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

[Rake]

Demogorgon doesn't show up, as he technically doesn't die by your last hit, nor does he gives any creature XP. At some point when his hit points hit zero (or get low enough or whatever condition bioware wrote), a scripted event happens when he disappears screaming, and your party receives 100.000 Quest XP each.
Meanwhile, Bodhi gives 94.000 kill XP when she dies, which i think is the highest XP any creature in the games does

 

[hell bovine]

Importing the game thru Throne of Bhaal seems to have fixed it.

Can someone tell me if I can have Seravok's conversion with Ascension only or do I need another mod for that?

Edit:
I read the Ascension ReadMe so I guess it does but it also mentions the last fight it was re-done so there is no stages I think, I kinda hated that. Do I have to install her component too to change that or is it an option to make her tougher.

I only installed:
- Ascension Core v1.41
- Tougher Abazigal- Original Tougher Demogorgon
- Tougher Gromnir- Tougher Illasera
- Tougher Yaga-Shura

Ascension changes the final fight. I never played vanilla Tob, but looking at a walkthrough - the battle design is quite different. A tip: don't read any guides that might spoil the fight. The surprise is worth it.

 

[Melcar]

The Ascension final fight was brutal the first time I tried it. SCS changes it some more.

 

[Xor]

I've still never beaten the final fight with Ascension and SCS installed. Brutal barely does it justice.

 

[Xeon]

I think installing the component to regain Bhaalspawn powers in ToB from a Tweaks was kinda of a mistake. I am getting almost an advanced versions of each ones and I still have the old ones but now I also have 2 sets of Divine Might (Draw Upon Holy Might) I think after killing the Slayer Innocence. I am still not sure if the David Gaider Bhaalspawn powers from Ascension is working or not. IIRC these are the same abilities from before when I played it.

Bhaalspawn Ability SS

Also I am not sure what the maximum levels should be, I am kinda thinking of stop leveling some of my advanced party members. I installed experience uncapper so I have no idea if I reached and bypassed the cap or not still. I kinda pretty much have everything I need at the moment. Viconia, Edwin and Imoen unlocked all the high level abilities already. PC pretty much spent everything on Hardness and Greater Whirlwind. Jaheira is kinda useless at the moment to be honest, all she does is summon Elemental Prince or Heal which Viconia can do that already. Sarevok still needs some leveling and Greater Whirlwind, equipping him with the Ravager was great, he kills pretty fast as well.

Characters SSs

Also I finally got rich, currently have 600K from selling half of my crap to the smugglers so finally I stopped looting things, I kinda miss the quick loot feature so I don't miss key items but other than that, I think I am almost done.

Edit:
Also is there a mod recommendation for a reworked Thief's stronghold? IIRC it was kinda fun having underlings that I can send on missions but it was kinda of a chore having to check up on the guild each day or something to make sure I have Blood Scalps cut of the money or risk losing the stronghold.

Edit2:
Goddamn, Abazigal fight was pretty tough. 2 Giant Dragons and 4 or 5 Wyverns and don't know how many Frost Salamanders. Kodus to Edwin and Imoen, they weakened the dragons and then PC and Summons handled the rest.

The Bhaalspawn power I got in the fourth test is pretty sweet, I got a permanent Negative Plane Protection and +5% Magic Resistance. Not that useful anymore but better than a duplicate.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Also is there a mod recommendation for a reworked Thief's stronghold? IIRC it was kinda fun having underlings that I can send on missions but it was kinda of a chore having to check up on the guild each day or something to make sure I have Blood Scalps cut of the money or risk losing the stronghold.

The Expanded Thief Stronghold mod adds a couple of combat heavy quests and brings some extra thieves who work for you including one who will buy gems for a higher than normal price. These thieves add gold, gems and the occasional high level spell (6-8 I think) to the safe on 2nd floor weekly. It also apparently adds more people to pickpocket around the city but I have never noticed or pick-pocketed them. You still need to return every 5 fucking days to deliver the guild dues in person. Whoever thought this was a good game mechanic should be shot. Anyway I played it once then just went back to refusing the thief stronghold every play-through.

 

[Xeon]

I am at Throne of Bhaal, still stages but much harder it seems, Melissan still doing the same shtick again with absorbing power and I have to fight her several times.

ToB Last boss spoiler

After several attempts, I manged to kill Irenicus and Bodhi and the horde but I also seem to have lost Imoen for good after killing off the Slayer. Anyway I could have saved her? I am thinking the Slayer could have been timed similar to PC turning to Slayer but I am not entirely sure. Not really sure I could do this only with one mage.

Edit:
Yea, fighting the Bhaalspawns and then Melissan is pretty hard. The moment she cast Time Stop, she and Balthazar massacre my party. She cast Time Stop twice in a row.
Why the hell is Balthazar even in the fight, he wanted to oppose her and now he is a puppet. Shouldn't he refuse to obey her or help me in the final fight or something.

Edit2:
Closest I got is injuring her. I can kill Abazigal, Illasera and Sendai but Yaga-Shura is a tank and Balthazar kills fast, I wanted to distract them with Meridian Swords so I can have time to kill Amelyssan but she concentrate on them and kills them first with Death spell I think. I am kinda running out of ideas. Edwin can't do much on his own unless he does Time Stop but there are 2 who will take advantage of that as well.

Diva's don't last long either. Imoen was the summoner, Planetar is not an option unless I get it on Edwin.

Balthazar

I didn't like Balthazar's part, after conversing with him, he kills himself instead of helping. What's up with that.

Screenshot

Bonus

Even with the very high AC and Iron Skin and Hardness, they almost killed him in seconds.

 

[hell bovine]

I am at Throne of Bhaal, still stages but much harder it seems, Melissan still doing the same shtick again with absorbing power and I have to fight her several times.

ToB Last boss spoiler

After several attempts, I manged to kill Irenicus and Bodhi and the horde but I also seem to have lost Imoen for good after killing off the Slayer. Anyway I could have saved her? I am thinking the Slayer could have been timed similar to PC turning to Slayer but I am not entirely sure. Not really sure I could do this only with one mage.

Edit:
Yea, fighting the Bhaalspawns and then Melissan is pretty hard. The moment she cast Time Stop, she and Balthazar massacre my party. She cast Time Stop twice in a row.
Why the hell is Balthazar even in the fight, he wanted to oppose her and now he is a puppet. Shouldn't he refuse to obey her or help me in the final fight.

Balthazar

I didn't like Balthazar's part, after conversing with him, he kills himself instead of helping. What's up with that.

Screenshot

Bonus

Even with the very high AC and Iron Skin and Hardness, they almost killed him in seconds.

Spoiler

Imoen's change wears off, you just have to wait her out and then she rejoins your party. Balthazar can be convinced to join forces if you are good aligned (if you are evil, Bodhi will offer instead), but I don't remember the details. Maybe have a look at his dialogue tree in NearInfinity? He is quite squishy as an ally, though; I wouldn't count on him not dying either way.

As for Mel's time stop, your PC should have a Bhaalspawn power that makes you immune to it (which gives you free time to whack on the other Bhaalspawns, if there are any left at that stage).

 

[Xeon]

I was good, almost paladin level good, unless some of the options in Solar's questions affects him as well.

Spoiler

I told him to join me and fight Melissan at the same time and also promised him that I will refuse Bhaal's power or something. He said something about brother and killed himself.

Bodhi conversed with me before the fight, I asked her to join me but she refused, Balthazar doesn't talk after being spawned by Melissan, could my offering to Bodhi make me unable to ask Balthazar?

From Ascension-WeiDU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: How can I convince Balthazar to join me?

A: Be of Good or Neutral alignment (rumors indicate that you can do it with
Evil if you are very wise and charismatic). Have a reputation greater than
18. Have a Wisdom greater than 15 (drink a potion for 18, having 19 is
even better). Have a Charisma greater than 15. Pick the right dialogue
options.


Q: How can I convince Bodhi to join me?

A: You cannot be of Good alignment and your reputation must be less than
12. If you have a high Charisma (around 15) she offerws to join you,
otherwise you must ask. Pick the right dialogue options. Also, Balthazar
cannot have joined you . If your Wisdom is greater than 15, you can get
out of promising her your soul.

I guess I'll reload to after killing Abazigal and talk to Balthazar again with different options and see what happens.

Edit:
Yea, I just picked the first option of each dialogue and he teleported instead of killing himself.

 

[hell bovine]

I was good, almost paladin level good, unless some of the options in Solar's questions affects him as well.

Spoiler

I told him to join me and fight Melissan at the same time and also promised him that I will refuse Bhaal's power or something. He said something about brother and killed himself.

Bodhi conversed with me before the fight, I asked her to join me but she refused, Balthazar doesn't talk after being spawned by Melissan, could my offering to Bodhi make me unable to ask Balthazar?

From Ascension-WeiDU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: How can I convince Balthazar to join me?

A: Be of Good or Neutral alignment (rumors indicate that you can do it with
Evil if you are very wise and charismatic). Have a reputation greater than
18. Have a Wisdom greater than 15 (drink a potion for 18, having 19 is
even better). Have a Charisma greater than 15. Pick the right dialogue
options.


Q: How can I convince Bodhi to join me?

A: You cannot be of Good alignment and your reputation must be less than
12. If you have a high Charisma (around 15) she offerws to join you,
otherwise you must ask. Pick the right dialogue options. Also, Balthazar
cannot have joined you . If your Wisdom is greater than 15, you can get
out of promising her your soul.

I guess I'll reload to after killing Abazigal and talk to Balthazar again with different options and see what happens.

Edit:
Yea, I just picked the first option of each dialogue and he teleported instead of killing himself.

Well, if you are a goody two-shoes, then you shouldn't be propositioning evil soulless vamps in the first place. Choices & consequences!

Spoiler

As for B., I think the dialogue sometimes bugs out, I recall having problems with him in the original Ascension too, but that was a long time ago. Try the following:
http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=179367

EDIT: oops, looks like you've solved that already and don't need the link. The advice with the resurrection rod is still sound, he is easily killed for a monk, but has a useful ability that makes him immune to Mel's time stops.

 

[Xeon]

This is just a cluster fuck of a fight. I think she can summon fiends endlessly.

ToB Last Boss Spoiler

I finally managed to kill everyone of the Five for the first time but she keeps summoning fiends non stop, I can't take any break.

I think she killed Balthazar already. I don't have any spells, summons anymore to fight the horde. Thought I'll use limited Wish to summon my own horde against them and pack of rabbits showed up. I can't stop laughing at this bullshit.

Screenshots

Edit:

I really dislike how whenever I try and revive someone, they always show up next to PC, since my PC is a melee, he is almost always in center of the fight and whenever I try to revive using Viconia or the Rod of Resurrection, they show up next to PC and instantly die

 

[hell bovine]

I think you can leave the fiends be and focus on Mel.

Spoiler

Killing each of the five takes off a lot of Mel's hitpoints, but she tends to appear whenever you kill one (or two? I don't remember) of them. One of the strategies that people came up with was therefore to bring the five close to death, and then kill them all at once.

Also, Sarevok due to being a fighter is probably much easier to kill than your cleric/ranger. I'd therefore give him a long range weapon and park his ass behind your PC, to extend his longevity - or just give him a crossbow. Because apart from Illasera and Sendai (who should be a priority because she can heal others), all of your enemies are melee fighters, which means ranged characters have the advantage.

PS Don't diss the rabbits! They are green circled, which means they can serve as a distraction, especially if used with teleport field. Or alternatively, they can be used as triggers for the Wish-wilting spam, but you'd probably need a sorcerer to pull this off successfully.

 

[Xeon]

I was attacking her, I was concentrating on her but some of the fiends have an ability to knock back like the ram or something, Illasera was doing the same with her bow and sends me to the other side of the screen.

I think my biggest mistake was repeating the same mistake I did when I played it before, I upgraded the Flail of Ages to +5, it adds Free Movement so haste from boots or spells stops working with it, I wasted several GW trying to hit and getting knocked back to the other side, by the time I reach my target again effects wears off.

Also I kinda wish I didn't waste my high level spell scrolls, I either used them for experience or sold them, I probably could have used them in this fight.

 

[hell bovine]

You do have two mages, it should be enough. I'd have Eddie go heavy artillery, since he has a much bigger spell spamming potential, and leave the summons and disablers for Imoen (edit: and Jaheira, with the insects and "I'm so pretty you go blind" spells). Try power word blind on Illasera, for example (guessing here, because I don't remember their immunities anymore). And if you give both Sarevok and Vicky ranged weapons, and have them stick close to the mages, then you can have the entire group protected by a multiple teleport field.

I don't think you can afford to loose too many people until all the five are down.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

prepare sequencers with remove magic, malison, emotion, prepare triggers with pierce magic, lower resistance, lower resistance, have chain contingiencies memorized, go near objective (e.g. melissan) and use sequencer and trigger then immediately cast chain contingiency and stick 3x abi dhalzims into it on nearest enemy sighted, use wish (with WIS 18) mid fight to get back all your spells, make liberal use of the project image spell (cast your entire spell book for the price of 1 lvl7 spell), use spell immunity abjuration and divination to prevent your projected image getting dispelled, summon lots of planetars, make them use their own spells too

 

[Xeon]

Yea, Thanks but I just managed to beat it finally.

Spoiler

I cheesed it, used Skull Trap and Wish and killed all 4 of the Five and then attacked Yaga-Shura as fast as I could, killed him and then attacked Mallisan with everything. Jaheira died but got revived after for the dialogue.

Got the idea from:

YouTube

Screenshot

 

[hell bovine]

prepare sequencers with remove magic, malison, emotion, prepare triggers with pierce magic, lower resistance, lower resistance, have chain contingiencies memorized, go near objective (e.g. melissan) and use sequencer and trigger then immediately cast chain contingiency and stick 3x abi dhalzims into it on nearest enemy sighted, use wish (with WIS 18) mid fight to get back all your spells, make liberal use of the project image spell (cast your entire spell book for the price of 1 lvl7 spell), use spell immunity abjuration and divination to prevent your projected image getting dispelled, summon lots of planetars, make them use their own spells too

That might work if he were a solo sorcerer, but I don't think Edwin can pull this off against Ascension Mel with SCS scripting.

Yea, Thanks but I just managed to beat it finally.

Spoiler

I cheesed it, used Skull Trap and Wish and killed all 4 of the Five and then attacked Yaga-Shura as fast as I could, killed him and then attacked Mallisan with everything. Jaheira died but got revived after for the dialogue.

Got the idea from:

YouTube

Screenshot

With the party you have, cheesing with skull traps seems unnecessary. You have 3 divine spellcasters and two mages, that should be enough. Just leave most of them at ranged distance, with the exception of your buffed character and summons. Consider: Sarevok with that magic fire crossbow and whirlwind should have enough attacks per round to take off Sendai's stoneskins for example (you could even have him use that simulacrum helmet and try to beat Illasera at the archery contest), Vicky and Jaheira can spam firestorms, you can try to use harm, since you have good melee capability. And that is not even taking Edwin and Imoen into account.

EDITED to add: also, as far a sorcerer strategies go, here is a far better one, without abusing skulltraps (and delayed fireballs, if I recognize the animation correctly from your video):
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/4613...t-to-solo-the-scs-ascension-battle-on-insane/

Unfortunately it seems that Bioware didn't keep the old BG archives, I can't even access my old log in, nor can I find the older threads. They had some good discussions about spellcasting tricks there.

 

[Xeon]

Spoiler

How does Balthazar auto heal? in the screenshots from the Bioware thread he auto heals and regen when low health. For me he just gets gimped, no second wind. Balthazar went instantly from Injured to death, same thing with Sarevok and PC later, from Barely Injured to Death.

I set the auto pause to pause after every round and spell cast so hopefully that makes it more easily controllable.

Man, I also didn't know Mel can't be killed unless I get rid of the Five first. Kinda similar to the Sarevok fight in BG1 I suppose but at least there, you were notified. I got her to Injured, the moment Yaga went down, she fully healed and started spawning the fiends again.

Screenshots

Third screenshot shows that PC has almost full Health and Ironskin and Hardness and still got killed, my magic resistance I think is pretty good as well.

Edit:
I only have 3 Crossbows at the moment, Heavy +3, Nacaradan +3 and Crossbow of Accuracy form early BG2.

I don't think Nature Beauty is working properly or I am not using it correctly, but I did try using the spell several times before since it was recommended by oldmanpaco. Never seemed to work.

Just like suggested in the thread, killed Illasera, Sendai, Gromnir and finally Abazigal. Those are easy to kill, at least since I got kinda used to their patterns, Yaga tho just takes forever to kill, tried Melee and then had Imoen lower his resistance 3 times and threw Fire Arrows, Acid Arrows and MM but nope it didn't do much, tried Horrid Wilting but still the same. Guy just takes too long to kill, Edwin, used 7 Low resistance on Mel after he Improved Alacrity and kinda did the same, Fire, Acid arrows and then MM and Ice Storm, she went to Injured. Tried blinding her but didn't work.

Contingency sometimes doesn't work straightaway. Sequencers and Spell Triggers, I don't know how re-write them aside from after using them.

If I want to install mods thru BWS, is it better to choose one of the options like recommended or stable or is it better to pick and choose what I want? not all mods display descriptions so I kinda don't want to check every one of them by manually searching for them, kinda makes the point of using the installer useless. Beside the mod install order of course.

 

[hell bovine]

I can't help weith Balthazaar, because I dont think my PC even managed to convince him in my Ascension playthrough (also failed with Bodhi and Sarevok betrayed her, ha!), but that was without SCS. But he should be using his abilities in this fight, maybe his scripts are not triggering properly? You could try to use console cheats to join him into your party and check if his abilities are as they supposed to be.

Is it possible that your PC got hit by a vorpal? Planetars should wield a weapon with this ability, Devas and the rest of the five Im not sure about. Lower spell resistances not working (though be sure to check Yagas elemental resistances with near infinity; he also has a lot of hit points, I dont think Imoen can replicate a sorcerers spell spamming ability in his case) - that thread I linked isnt the newest and a newer version of SCS might be different, when it comes to these spells vs the five. Contingencies failing to trigger properly is an original game bug, on the other hand.

PS I mentioned the crossbow, because the cleric at WK sells firetooth (+4, fire bolts), but you cant get it anymore at this point.

EDIT: I had a look at the old ironworks forums, here is some info on Yaga Sura (Ascension only, SCS might have changed some):

Spoiler

The big guy has 99% physical resistance, which is why your warriors don't do much, and lots of elemental resistances, except for ice, which he has "only" 50%. But he is not resistant to magic damage. If you look at the pictures in the sorceress thread from bioware, she seems to be spamming magic missiles and ice storm. If you used acid arrows and meteores, that would explain why it didn't work.

Try harm (plus critical strike, if you have it). I couldn't find anything about his poison resistance - try it too. If you have the component from SCS that changes harm to do a fixed amount of damage, you might need more than one, because Yaga has also over 300 hitpoints.

 

[oldmanpaco]

If I want to install mods thru BWS, is it better to choose one of the options like recommended or stable or is it better to pick and choose what I want? not all mods display descriptions so I kinda don't want to check every one of them by manually searching for them, kinda makes the point of using the installer useless. Beside the mod install order of course.

I always use the recommended mod installation then go through and un-click all the filler like shops, npcs, and assorted quest mods while adding som of the tactical mods. You also need to look at all the options under the tweak pack, SCS, and BP closely. Some of the default settings really suck.

I also despise the Item Revisions and Spell Revisions mods. They irritate the hell out of me.

Anyway you only need to do the big time consuming setup once. Export your config from the installer then if you want to tweak it later you can just import it and add/remove what you want.

 

[Xeon]

Is Spell Revision bad? I was thinking of using it since it extends the duration of some of the spells like Negative Plane Protection from 5 rounds to 1 turn per level. Even the poster who listed the best spells to use in SCS for solo said Spell Revision wasn't good, makes the game easier or something.

 

[hell bovine]

Is Spell Revision bad? I was thinking of using it since it extends the duration of some of the spells like Negative Plane Protection from 5 rounds to 1 turn per level. Even the poster who listed the best spells to use in SCS for solo said Spell Revision wasn't good, makes the game easier or something.

Well, it will most likely make the game a lot easier, because they did go overboard (in my opinion) with save penalties for arcane spells. For example: original finger of death had a penalty of -2, "revised" has -6. Sure, undead get immunity to wilting, but at the same time other damage spells get penalties to save against, which means on average you will be doing much more damage. And there are spells like true strike - a bonus of 10 to hitting things at level one is just ridiculous.

I'm not that familiar with divine spells, so I can't comment on the changes.

 

[Johannes]

Started a BG2 run with EE, Ascension installed from BP, and SCS. Simple enough setting right? But there's all kinds of shit, Breach doesn't work on Rakshasa now as it was supposed on the mod setting I had, the game kept throwing short-term prebuffs into mages occasionally though I'd told it not to unless they're teleporting in. Well, I got those fixed by installing an extra fix (link) and then switched to mages never prebuffing short-term spells which got the desired effect. But now there's a bigger fuck-up, the ancient and/or elder vampires in Windspear dungeon keep crashing the game (not instantly but always after a while, must be a specific power they'd want to use).


If I just took back my mistake and got just good, old, unenhanced version of the game, can I expect SCS to work properly there? Or should I use an older version of SCS for that, possibly?

And what other mods are necessary for the smoothest BG2 without EE game? Widescreen obviously, but what else? I went with EE for the reason that it'd reduce the number of mods needed, but no such luck I suppose. TBH the new content is not good, though I mechanically liked the chapter-2 bag of holding you get from Hexxat (also the portrait & voice of the sacrificial girl you get before getting her).

 

[GarfunkeL]

Widescreen, Unfinished Business, SCS2

 

[oldmanpaco]

Also going to need Saerileth. Its Grunker approved.