keldorn thing was written well, even though it's still an implant of daytime soap drama onto fantasy setting. I always feel bad not letting him go.

The whole thing is soap opera. I don’t think Bioware has ever done anything else than soap opera, and they got it pretty good in BG2 as I discover again. Not that soap opera is a bad thing, since, as for anything, you have good and bad soap opera.

Sarevok is on the menu later, probably to replace Minsc though since Valygar and Keldorn have other useful abilities. Fighter with great stats and a chance to deal 200 damage on every hit, and he gets along with any kind of party?

I’m usually against nerfs since I do not consider perfect balance, whatever that may be, to be a goal we should all strive to reach. If anything, I’d rather balance things out by improving the other side. So, Keldorn’s power is untouched. If anything, it is one of the main reasons to pick him up in the first place.

Well if Inquisitor powers remain vanilla, then yeah, Keldorn is useful enough all the way through.

I'm trying to bumrush TOB and finish my full BGT run before my overseas trip, sadly something seems to have bugged out to deny me Improved Demogorgon. Buffed Sarevok, Anomen, PC (M/T), Deva summon bashing on it after Spellstrike = dead in about 2.5 rounds. Gromnir was a lot more interesting since Ascension + SCS and large numbers of opponents each with their own means of inducing various maluses on you can really screw you up. They kept breaching, malisoning and dominating Sarevok (once after I just cast Greater Whirlwind), and even Stoned him at one point, making me whip out a stone to flesh scroll in the middle of the fight.

 

[Incantatar]

Someone needs to make a randomize traps mod. Am i the first one to think of that? The game would be so much more challenging.

 

[Somberlain]

Someone needs to make a randomize traps mod. Am i the first one to think of that? The game would be so much more challenging.

Sounds pretty awful. I always play with thief/rogue characters and I like finding, avoiding and disarming traps in games, but in IE games traps are just annoying because of how Find Traps only triggers every few seconds or something. Even when you know that there's a trap, often you have to stand next to it for like five seconds before it appears.

If trap finding worked faster in IE, trap randomizer mod could be cool, if done correctly.

 

[Surf Solar]

Sorry for further noob questions.

Is there any strength enhancing item I can buy or find in BGII ? I would really like to give Viconia the Flail of Ages, but her low strength keeps me from doing so. Using consumables before major battles is fun, but I'd like to equip it to her permanently.

 

[Somberlain]

Sorry for further noob questions.

Is there any strength enhancing item I can buy or find in BGII ? I would really like to give Viconia the Flail of Ages, but her low strength keeps me from doing so. Using consumables before major battles is fun, but I'd like to equip it to her permanently.

You can buy Belt of Hill Giant Strength from Adventurers Mart and a mace that sets your strength to 18 from Copper Coronet. Rest of the strength items (there are a few) you find from dungeons so I don't spoil them.

 

[Greatness]

Sorry for further noob questions.

Is there any strength enhancing item I can buy or find in BGII ? I would really like to give Viconia the Flail of Ages, but her low strength keeps me from doing so. Using consumables before major battles is fun, but I'd like to equip it to her permanently.

*Very slight spoiler*

If you can't afford the belt in the Adventurer's Mart, then there's a pair of gauntlets you can find during the Planar Sphere quest.

 

[Stokowski]

I love Aerie's "oh my!" when doing a critical. Only reason I kept her in the party.

 

[Gragt]

Well, fucketh me. Playing with SCS for the first time is full of surprises. The end of the de’Arnise Hold proved interesting. At least it forces me to get clever, which is hardly a bad thing. The two yuan-ti mages were a problem until I found that dispelling their protections with Keldorn and backstabing with Valygar worked wonders. After that I only had to deal with the annoying trolls.

I forgot BG2 was so much fun.

 

[Gragt]

You know, after reading a good number of paragraphs of whine about SCS, I was afraid that the game would be tediously hard. Well, I’ve been surprised to discover that while enemies tend to be smarter and thus harder to deal with, especially spellcasters, the whole thing is still doable. I’m also better at the game, simply by virtue of understanding the D&D rules better since last I played a long time ago. Still, I was surprised to see I managed to kill the Shade Lich on a simple trial, to see how scary liches had become. And I thought I’d have to leave Kangaxx for later but I managed to do him before I left for Spellhold—thank you, Daystar and your Sunray ability; I didn’t think that’d work. And right now I managed the Twisted Rune on my third try, despite it being much tougher than I remember. Well, that’s what using items and spells correctly does, I guess. I still wish the game used some sort of turn-based system, given how some encounters, like the Twisted Rune, can quickly turn into a visual clusterfuck.

I’m still a bit wary that I’ll hit a brick wall later, especially ToB, but so far it’s fun. I guess fighting Lavok was the moment when I really got the hang of how to deal with mages and their protections.

Heh, I even love Valygar now. Back in the day, I was clueless enough to not take advantage of his backstab ability while now I constantly use and abuse it. If you use him as a front-liner, he’ll of course feel weaker compared to others due to his armour restriction, and while he is decent with a bow that’s also a waste of his true potential. Now he’s easily my most dangerous fighter along with my character, and for different reasons.

Funniest moment so far was when I buffed my party for the Shade Lord (another many complain about but that didn’t prove too hard) in the Shadow Dragon room and the buffing turned the bugger hostile—I remembered reading something about that before. Instead of reloading, since I was definitely not ready, I though that I might as well see how bad he was. Imagine my face when I managed to kill the bastard—my Cavalier easily did the most damage to it but I had to withdraw when he drained me to lvl 4; it probably wouldn’t have happened if I had had proper time to prepare but it certainly made the whole encounter tense and interesting.

 

[Modron]

Someone needs to make a randomize traps mod. Am i the first one to think of that? The game would be so much more challenging.

Sounds pretty awful. I always play with thief/rogue characters and I like finding, avoiding and disarming traps in games, but in IE games traps are just annoying because of how Find Traps only triggers every few seconds or something. Even when you know that there's a trap, often you have to stand next to it for like five seconds before it appears.

If trap finding worked faster in IE, trap randomizer mod could be cool, if done correctly.

Yeah trap finding worked pretty much as you said, IIRC, it only checked immediately when activated then at the start of every round after that aka 5-6 seconds however long the rounds were. Wish you could stealth and detect traps at the same time (eg like elf's with their always on search in NWN 1/2). That inability coupled with Bioware's frequent placement of enemies right after traps in the second game was quite annoying (granted any means of invisibility circumvented this issue to some extent but that made it no less tedious).

 

[uaciaut]

Grunker What order should i install this shit in for BG2:

g3fixpack
g3tweaks
ascension
rogue rebalancing
atweaks
oversight (monk hla)
1pp mods
Sword Coast Strategems 2 (maybe?)
ToBEx(maybe idk)
Unfinished Business
Refinments
Item Upgrades + some other item upgrade mod (i think it was called ruad?)
Tactics (new encounters)
Underrepresented items
Wizard Slayer Rebalancing
level 1 npcs

and MAYBE Freedom's Reign & Reign of Virtue (was this bad or not i can't remember)

I'm also tempted to ask you about how i'd go about getting BG1 and trying to merge them (with tutu? trilogy? idk) since i never really finished BG1 but i'm not sure i want to finish it from what i've heard.

Kinda surprised no one has mentioned refinments so far by the way (as far as i could see), new HLA's are pretty awesome.

8) Wheels of Prophecy
9) Tower of Deception
10) Back to Brynnlaw
11) Assassinations
12) The Sellswords
13) Beyond the Law
14) Angelo Dosan
15) Ninde

Is any of this shit any good by any chance? Most mod makers are lobotomized when it comes to writing decently for their content so i'm kind of skeptical on quest related content.


I'm kind of a sucker for item crafting/collecting stuff so this thing called "Improved Anvil" caught my eye, but it seems to be incompatible with a shitload of other mods, is it really worth the effort?

edit: Also SPH site is reporting some files as broken though i've downloaded them just fine (atweaks and rogue rebalancing for me atm), what's the deal with that?

 

[xrm1]

Grunker
I'm also tempted to ask you about how i'd go about getting BG1 and trying to merge them (with tutu? trilogy? idk) since i never really finished BG1 but i'm not sure i want to finish it from what i've heard.

Get the excellent Big World installer: https://bitbucket.org/BigWorldSetup/bigworldsetup/downloads
It's worth using even when you just want to play BG2.

 

[Tigranes]

You know, after reading a good number of paragraphs of whine about SCS, I was afraid that the game would be tediously hard. Well, I’ve been surprised to discover that while enemies tend to be smarter and thus harder to deal with, especially spellcasters, the whole thing is still doable. I’m also better at the game, simply by virtue of understanding the D&D rules better since last I played a long time ago. Still, I was surprised to see I managed to kill the Shade Lich on a simple trial, to see how scary liches had become. And I thought I’d have to leave Kangaxx for later but I managed to do him before I left for Spellhold—thank you, Daystar and your Sunray ability; I didn’t think that’d work. And right now I managed the Twisted Rune on my third try, despite it being much tougher than I remember. Well, that’s what using items and spells correctly does, I guess. I still wish the game used some sort of turn-based system, given how some encounters, like the Twisted Rune, can quickly turn into a visual clusterfuck.

I’m still a bit wary that I’ll hit a brick wall later, especially ToB, but so far it’s fun. I guess fighting Lavok was the moment when I really got the hang of how to deal with mages and their protections.

Heh, I even love Valygar now. Back in the day, I was clueless enough to not take advantage of his backstab ability while now I constantly use and abuse it. If you use him as a front-liner, he’ll of course feel weaker compared to others due to his armour restriction, and while he is decent with a bow that’s also a waste of his true potential. Now he’s easily my most dangerous fighter along with my character, and for different reasons.

Funniest moment so far was when I buffed my party for the Shade Lord (another many complain about but that didn’t prove too hard) in the Shadow Dragon room and the buffing turned the bugger hostile—I remembered reading something about that before. Instead of reloading, since I was definitely not ready, I though that I might as well see how bad he was. Imagine my face when I managed to kill the bastard—my Cavalier easily did the most damage to it but I had to withdraw when he drained me to lvl 4; it probably wouldn’t have happened if I had had proper time to prepare but it certainly made the whole encounter tense and interesting.

SCS is not 'super-hard' in any way, though I tend to leave out some of the more annoying changes. Most of the 'big fights' are well designed so that enemies operate on a clear logic and you can understand and beat them after some learning deaths.

Ironically, I think SCS makes the Shade Lord considerably harder than the Shadow Dragon on earlier levels, since he's able to dispel and level drain just like the Dragon but also has a few nasty surprises like some kind of insect plague.

 

[Gragt]

SCS is not 'super-hard' in any way, though I tend to leave out some of the more annoying changes. Most of the 'big fights' are well designed so that enemies operate on a clear logic and you can understand and beat them after some learning deaths.

Yeah, I was a bit wary from the comments I read about SCS being too hard, but so far all that was needed was to get into the right groove. Some other mods like aTweaks can also make some fights a bit tougher, especially when demons start to summon tons of shit left and right—certainly made a certain section of the Planar Sphere quest more interesting!—but I like that stuff so far and it does make the demons more imposing. I’m also ok with some of the rebalancing tweaks that strive for consistency, but I tend to stay away from nerfs like weakening the dispel power of inquisitors since that’s what makes them special in the first place—many claim that the loss of spellcasting for them isn’t too big but I certainly miss at times the self-buff options like Armor of Faith or Draw Upon Holy Might for Keldorn, and his Dispel Magic and True Sight usually make up for it; I don’t know if it is perfectly balanced and to be honest I care little for it. I also stay away from justifications like “the devs probably never intended this”, since whether some behaviour was intended or not doesn’t mean much, and being able to juggle with your inventory and powers in ways that may not have been obvious at first glance encourages you to experiment with things—hardly a bad thing in my book.

Getting my equipment stolen from Spellhold was annoying but if anything it made the whole part a bit more interesting (thankfully the lich appears to have been removed). Especially with the UB component that makes Bodhi attack you if you decide to rest before you reach level 3. I suffered a bit at first but it wasn’t so bad in the end; I’ll probably keep that combo for my next playthrough since it made that section a bit tense but not too frustratingly so, and the fight at the end only required two tries.

Ironically, I think SCS makes the Shade Lord considerably harder than the Shadow Dragon on earlier levels, since he's able to dispel and level drain just like the Dragon but also has a few nasty surprises like some kind of insect plague.

I tend to do most quests in Athkatla first, to gather a bit of experience and more importantly some gear, though I avoid the main quests (those that grant a stronghold and a set experience reward to every member of the group) until I got my complete party, minus Imoen. So by the time I tackled the temple ruins, I was decently equipped.

 

[Somberlain]

8) Wheels of Prophecy
9) Tower of Deception
10) Back to Brynnlaw
11) Assassinations
12) The Sellswords
13) Beyond the Law
14) Angelo Dosan
15) Ninde

Is any of this shit any good by any chance? Most mod makers are lobotomized when it comes to writing decently for their content so i'm kind of skeptical on quest related content.


I'm kind of a sucker for item crafting/collecting stuff so this thing called "Improved Anvil" caught my eye, but it seems to be incompatible with a shitload of other mods, is it really worth the effort?

edit: Also SPH site is reporting some files as broken though i've downloaded them just fine (atweaks and rogue rebalancing for me atm), what's the deal with that?

Back to Brynnlaw and Sellswords are decent. Nothing incredible, but solid additions to the game, if you want more content to your Shadows of Amn. However, they suffer from way too generous XP rewards, so you might want to open the dialogue files with Notepad++, search for all "addexperience" parts and nerf them, if you are concerned with such things.

Assassinations is also pretty good, but sadly it has very little to do with rogue/stealth gameplay. It's just a series of side quests where you kill one or more targets for money. There's only one or two interesting fights.

I haven't tried Wheels of Prophecy but it's made by the same guy who made SCS, so it is probably good. I also haven't tried Beyond the Law because it adds two playable characters (I presume you need them to play the mod's quest content) and I have too many party members I want to use already. I checked Tower of Deception files and it seemed to add some really overpowered item(s), so I didn't actually play that mod either.

When it comes to mod NPCs I've tried, Adrian is the only one I haven't uninstalled out of disgust or annoyance.

 

[Tigranes]

Improved Anvil is basically an alternative SCS with a lot of other stuff thrown in, it's halfway to a megamod. Last I tried it it was harder but also cheatier than SCS and also with a number of errors, and I didn't really think it was worth the bother.

Assassinations is simple but decent, I think Wheels of Prophecy was too but I only tried that once and I don't remember.

 

[Aeschylus]

What order should i install this shit in for BG2:

Order doesn't really matter that much beyond a couple of things: bg2fixpack needs to come first or the map will be messed up, then BGT (or tutu). After that install whatever dialogue/content mods you want, and finish with any graphical mods. Specifically, install 1pp 2nd to last if you're using it, and always install the widescreen patch last.

8) Wheels of Prophecy
9) Tower of Deception
10) Back to Brynnlaw
11) Assassinations
12) The Sellswords
13) Beyond the Law
14) Angelo Dosan
15) Ninde

Only one of those I've tried is Tower of Deception, which is pretty decent. Just a short dungeon crawl. Don't install the optional fight though, it's stupid and basically impossible.

 

[Bubbles]

I vaguely remember Tower of Deception as being inoffensive fun. Writing was unremarkable, but the setpieces were decent.

Oh, and Assassinations. IIRC a bunch of people had problems with the quest line breaking for one reason or another, and I never finished it for reasons I can no longer remember. Still, what I played was good, and I liked having another large-ish quest chain to play through. Content was pretty much what the title implies, writing was a bit "ambitious" (not to spoil anything) but not cringeworthy.

 

[Grunker]

stuff

Here's my most recent install order (for BG2 - I don't play them back2back because I use mods that are incompatible with such playthroughs, plus I find it good in experience to make fresh installs when you hop from BG1 to BG2):

1) ToBEx
2) BWP Fixpack
3) BG2 Fixpack
4) 1PP v4.1
5) Quest Pack
6) Wheels of Prophecy
7) Tower of Deception
8) Assassinations
9) The Sellswords
10) Isra
11) Ninde
12) BG2 Unfinished Business
13) Rogue Rebalancing
14) Level 1 NPC
15) SCS II
16) BG2 Tweak
17) aTweaks
18) Almateria's Restoration Pack
19) Item Randomizer
20) Crossmod Banter Pack
21) Banter Packs
22) IEP Expanded Banters
23) Widescreen mod
24) .cre Fixer
25) Generalized Biffing

8) Wheels of Prophecy
9) Tower of Deception
10) Back to Brynnlaw
11) Assassinations
12) The Sellswords
13) Beyond the Law
14) Angelo Dosan
15) Ninde

Is any of this shit any good by any chance?

Ninde is excellent. Isra was quite good (only used her up until Imoen though). Angelo is ruined by a shitty VO (the VO itself is OK, the quality is just terrible). I never got around to trying BtB. Assassinations was... eh, it's alright. Tower of Deception was OK.

I used these portraits for Ninde and Isra respectively because the standard ones are terrible, crappy and fugly:

 

[Grunker]

it's stupid and basically impossible.

n00b, I beat it on SCS

 

[Aenra]

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=8122 Install order and everything

Ever since their 'restructuring', older URLs link to their main page. If anyone can locate the thread above, do be kind and link it for me the next moron to come here?

In the meantime, if anyone could help, thought i'd reinstall BGII (proper, not the EE) until PoE has had a couple of years of modder effort slapped on to it. Got me a .pdf that is supposed to help with mod order, but i remember having some issues the last time despite it.
The list of mods in case anyone's willing to help me sort them out:
(numbered as i "think" they should go, you know best)

01 - game (duh)
02 - Ascension
03 - Oversight
04 - Fixpack
05 - Revised Battles
06 - BGII Unfinished Business
- Item Revisions (though i think i'll be passing)
07 - Spell Revisions
08 - SCS
09 - BGII Tweak Pack
10 - Widescreen Mod

Anything wrong? I think last time it was revised battles that fucked it all up, but i am supposed to install them prior to SCS, which also means prior to revisions.