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

[Sykar]

Throne of Bhaal is as challenging as you want it to be, at least with SCS2 installed. It's a cryptic answer, but the most credited one.

No encounter, save a few enhanced endboss-tier scrums (Improved Demogorgon, Ascension Final Battle) can stand against the might of a fully-rested party piloted by a competent player. They won't even stand a chance in many cases, because so much firepower can be brought to bear on them. And this is without indulging in serious cheese, only using "fairer" methods of offense/defense (no Project Image/Simulacrum cheesing to have effectively infinite uses of consumables or whatnot). And, in a stroke of brilliance, Bioware decided to remove any disincentive to rest up after ever encounter; the Pocket Plane makes this a perfectly safe option with no downsides spawned by RNG. Hell, the game even advises the player of this in the combat feedback log when ambushed.

That said, if one restricts resting, SCS2 Throne of Bhaal can be quite fun. Try going through each Bhaalspawn's base without refreshing spells. Instead of being able to bring all guns to bear against every encounter, the player is forced to ration limited-use abilities, conserve spells, and make heavier use of consumables. Going through the ~7 maps of Sendai's Enclave can be a bit draining, and Abazigal's Lair will pit the player against (up to) nine dragons* in one rest (sometimes in pairs). in addition to other enemies in his cave network. This forces one to squeeze the most value out of everything, because saving the "big guns" for the tough fights ahead becomes an overriding prerogative. It's definitely a little metagamey, but if you can stomach it, a lot of fun can be had.

*Probably my favorite addition in an SCS2+Ascension install, especially the

Spoiler

Four dragon fight

Spoiler

with two blacks, then a green, and then a red...with no time in between!

, which is really fun. Ready the Spooks, Symbol(s): Fear, and Insect Plagues!

This is how I played the entire BG series.

 

[hell bovine]

All the recent BG discussion has me somewhat wanting to reinstall.

I never actually finished the ToB expansion. By the time I was done with BG1+BG2 (with SCS) I got a bit burnt out and high level DnD is pretty stupid. I never even got to see the ending slides.

Does the content in ToB+Ascension hold up well compared to SCS BG1+2? By that I mean is there still some level of challenge left in the game even though at this point you are uber-geared and can spam timestop+alacrity, greater worldwind, 1k backstabs, etc?

From what I recall, at least the some of "tougher battles" content was supposed to be in the original game, but was abandoned. It's easy to test your party and tactics, though; the first "tougher battle" you encounter is Illasera, and you meet her right after SoA. So you can give it a try and decide if you want to proceed with or without Ascension through ToB.
Also, Ascension adds some choices that might fit a good character better (regarding Sarevok and that monk).

 

[Gragt]

Goatfuck, apparently SCS has compatibility problems with EastTutu. I hope the next version will fix that. Now, to wait for it or consider BGT?

 

[Wyrmlord]

Am I really supposed to encounter lots of vampiric wolves without having begun the main quest, or was this the result of SCS and BGT mods in some way?

I was surprised that the Temple of Lathander near Beregost would be having several vampiric wolves to kill. I feel those things do net a bit more XP than they are worth, so I end up level-inflating a bit too much.

 

[Greatness]

Goatfuck, apparently SCS has compatibility problems with EastTutu. I hope the next version will fix that. Now, to wait for it or consider BGT?

BGT is better anyways, there's not much reason to use Tutu over BGT now days.

I feel those things do net a bit more XP than they are worth, so I end up level-inflating a bit too much.

In my experience you're gonna end up overleveld for BG2 regardless unless you install a mod to restore the XP cap, assuming you do the majority of the content in BG1 that is.

 

[Xeon]

Will it ever be compatible now if it didn't already? I mean both mods are existed since long ago and it probably would haven happened by now, unless if it was broken by the updates to the EE or something.

If the Vamparic wolves appeared in the eastern side of the temple area then that is probably vanilla, I sometime encounter them when I try to remove the fog. Encountered in EE and BGT.

 

[roshan]

Am I really supposed to encounter lots of vampiric wolves without having begun the main quest, or was this the result of SCS and BGT mods in some way?

I was surprised that the Temple of Lathander near Beregost would be having several vampiric wolves to kill. I feel those things do net a bit more XP than they are worth, so I end up level-inflating a bit too much.

In vanilla BG1 you encounter them there, but in small numbers. I think you are only meant to fight one or two at a time, maybe three including weaker dire wolves, but my memory is really vague at this point. The BG1 spawns cannot be replicated in the BG2 engine for some reason. So Tutu and Trilogy both have messed up spawns, not sure which one is better or worse. I don't know if the Enhanced Edition is any better either, spawn-wise.

 

[Gragt]

BGT is better anyways, there's not much reason to use Tutu over BGT now days.

How so?

 

[Greatness]

How so?

Just the modders for BGT have been more active. There's not all that much of a difference, just some things like the "BGT Tweak Pack" are more up to date with additional features and the ability to recognize newer mods/versions of mods better than the Tutu counterparts since such mods didn't exist when Tutu's versions were last updated.

 

[Tigranes]

Yep. hoverdog's list is pretty good, it's similar to how I"ll be setting up my BG run soon.

 

[Gragt]

Just the modders for BGT have been more active. There's not all that much of a difference, just some things like the "BGT Tweak Pack" are more up to date with additional features and the ability to recognize newer mods/versions of mods better than the Tutu counterparts since such mods didn't exist when Tutu's versions were last updated.

Ok, then. I’ll give it a try, despite my aversion for megamods—even accepting to use Tutu already took some work on myself. If it is shit, I’ll come back for you.

 

[Greatness]

Ok, then. I’ll give it a try, despite my aversion for megamods—even accepting to use Tutu already took some work on myself. If it is shit, I’ll come back for you.

Oh yeah, I'm the same about megamods. Here's my install where I tried to keep it fairly compact and close to vanilla/SCS. The only quest mods I used are Unfinished Business and Ascension (since those are based on source material) and Wheels of Prophecy (since it's from the same developer as SCS).

Spoiler

01 TobEx v26b
02 Ascension v1.4.24
03 BG2 Fix Pack v10
04 BGT v1.18
05 BGT Music
06 BGT Graphics Overhaul v1.8
07 BGT Textscreen Music v9
08 1PP v4.1.0
09 BG1 NPC Project v20
10 BG1 Unfinished Business v13.1
11 BGSpawn v1.12
12 BGT Tweak Pack v1.1*
13 Banter Packs v14
14 IEP Extended Banters v4.2
15 Wheels of Prophecy v3
16 BG2 Unfinished Business v25
17 Stratagems v28**
18 Stratagems v28 fix v1.6**
19 BG2 Tweak Pack v16*
20 aTweaks v4.32*
21 BG1 Level Cap Reinstator
22 Level 1 NPCs v1.9
23 BG1 NPCs at Beginning v2.2
24 Widescreen v3.06
25 Generalized Biffing

* For tweaks only install desired components (obviously)
** For SCS/fix Overwrite the original files with the fixed versions before installing.

 

[hoverdog]

Oh yeah, I'm the same about megamods. Here's my install where I tried to keep it fairly compact and close to vanilla/SCS. The only quest mods I used are Unfinished Business and Ascension (since those are based on source material) and Wheels of Prophecy (since it's from the same developer as SCS).

Spoiler

01 TobEx v26b
02 Ascension v1.4.24
03 BG2 Fix Pack v10
04 BGT v1.18
05 BGT Graphics Overhaul v1.8
06 BGT Textscreen Music v9
07 1PP v4.1.0
08 BG1 NPC Project v20
09 BG1 Unfinished Business v13.1
10 BGSpawn v1.12
11 BGT Tweak Pack v1.1*
12 Banter Packs v14
13 IEP Extended Banters v4.2
14 Wheels of Prophecy v3
15 BG2 Unfinished Business v25
16 Stratagems v28**
17 Stratagems v28 fix v1.6**
18 BG2 Tweak Pack v16*
19 aTweaks v4.32*
20 BG1 Level Cap Reinstator
21 Level 1 NPCs v1.9
22 BG1 NPCs at Beginning v2.2
23 Widescreen v3.06
24 Generalized Biffing

* For tweaks only install desired components (obviously)
** For SCS/fix Overwrite the original files with the fixed versions before installing.

Looking good, probably the golden "clean install" standard.

 

[Gragt]

Looks good. That’s the kind of setup I was considering.

Edit: well, what do you know? The whole thing installed without errors.

 

[Gragt]

Out of curiosity, assuming you use both SCS and aTweaks, what are your preferences concerning the changed creatures? I’m trying to find a good balance between challenge but also interesting abilities, and aTweaks seems to be aimed at the latter while SCS goes for the former without neglecting the other. More specifically, it seems that aTweaks components makes undeads, mephits, fey creatures, and elementals more interesting than SCS, but I’m wondering about the Fiends part: SCS seems more challenging, aTweaks more varied. Would you recommend to leave the PNP creatures components out of aTweaks in favour of SCS’s take on them? Would you go for aTweaks all the way? Would you mix them?

 

[GarfunkeL]

Doesn't SCS do the same as aTweaks regarding creatures? Except that you can customize all of the options.

 

[hoverdog]

Out of curiosity, assuming you use both SCS and aTweaks, what are your preferences concerning the changed creatures? I’m trying to find a good balance between challenge but also interesting abilities, and aTweaks seems to be aimed at the latter while SCS goes for the former without neglecting the other. More specifically, it seems that aTweaks components makes undeads, mephits, fey creatures, and elementals more interesting than SCS, but I’m wondering about the Fiends part: SCS seems more challenging, aTweaks more varied. Would you recommend to leave the PNP creatures components out of aTweaks in favour of SCS’s take on them? Would you go for aTweaks all the way? Would you mix them?

Actually, if I understand it correctly, having aTweaked Fiends with SCS makes them incredibly powerful.
Mephits are even more irritating with atweaks, I wouldn't bother.
Elementals are nicely boosted, I can recommend that.

 

[Gragt]

Ah, Hell, let’s try it and see how badly it will go then. :D

 

[SwiftCrack]

Is there anyone on the 'dex who has installed virtually ALL (compatible) mods that are listed in BWP?

If so; how did it run and was it even fun to play anymore?

 

[SCO]

There's no point in doing that, just take the few minutes of reading the pdf to work out what you want. I counsel to start with the minimal setup and add stuff actually.

 

[Somberlain]

Actually, if I understand it correctly, having aTweaked Fiends with SCS makes them incredibly powerful.

Not really. Sure, a lot tougher than vanilla, but far from insane, at least for an IE veteran. I use all the toughest components from both mods, and I still do some personal tweaks with Near Infinity, like increasing HP of Balors and Pit Fiends. Otherwise my hasted party can usually steamroll the Balor in the svirfneblin village in like 2-4 seconds, for example.

IMO the biggest difference comes from the aTweaks component "Fiendish Gating", as in some larger fiend battles, like the Abyss in Planar Sphere, you can end up fighting multiple extra Balors, Cambions, Nabassus etc.

 

[hoverdog]

Not really. Sure, a lot tougher than vanilla, but far from insane, at least for an IE veteran. I use all the toughest components from both mods, and I still do some personal tweaks with Near Infinity, like increasing HP of Balors and Pit Fiends. Otherwise my hasted party can usually steamroll the Balor in the svirfneblin village in like 2-4 seconds, for example.

IMO the biggest difference comes from the aTweaks component "Fiendish Gating", as in some larger fiend battles, like the Abyss in Planar Sphere, you can end up fighting multiple extra Balors, Cambions, Nabassus etc.

Yes, that's exactly what I was talking about. (I'm a mediocre player at best so even that Balor gave me some trouble)

 

[agris]

Actually, if I understand it correctly, having aTweaked Fiends with SCS makes them incredibly powerful.
Mephits are even more irritating with atweaks, I wouldn't bother.
Elementals are nicely boosted, I can recommend that.

I played with both independently, then together, and ended up going with aTweaks. I don't remember why, but I'm a tactics guy who doesn't like to use cheese fwiw.

 

[Greatness]

I'm doing my current run using Stratagems, Spell/Item Revisions (v4), and Item Randomizer. Some simple house rules as well:

No resting unless the area is cleared.
No reloading for dead party members.
No metagaming side quests for extra XP.
No cheesing (spells from fog, unrealistic traps, item charge refilling, etc).

Those together have felt like quite the incline over previous playthroughs.

Most of the item remakes are actually interesting and I find myself even using some cursed items on purpose. Also thanks to the randomizer and the fact that pretty much every item is remade it sort of feels like a new game altogether. Whenever I complete a tough encounter I actually look forward to identifying all the loot and seeing if I can make use of the cool shit. The balance is actually far better than vanilla since you don't get stupid stuff early on like the ring of wizardry or what ever it is that you would normally rush to.

The new spellbooks are nice as well. Too long ago I "figured out" the magic system in IE and stuck to the same strategies all the time. Now however many of those have been nerfed and there's lots of other new utility spells from DnD implemented so I actually have the need to read what my spells do and discern some fresh tactics from them.

Using the resting/reloading restrictions also helps immensely. I end up going through many different NPCs since they die very easily with SCS and are expensive to resurrect. Item revisions also revises the shops and removes discounts so money actually has some relevance early on between resurrecting allies, replacing broken items/upgrading to new ones, buying new spell scrolls, and keeping a decent supply of emergency consumables.

As far as questing, I'm trying to stick to how it was likely meant to be played rather than the usual lawnmower style of systematically clearing every map/side quest. When I would play that way I always ended up overleveled and the main questline would feel super easy. This way I only take side quests that I happen upon naturally and turn down the ones that my character wouldn't waste time doing. As a result I'm pretty low level and even stuff like the Nashkel mines were quite challenging. A side benefit of this is that not feeling obligated to clear all the repetitive wilderness maps makes the game 1000% better.

Who knows, maybe this time I'll actually make it to the end of ToB.

 

[SCO]

i think there is a mod that makes the pc dying not being auto game over if they have resurrect spells/items if you want to keep the save loading even lower.