Baldurs Gate II question

[Spiryt]

OK, so I'm big Baldurs II fan, and I just decided to play it once again.

The thing is, that I in fact want to change something in the game. I'm was never particulary pleased by balance. This is not particulary important in this game, but still it's little dissapointing that Rangers spells are much weaker than paladins.

I know that there are manny enchancements to the game. The problem is that on few polish and english sites I have seen links are broken, it looks like many interesting mods are no longer in net.

So my question is: does anyone know where I can find some interesting BGII enchacements (new class kits, spells) ?

[Avaris]

I'd say the best place to start would be Planet BaldursGate (http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbaldursgate/); it may only be a shadow of its former self but those who remain are very helpful in my experience. Specifically, they have several existing threads with lists of mods if you are willing to search through and find them (like this one (http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbaldursgate/topic.asp?fid=1883&tid=2042194&p=2)). In addition to PBG, you may want to check out some of these sites:

Gibberlings 3 http://forums.gibberlings3.net/

Pocket Plane Group http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/

Spellhold Studios http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/

Black Wyrm's Lair http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/

Chosen of Mystra http://forums.chosenofmystra.net/index.php

These are all active modding communities for the infinity engine, and maintain reliable file downloads. Most of the mods still in existance can be found on them.

[Elliot Kane]

Sorceror's Place (http://www.sorcerers.net/index.php) is the best one I know of :)

It tends to link to a lot of others, too.

[Blayze]

I seem to remember a mod called "Divine Remix" that might help you out with your Ranger spells somewhat, but I think it might just be restricted to Clerics and Druids for the most part. Failing that, dual or multi-class to a Cleric and (Because of something in the game engine) you can get all Divine spells, IIRC. :D

[Inigo_Carmine]

I don't remember the spells being particularly weak, but rangers in general were extremely powerful in that game, especially the archer kit one.

Barring the handful of dragon fights, spellcasters are the most difficult encounters in the game, and rangers eat them for breakfast. Remember that in 2ed (or at least by Baldur's Gate rules, the lines between them have become hazy for me) all you have to do is damage a spellcaster and they lose their spell automatically. Someone who excels at a ranged weapon can completely shutdown spellcasters the second they're on screen, and if you use the pause button, you can cycle targets and shutdown 2-3 spellcasters at once without a problem.

[Blayze]

Gotta love playing a Wizard Slayer with the buff mod for them for that. I once tried to see how close I could get to 100% resistance to everything without cheating, but with using mods. It would probably mean running the game a few dozen times, though...

[Triaxx]

There are quite a few. Spellhold is great. Personally I prefer to add items and NPC's instead of trying rebalance. But the Ease-of-Use includes divine remix if I recall.

[Spiryt]

Ok, thanks for answers everyone. I will check all this sites.

And Inigo, please don't teach, me I finished Shadows of Amn two times with an archer. Yes he's pretty solid kit, who have many attacks and realy rarely miss.

But this is archer kit, normal ranger is rather weaker than paladin. At least paladin spells are much more potent, they can have up to 4th level, rangers only 3th. And Draw Upon Holy Might is really efective buff for warrior class.

BTW: I read somewhere that in Baldurs Gate II, rangers have bonuses when fighting very big foes. Heck, Minsc even sometimes yell: "The bigger they are, the harder I hit!".

So is it truth or not? Has anybody some proof?

[Blayze]

AFAIK, the only Ranger-specific attack bonuses are from their Favoured Enemy selection.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, but they still get Armor of Faith, which is fantastic for close combat.

[saimne]

I only ever used Baldurdash (http://www.baldurdash.org/). I loved that fix pack.

[Vhaidara]

Archer kit sucks. Go for the fighter and do an archer syle, but also take ranks for melee.

[Triaxx]

Six archers could decimate most BG1 encounters, but having just one was enough for BG2. Mainly because you got a lot of immune to normal and magical weapons. Since there weren't any +5 arrows. Which really isn't fun, because the first game lacked the infinite quivers.

[Dragonmuncher]

I always loved being a dual-wielding kensai- shield amulet boosted AC, and the sheer number of weapons you would be wielding and have in your quickbar meant that you always had a number of spell-like abilities to use.

I vote Baldurdash, also- good site (and the Elmonster journal is interesting in and of itself).

The Kelsey NPC mod is neat- adds in an easy-to-recruit sorcerer NPC with some neat subplots. The Solufein NPC mod is great, but his subplot has an INCREDIBLY hard final boss fight. Like, ridiculously hard.

[Spiryt]

OK, thanks for responses, Baldurdash is indeed great.

One more question - does anyone know any Minsc rage fix/modification. No control over him is really annoying, and I have no idea why he's flawed like that. No other raging characters have this.

I know one mod that does it and gives him more rages per day, but:

- In return it cut down his spells which I don't like
- Doesn't work from some reason anyway.

[Vhaidara]

Don't rage Minsc. He just goes completely berserk. I have never, ever used that ability except when I was going for a royally suicidal attack. Also, DM, that is my sentiment. On the kensai build. So many attacks *is drooling*.

[Spiryt]

I always Berserk Minsc during hard fights beacuse he's very hard to take down then, and strikes very hard. But like I said, this out of control is little annoying. He can't heal himself via potion for example, which is not fair.

There are few pretty reliable methods to make him attack right targets, but still sometimes the cost of this is that I have to res one member of party:smallbiggrin:

Still, if anyone can think of some way to remove this it will be even better.

[Closet_Skeleton]

One more question - does anyone know any Minsc rage fix/modification. No control over him is really annoying, and I have no idea why he's flawed like that. No other raging characters have this.

Yeah, a berzerker actually acting like a berzerker is sooo anoying.

Remember when enemies get a 'morale failure' and the circle around them turns yellow? As well as running away they have a chance to go berzerk like Minsc. What Minsc's rage does is send him into 'morale failure: Berzerk' rather than give him stat boosts. This is probably because Baldurs Gate I had no Barbarian class or Berzerker kit and Minsc was the only character who could voluntaraly go berzerk. Therefore they didn't give him a rage based on an existing mechanic because there wasn't a rage based class.

[Triaxx]

Yes, and it doesn't give the other bonuses either:

Minsc Vs. UmberHulks

Round 1:
Minsc charges, gets confused, levels rest of party.

Round 2:
Minsc charges in enraged. Beaten to death.

Pretty much the same with similar encounters. Berserkers and barbarians don't have that problem because they do get protected.