Good Baldur's gate mods?

[Gamerlord]

Anyone knows any Baldurs gate mods (For either game)?

[Avilan the Grey]

Anyone knows any Baldurs gate mods (For either game)?

Dungeon B Gone. A MUST HAVE for BG2. Makes you skip the first dungeon and get all XP and all stuff.

[Gamerlord]

Dungeon B Gone. A MUST HAVE for BG2. Makes you skip the first dungeon and get all XP and all stuff.

What about the party members? Do you get Minsc and Yushimo or whatever his name is, or do you start out party memberless?

[Avilan the Grey]

What about the party members? Do you get Minsc and Yushimo or whatever his name is, or do you start out party memberless?

You start as usual, and in the first room you run into a messenger from Mystra (I think it is) that offers you to teleport you to the exit. IF you say yes, he sends you to the final door and give you all XP, loot and companions..

[ShellBullet]

For BG 1, Tutu is a must, it puts BG 2 gameplay and engine into BG 1. You can find Tutu from pocket plane as well other BG 1 mods such Banter packs and BG 1 unfinished business.

[SmartAlec]

The BG1 NPC Project (http://http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg1npc/) is a good one, for adding some BG2-style party interaction to BG1.

[Winthur]

Tactics, Ascension and Improved Battles are great if you can win the game effortlessly on Insane mode. Sword Coast Stratagems also looks fun.

For BG1, you might want to check out the huge North Tales of the Sword Coast mod; it's mainly a bunch of new areas, rises the level cap, puts new challenges, more, advanced spells, new NPCs and allows Bard and Druid to find some really good class-specific items. Plus a new storyline related to one of the NPCs. Worth checking out.

[Lord of the Helms]

Dungeon B Gone. A MUST HAVE for BG2. Makes you skip the first dungeon and get all XP and all stuff.

I disagree, on account of the dungeon being excellent. Every time I go back to start a new BG2 game, I marvel at how even the very first dungeon you start the game in, that isn't even nearly the high point of the game in design or writing, is still better than at least 90% of all levels in any game I've played since. It's creepy, atmospheric, full of little quests and puzzles from the beginning, AND good fights to take your abilities and party to town in.

I agree with BGTutu to upgrade your BG1 to BG2 level, along with the NPC Project for improving banter in the first game. For BG2, there may be a number of romance mods worth checking out, since there's not that many romance options and only one romance for females, but beware, some of these go deeply into less-than-stellar FanFic territory.

Must-have for BG2: Throne of Bhaal is Ascension. Also, if you feel the boss battles in that game are too easy, there are a number of very good, but VERY HARD improved boss fight mods. I would recommend them as follows:

Improved Demogorgon - A must-have, though it's still flawed in that you can cheese around the fight with epic thief traps.
Improved Yaga-Shura - of moderate difficulty, this should be a welcome mid-difficulty improvement over an all too easy fight.
Improved Gromnir: Very much neccessary since otherwise, this would barely even count as a boss fight.
Improved Ilaseara or however she's spelled: This is nasty-hard. She's, by all accounts, a total cheeseball with a way broken ability (having, basically, arrows of complete and total super-dispelling+massive damage). Worth a shot for the challenge if you carry a strong party over from BG2 and don't forget to rest right at the start of Throne of Bhaal. Otherwise, it's a fight you cannot possibly win.
Improved Abazigal: Crazy-hard. Try it if you want. It includes the only multi-dragon-fight in the game (That's right, you can fight two dragons at once). Can sometimes give you issues, though, as Improved Abazigal uses the bugged Imprisonment spell, which can break party banter and romances.
Improved Balthazar: A love-hate-thing. Normal Balthazar is pathetic and will be chopped to pieces in seconds. Impoved is a cheeseball not in being dangerous, but in that he'll take ages to kill because of huge damage resistance and defensive abilities. Leave this out and use Ascension instead.

[nooblade]

I liked the ease-of-use line of mods, although they're pretty boring. Depends on what you're looking for.


Improved Ilaseara or however she's spelled: This is nasty-hard. She's, by all accounts, a total cheeseball with a way broken ability (having, basically, arrows of complete and total super-dispelling+massive damage). Worth a shot for the challenge if you carry a strong party over from BG2 and don't forget to rest right at the start of Throne of Bhaal. Otherwise, it's a fight you cannot possibly win.

It gets pretty easy when your PC is a Cleric or Druid or someone with access to Physical Mirror, which bypasses the dispel and deflects missiles back to the owner (she actually dispels herself, but IIRC, she might not kill herself due to unlimited enemy potions). I believe there is another item with properties similar to physical mirror which you could start out with, one of those reflective cloaks. But anyway, with this missile reflection, the main problem becomes the enemy wizard (who can dispel with magic, which does remove your physical mirror).

Otherwise, Polymorph Self into a jelly to get immunity to either missile or piercing attacks (I forget which, but either works). I think Thieves and/or Fighters get Cloak of the Sewers, which can be used for this specific damage immunity, but the duration there is shorter than the a cast spell. I remember the slow movement speed of the jelly to be bad, too. If interested, you can get really cheesy with Polymorph Self, and you might see how by using it in this situation. Then again, you know where she's going to show up, so you could just skull trap or glyph of warding that spot 20 times for real cheese.

But yeah, for some reason, a few class picks don't get access to any of these things, which makes Illsera difficult. Illsera is really fun though because you see how awesome archer PCs are, how unfair it was when you picked one, and some possible new tricks for them. The Illsera fight made me want to get a small mod that gave the dispel to a Wizard Slayer's ranged attacks, for that kind of archer to play around with. A mod that shows you fun parts in an engine which you didn't see before is excellent IMHO. Normal Illsera is too boring now, not a good start at all, especially not with the other improved mods.

I thought the one with fire giants was kinda lame.

[Lord of the Helms]

Yaga-Shura is okay in the improved version, I think. It's not a great fight, but the basic one is so easy by comparison that the improved version is still worth having.

I should have mentioned that, without the Improved version, Ilaseara is really pathetic, since she was designed to be weak enough to be beaten in single combat by a lone pre-epic thief or sorcerer. The super-arrows (I forgot to mention they also include a throwback+knockdown effect) still annoy me. Her companions, by comparison, all go down fairly easily even with the improved mod installed.

I'm surprised I didn't try missile deflection on her yet, though, you're totally right there. I mainly hated her for always murdering my mages first.

Jellies are cheesy fun against mages because of their spell immunity, but I didn't even realize they also have piercing/arrow immunity. Go figure.

And, now that you've reminded me, I have to get back to playing my archer PC that I started up a long while ago, since I know they're really cool at higher levels. :smallcool:

[Avilan the Grey]

I disagree, on account of the dungeon being excellent. Every time I go back to start a new BG2 game, I marvel at how even the very first dungeon you start the game in, that isn't even nearly the high point of the game in design or writing, is still better than at least 90% of all levels in any game I've played since. It's creepy, atmospheric, full of little quests and puzzles from the beginning, AND good fights to take your abilities and party to town in.

Oh the dungeon is excellent. Until you have gone through it with 10 different characters and just wants to get on with the actual game without all the fuss.

As for making the game harder: Since I have a hard time winning many of the hard fights on Normal difficulty as is... No thank you.

[Eldariel]

Baldur's Gate Trilogy with the whole BiG World (http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?autocom=downloads&showcat=72), naturally! Honestly, that pack contains billions of good mods, and some less so. I strongly recommend it.

[Mx.Silver]

For BG 1, Tutu is a must, it puts BG 2 gameplay and engine into BG 1. You can find Tutu from pocket plane as well other BG 1 mods such Banter packs and BG 1 unfinished business.

I second this. Also, the Unifinished Business mod for BG2 is something you should definitely use.

[Squark]

I second this. Also, the Unifinished Business mod for BG2 is something you should definitely use.

Alternatively, Baldur's Gate Trilogy is another version, that let's you play the entire trilogy in a single game.

[Lord of the Helms]

Oh the dungeon is excellent. Until you have gone through it with 10 different characters and just wants to get on with the actual game without all the fuss.

As for making the game harder: Since I have a hard time winning many of the hard fights on Normal difficulty as is... No thank you.

But the dungeon IS the actual game. Part of it, anyway, and a pretty good part, too. I really see no point to skipping something that's so entertaining, no matter how many times I start a new character.

As for fight difficulty - my impression in Throne of Bhaal was that the balancing was off. Like, way off. You had one brokenly nastypowerful boss that was a huge pain in the ass (Draconis), one boss almost as hard (the final one) and one that was appropriately difficult (Sendai). The rest of the boss fights were too easy (Demogorgon), way too easy (Yaga-Shura) or pathetically, laughably easy (Ilasera, Gromnir, Abazigal and Balthazar). Appropriately enough, the mods for harder fights all replace the various shades of too easy bosses while not touching the others (except Ascension, which changes the final fight, but not in a "harder" kind of way).

[Guancyto]

Ascension makes the endgame of ToB so, so much better. It's not even the difficulty (though it is harder), it's that it feels like a proper ending to your character's epic journey. I'm told that many elements of the mod are parts of the endgame that were simply cut for time, but I don't know how accurate that is.

It also includes some nifty bonus powers for your main character and extra dialogue.

Tactics, on the other hand, is... okay for people who have already beaten the game several times and are looking for a challenge. Improved Chateau Irenicus is just ridiculous. freaking fallen planetar, I'm only level nine!

You can find good reviews here and there of the various mod NPCs (spoiler: most aren't very impressive) but if it's your first time through the Bioware party members should be more than enough.

[Shpadoinkle]

But the dungeon IS the actual game. Part of it, anyway, and a pretty good part, too. I really see no point to skipping something that's so entertaining, no matter how many times I start a new character.

Other people disagree about it being entertaining. Me, for example.

Granted, it's fun the first couple times, but sometimes after playing for a while I decide I want to play a different class or race (or both) so I have to start over. So I have to go through Chateau Irenicus again, which is exactly the same as it was. It gets boring.

Imaging having to watch a 45 minute cutscene before you can actually start playing a game and it lets you make decisions that actually have any impact on anything. That's what it feels like to me.

[Avilan the Grey]

But the dungeon IS the actual game. Part of it, anyway, and a pretty good part, too. I really see no point to skipping something that's so entertaining, no matter how many times I start a new character.

But it's not entertaining. It's just a pain in the butt. It's the Scrappy Level, just like the Fade in DA:O (which I have also modded away).

[Squark]

To be precise, the first few play throughs, Chateau Irenicus is pretty decent. And after a long hiatus from the game, it can be a decent refresher.

But to someone on their 15th playthrough, I can see how it would have about as much appeal as a "valygar coffee mug." Well, that's how Dungeon Be Gone described it as, anyway.

[Winthur]

Why they don't make mods like Temple of Trials Be Gone while they made Dungeon Be Gone is beyond me. :smalltongue:

[Avilan the Grey]

To be precise, the first few play throughs, Chateau Irenicus is pretty decent. And after a long hiatus from the game, it can be a decent refresher.

Exactly. You have all these plans for your character, but you have to do that annoying (at that time) dungeon first.

[Mx.Silver]

Alternatively, Baldur's Gate Trilogy is another version, that let's you play the entire trilogy in a single game.

You need to muck about a bit more to get certain mods installed with it though. The BG1 NPC project, for example, won't install all of its features in BGT and you will need to use the ones that are available as parts of some BGT specific mods (which are all included in Bigworld iirc). This was certainly the case as of last year anyhow. Essentially, you'll need to install more mods than you would with a Tutu install so the question of BGT vs. Tutu comes down to how mod-heavy you want the game to be. As someone who tends to only use a few mods, I stick with Tutu.

[Lord of the Helms]

But it's not entertaining. It's just a pain in the butt. It's the Scrappy Level, just like the Fade in DA:O (which I have also modded away).

Fittingly, the Fade is also one of my favorite levels in Dragon Age, though for different reasons (I love Irenicus' Dungeon because it's an excellent introduction that includes everything awesome about the game right from the start AND actually gives the game a very dramatic beginning both storywise and in terms of the enemies you're facing, whereas I love the Fade because it's something completely different from the rest of the game, a welcome change of pace). I don't get the repetition reasoning either, since the entire game is exactly the same as it was the previous five/ten/twenty-eight playthroughs (unless of course you added some mods in between) and there's not actually anything different in nature about Irenicus' Dungeon from the rest of the game. There's looting, there's fighting, there's puzzles, there's quests, there's dialogues and companions, and absolutely nothing even remotely poorly designed about the entire thing. It's like saying you don't want to do Firkraag's Lair or the Shadow Crypt or Spellhold for the tenth time: You might as well not play the game at all for the tenth time, then.

[Caustic Soda]

@OP: most of my suggestions have already been made, but I'd like to emphasize that the NPC mods are generally unimpressive. In my experience, the best of them tend to have mediocre writing. Though I suppose you could get them for the gameplay and not the interaction. But then you might well sytart a 'multiplayer' session with yourself controlling the characters.

@ Lord of the Helms:

While it's true that the gameplay in Irenicus dungeon isn't all that different to the rest of BG2, it is also true that the amount of companions available is rather limited. For me at least, the banter between the different companions is one of the things I really like in BG2. And while the same companion reacts the same way to the same events throughout the game, the choice of different companions per playthrough helps keep the game relatively fresh.

I wouldn't consider Irenicus Dungeon to be more annoying than the other dungeons in the game, except that it becomes before the game hub that is chapter 2. I'd definitely rate it above the maze of chapter 4, between getting the PCs soul sucked out and the battle with Irenicus. If someone made a mod to skip that part and keep some of the items, like Dungeon-Be-Gone, I'd get it in a heartbeat.

[Triaxx]

Let's see, these are all BG2 because I didn't mod BG1 much even when it worked.

Tashia, an awesome sorceress with a cool cat and a storyline of her own.

Planar Sphere Teleport, for Mages and Sorcerors to be able to teleport back to your Planar Sphere, even works from TOB so you can't accidentally leave items behind in it without being able to get them.

Item Upgrade can be a bit unbalanced if you're playing normal difficulty, but on the hardest settings they're a great boon. Some stuff is only late game unless you cheat a lot.

eSeries is hugely CPU hogging, but also insanely helpful for those of us who can't micro manage everything at once.

[Starbuck_II]

To be precise, the first few play throughs, Chateau Irenicus is pretty decent. And after a long hiatus from the game, it can be a decent refresher.

But to someone on their 15th playthrough, I can see how it would have about as much appeal as a "valygar coffee mug." Well, that's how Dungeon Be Gone described it as, anyway.

True. Grantede you get less EXP by using Dungeon Be Gone.

They don't calcuilate you killing every golem (epecially the Sewer Golem/Guardian ones that almost immortal). You had to use Flame Blade, etc to hurt them so I sort of understand.

[Lord of the Helms]

Tactics, on the other hand, is... okay for people who have already beaten the game several times and are looking for a challenge. Improved Chateau Irenicus is just ridiculous. freaking fallen planetar, I'm only level nine!


Level 7, or level 8 with backtracking, actually. I had a blast trying to beat this today. At first I kept getting my ass handed to me just by the Duergar Warrior + Mage combo (the mage's opening every fight with confusion is less than pleaseant). The big fight is completely hopeless head-on ( My jaw dropped straight through the floor when I saw that the modder decided to throw a glabrezu at me, let alone the fallen deva), it took me a lot of trying around to figure out a way to win it. It's best not to even try fighting the fallen deva, but either try to use an archer to interrupt the cleric's summoning, or, if that doesn't work, run away until the deva is unsummoned. Even then, I had to play divide and conquer with the rest of the enemies, like engaging the golem in one of the narrow tunnels so the glabrezu and other enemies are stuck behind him and your meleers can block him from reaching your heroes, and sneaking in sideways through the tunnel to attack Ilyich alone. I also made my entire party invisible, hasted them and distracted the remaining enemies with summons so that I could sneak by my opponents to reach the djinn and get the Sword of Chaos, and was able to engage the remaining prominent russians.

Hard? Yes? Time-consuming? Oh great Dio yes. Fun and worth it? Definitely.

[Kish]

Little backstory here.

Once upon a time, there was a modder named Westley Weimer. And he was famous, or perhaps I should say infamous, for making horrifically hard combat mods, such as Tactics and the Eclipse Party fight from the Solaufein mod.

One day, another modder, named Jason Compton, tweaked him by making a post on the Baldur's Gate newsgroup, purporting to be a trackback to a debate between an anonymous player and "Lesley Reimer," about whether a group including a glabrezu and a cleric who summoned a Fallen Deva was appropriate for the beginning of the game.

Wes decided to make the actual mod battle. Originally, one of the quotes on the page for the Improved Ilyich mod was,
"My God, what have I done?"
--Jason Compton