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

[octavius]

I finished BG2 once, in 2001 or whatever it was. I don't need some insane difficulty mod for people who like powergaming and cheese and replay it over and over instead of trying new games, and have all the encounters and enemies memorized.

You never thought of scouting ahead in the BG games???

His example can't be scouted, it requires a scene transition and you immediately die if you fail the save.

Must be an EE thing. When I've played it the mage always starts with Sleep, IIRC. Not Color Spray. And I don't recall CS killing outright. Still a very hard battle, and a bit unfair.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Same problem with wandering monsters on the way to Gnoll Fortress, I was attacked by ogrillons, and while engaged, had an invisible ogre mage (with 5 spells due to SCS) cast Sleep on my level 2 party 5 times from somewhere behind me. Viconia survived the encounter - this was often the only way I won these battles, with magic resistance - but raising 5 evil companions over and over is bankrupting, and carrying their stuff is a pain in the ass/impossible especially for her with her weak strength and limited inventory.

might just want to play with SCS off, it's not designed to play fair

 

[Poseidon00]

Deities of Faerun is a must on every playthrough of mine now. Tyr Cleric was crazy good.

 

[chuft]

I don't have EE. It doesn't matter whether it's Sleep or Color Spray, it knocked out my whole party except Viconia due to her MR and they didn't wake up when hit, so sitting ducks.

I uninstalled SCS and restarted and enjoyed the rest of BG1 until I got to the unbeatable Sarevok fight but that was a BGT problem that has since been addressed.

 

[Taim]

SCS is highly customizable, and even on harshest settings all fights are still winnable on first try if you have a competent party and aren't a retard.

I believed this kind of nonsense until I tried it and got TPK'd in Nashkel by a no-save color spray when I entered a tent. Real tactical. Real bullshit is more like it.

Oh no, enemy mages can use same spells as your mages, what a bullshit

SCS makes the conjurer in there level 6, so he is immune to yours, while your party gets wiped out by his. Have you even played?

He was always level 6, but the vanilla game only allowed him to cast couple of shitty spells, while in SCS mages get access to the same selection as player.
You can do exactly the same thing to lower leveled enemies, as he did to you.
Instead of crying, just don't fight lvl 6 mage at lvl 3 or smth? Whole thing you describe is a huge

This is a bad argument.

Bioware gave mages high levels to account for the limited AI at the time and make it harder for mages to die in one hit from a bow before they can get any spells off.

So: If the level existed as a crutch to avoid cheesing / limited AI, fixing the AI AND keeping the level the same AND giving more spells to their repertoire is just too much shit.

Overall I like SCS (for BG1 at least) but yeah - the idea of "if you walk into this tent at the level you are 95% likely to be when you're in that area you WILL DIE" is pretty bad design. There were better ways to balance that encounter that would have been more faithful to the intended difficulty than treating the NPC levels as gospel and building everything else around it.

 

[Bigg Boss]

It changes the flow of the game but if you are modding it at that high a level you want that.

 

[Chippy]

Most modders have never cared about Bioware's vision of the game. Only their rock, paper, scissors + secret handshake version of it.

 

[agris]

Bioware gave mages high levels to account for the limited AI at the time and make it harder for mages to die in one hit from a bow before they can get any spells off.

Where did you get this from, an interview or post mortem?

 

[Sykar]

I don't like to reload. Battles should be winnable on the first fight. I ended up spending so much gold on Raise Deads that I could not buy items and it was a power death spiral. Wasn't fun. No drama, just want games to be fun.

Optional fights like Kangaxx and Twisted Rune? No. If everything is beatable regardless what you do it becomes jaw yawning boring. Though SCS is in some cases also overtuned especially with the worst precast options which is why I only allow long term buffs to be precast. Though then again I am not running around prebuffed 24/7 either.

I finished BG2 once, in 2001 or whatever it was. I don't need some insane difficulty mod for people who like powergaming and cheese and replay it over and over instead of trying new games, and have all the encounters and enemies memorized.

You never thought of scouting ahead in the BG games???

His example can't be scouted, it requires a scene transition and you immediately die if you fail the save.

Must be an EE thing. When I've played it the mage always starts with Sleep, IIRC. Not Color Spray. And I don't recall CS killing outright. Still a very hard battle, and a bit unfair.

Color Spray does not kill instantly. Save vs spell or sleep in BG 1. In fact not a single version of Color Spray kills in the Infinity Engine games kills. Sleep/unconcious/blind/stun depending on level/level difference. The only spray that kills is the level 7 spell Prismatic Spray.

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:

 

[chuft]

Optional fights like Kangaxx and Twisted Rune? No.

Your reading comprehension needs work. The discussion was about level 1/2 fights in Nashkel area in BG1.

Must be an EE thing.

Again, I said I am not using EE.

When I've played it the mage always starts with Sleep, IIRC. Not Color Spray. And I don't recall CS killing outright. Still a very hard battle, and a bit unfair.

It doesn't matter which one it is. It knocks you out and don't wake up when hit. So party members just lay there and have their throats cut one by one. "Instant death" means the fight is instantly over when that spell is cast and everyone will die. Not that you die the moment it is cast. You are knocked out, cannot be awakened, and death is certain.

It's been several years since I tried SCS, I don't remember or care which spell would take out the whole party, it's academic. The ogre mages did the same thing.

BGT uses BG2 spell definitions so don't bother using BG1 spell effects when discussing what happened to me.

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded

Good for him. I could care less.

 

[Nano]

I don't see the issue. If the player can use Color Spray the AI should be able to use it too, wouldn't be very realistic otherwise. Be better prepared.

 

[Daidre]

As for mods, which modds adds new KITS for Magic user? Preferentially from 2E books.

There is quite huge mod Shadow Magic (only EE).
It includes kits for Sorc, Bard and Wizard (and multiclass version of those) that has their own complete Dark Weave-themed version of wizard spellbook.
It is not exactly balanced (some spells are crazy strong) but I enjoyed it a lot in BGT install with SCS.

 

[roshan]

Have the Icewind Dale spells been added to the latest version of BG2 EE?

 

[vota DC]

So Im playing with same evil party from the beginning with EET. I had to do SOD with Edwin only as companion. Now I am at Soa content. I have the mod "BG1 NPC FOR SOA" and Kagain is in the Waukeen Promenade....but he doesn't join me and doesn't even give me a clue how to persuade him. The readme included doesn't help (it just says it is possible) and I checked the dialogues and there are for join and has a member party but still not clue how to convince him. Anybody as an idea?

 

[Grunker]

So Im playing with same evil party from the beginning with EET. I had to do SOD with Edwin only as companion. Now I am at Soa content. I have the mod "BG1 NPC FOR SOA" and Kagain is in the Waukeen Promenade....but he doesn't join me and doesn't even give me a clue how to persuade him. The readme included doesn't help (it just says it is possible) and I checked the dialogues and there are for join and has a member party but still not clue how to convince him. Anybody as an idea?

Ask on G3. You’ll probably get an answer fairly quickly.

 

[Falksi]

You go play vanilla on normal in 2022. I'm sure it's awesome.

Just started a replay of BG2 doing exactly this, with a full party too.

Erm......it is

 

[The Limper]

So Im playing with same evil party from the beginning with EET. I had to do SOD with Edwin only as companion. Now I am at Soa content. I have the mod "BG1 NPC FOR SOA" and Kagain is in the Waukeen Promenade....but he doesn't join me and doesn't even give me a clue how to persuade him. The readme included doesn't help (it just says it is possible) and I checked the dialogues and there are for join and has a member party but still not clue how to convince him. Anybody as an idea?

Just talk to him, look at his goods, then keep talking to him again. He’ll eventually cave and join up. I asked this question years ago to the Mod writer, as BoV.

 

[Theldaran]

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:[/MEDIA]

Ahh, the unique Dav. But you know, I have never seen him finish the saga with SCS. He seems skilled enough to beat most of it, but then not the whole of it. But that's SCS for you I guess.

 

[Sykar]

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:[/MEDIA]

Ahh, the unique Dav. But you know, I have never seen him finish the saga with SCS. He seems skilled enough to beat most of it, but then not the whole of it. But that's SCS for you I guess.

The second video I linked he beat Sarevok at 2:34:23. How is that not finishing it? Or did you mean BG 1 - BG 2 TOB?

 

[Theldaran]

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:[/MEDIA]

Ahh, the unique Dav. But you know, I have never seen him finish the saga with SCS. He seems skilled enough to beat most of it, but then not the whole of it. But that's SCS for you I guess.

The second video I linked he beat Sarevok at 2:34:23. How is that not finishing it? Or did you mean BG 1 - BG 2 TOB?

Yes, I mean the whole saga, the 3 games, up to TOB's finale.

 

[Jvegi]

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:[/MEDIA]

Ahh, the unique Dav. But you know, I have never seen him finish the saga with SCS. He seems skilled enough to beat most of it, but then not the whole of it. But that's SCS for you I guess.

The second video I linked he beat Sarevok at 2:34:23. How is that not finishing it? Or did you mean BG 1 - BG 2 TOB?

Yes, I mean the whole saga, the 3 games, up to TOB's finale.

He did, multiple times. I don't know how many, but you can check his twitch and yt channels if you're actually interested.

Scs is all about knowladge and patiance to actually do correct things. I honestly think it's too much. IWD 2 was also complicated at insane, but in a more straightforward way. Whatever it means.

 

[Theldaran]

To all those naysayers about BG 1 SCS needing reloads, here is a guy who can finish it no reload Insane difficulty SCS modded:[/MEDIA]

Ahh, the unique Dav. But you know, I have never seen him finish the saga with SCS. He seems skilled enough to beat most of it, but then not the whole of it. But that's SCS for you I guess.

The second video I linked he beat Sarevok at 2:34:23. How is that not finishing it? Or did you mean BG 1 - BG 2 TOB?

Yes, I mean the whole saga, the 3 games, up to TOB's finale.

He did, multiple times. I don't know how many, but you can check his twitch and yt channels if you're actually interested.

Scs is all about knowladge and patiance to actually do correct things. I honestly think it's too much. IWD 2 was also complicated at insane, but in a more straightforward way. Whatever it means.

OK, did he do it on screen? I'm pretty sure I'm not a true fan of him, only following him since 1 or 2 years ago, he's gone pretty far but never ascended, that I've seen him do so.

I think he should get on with IWD and possibly with IWD2 for freshness (I don't know if he can stream the latter). IWD2 in particular has powergaming potential I haven't tamed, possibly because the game is so dull. I think that even the powergaming itself is dull in that game... You know, Sawyer shenanigans?

 

[Jvegi]

Mazzy just got exploaded at the very last second of the 4 dragons fight. She had her protections dispelled and 226 fire damage killed her just as the fucker was about to die from magic damage.

It's a tough fight for me, I think I'll swallow the loss and replace her with Sarevok or something. I'll give him some xp so he's not to far behind. Would it be safe to install the tweaks (?) component that scales joinable npcs xp to my level?

 

[Grunker]

Mazzy just got exploaded at the very last second of the 4 dragons fight. She had her protections dispelled and 226 fire damage killed her just as the fucker was about to die from magic damage.

It's a tough fight for me, I think I'll swallow the loss and replace her with Sarevok or something. I'll give him some xp so he's not to far behind. Would it be safe to install the tweaks (?) component that scales joinable npcs xp to my level?

You could just add the XP manually, either via CLUA or ShadowKeeper.

 

[Jvegi]

Mazzy just got exploaded at the very last second of the 4 dragons fight. She had her protections dispelled and 226 fire damage killed her just as the fucker was about to die from magic damage.

It's a tough fight for me, I think I'll swallow the loss and replace her with Sarevok or something. I'll give him some xp so he's not to far behind. Would it be safe to install the tweaks (?) component that scales joinable npcs xp to my level?

You could just add the XP manually, either via CLUA or ShadowKeeper.

That's what I did in the end. Modding felt less like cheating though, but I know it's the same.

Poor Mazzy. This playthrough is fun.