Restarting BGII - mod questions

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Hi all,

Been a long while since I played BG and it's been a while since I've visited this place. From the looks of it, there seems to be a great number of new mods which has me hungry for some BG action!

Now, I've already started a playthrough of Tutu, using the newest NPC pack, what a boatload of fun! Although the constant Boo jokes are starting to tick me off, Minsc has pretty much become a one trick pony...

I also have the Hard Times mod installed, congrats to Mcready for such an awesome mod! My only gripe is that the items are a bit too scarce at times and he looted Durlag's Tower before me! Seriously, I'm well into Chapter 7 and I still haven't found a longsword +1! Oh well.

Anyway, since I'm nearly finished with BG1 I'm planning my trip through BGII and thought I'd ask you guys for some advice.

First off, before finishing BG1, I can't remember, do you need magic weapons to defeat the final boss of Durlag's Tower and the Loupe Garoupe? How insane is Werewolf Island under the Hard Times mod anyway?

With that settled, on to BGII. Are there any nice cleric mods? I don't like Kelso, eh Keldorn, no wait, that's the paladin... Eh, the cleric guy, the ass...
I was thinking of SKing Aerie to full cleric, or something like that. I already finished off Viconia in BG1, so she's out.

I was looking at the SCSII mod and am intrigued by it's design. I always shied away from tactics mods, cause I dislike powergaming, but I am looking for a bit of a challenge. I have a short attention span, so anything above reloading 5 times per battle kills my vibe. So anyway, SCSII, what are essential components for a casual guy for me? Should I even consider it? Will it tough me up, or will I cry myself to sleep cause I can't finish Chateau Migraine, eh Irenicus?

For those interested in such things, my party:
Me - swashbuckler (Rogue Rebalancing version) with twf, long swords and short bows (no dual classing planned)
Imoen - thief/mage with short bow
Khalid - archer with a long bow (way overpowered, seriously... Khalid is the man of the party, no, stop laughing, I'm serious...)
Jaheira - berserker/druid with a club
Minsc - barbarian wielding, what else, Spider's Bane
Dynaheir - wild mage

Looking back, I chose pretty strong class combinations, especially Khalid as an archer and Jaheira as a berserker/druid. For BGII I'll only keep Imoen and Jaheira, Minsc will die in a tragic battle. Going to give away his awesomeness title to Keldorn.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my little ramble and I hope you can advice me on SCS...

 

Hey, I recently finished TuTu with Hard Times too. You are right, my blademaster, who has grandmastery in longswords (even the game says they are the most easily found and available weapons) had to make good use of one pitiful +1 long sword for more than the half of the game. Even then, he was only able to claim a nice magical longsword thanks to Grey Clan mod's final boss.

You need magical weapons to hit Durlag Tower's final boss. I am not sure if +1 is enough though, I beat him in a different way. (no spoilers, heh heh)

Werewolf island is not much trouble if every member has at least +1 weapons and ammunitions when applicable. Island bosses such as Greater Wolfwere and dreaded Laop Garou can only be damaged by 'special' weapons found on the island though. (again, no spoilers!)

Now, as for SCS II...

The best thing about SCS is it is very customisable. If you install all components fully, like I did, you will have a real hard time, no lying. However, you do not have to do so.

For example, install smarter mages so their AI gets a significant boost, all enemy mages behave intelligently and according to the situation at hand, as if they are real, living, high-INT opponents. What makes the mages a real pain in most situations is that they come buffed up, so when they start a combat, they are pretty much invulnerable unless you tear down their defenses with your own mages. You can customise this aspect by selecting the appropriate lvl of pre-combat buff, from none to maximum protection.

Many other components are also very customisable. Another aspect, you can decide whether to give every high lvl opponent HLAs or not. Doing so will increase the difficulty greatly as everybody in SoA whose total XP exceeds 3M XP (and actually, there are quite a lot of them!) will have access to HLAs like Dragon Breath, Comet, Summon (dark) Planetar, etc. This will seriously make them more challenging, as HLA spells are ground shaking and devastating, as expected. You can choose only to give very special enemies these powers (bosses and the like) or you can choose none. As you can see, everything is so customisable to suit your playing skill and tastes!

 

Thanks Silverstar!

Its nice to hear SCS has such a diverse selection, I''ll definitely try it out. Though I must say, I was reading you thread about the troubles you had in the Asylum and I nearly chickened out. If you, a very talented player (from what I've read) can't beat the challenge, who can? That's when I realised you had about every tactic mod out there installed.

Be glad you found a longsword+1! I still have to make due with a regular one. Though RR has given me a nice short bow (it's +2 with some lightning damage if I'm not mistaken), so I shouldn't complain.

Another thing that I was pondering. I'm not going to dual my swashbuckler, so I'll have plenty of skill points. Now, I've never played a straight class thief before, how much skills can I expect to max by the end of SOA, how many by the end of ToB?

Also, are most skills capped at 100%? I know find traps and open locks are, how about detect illusions, or set traps? I know pick pockets needs a higher score, as long as you don't breach 265 I believe?

What skills do you guys recommend maxing first, the stealth line (for a non-backstabber) or set traps/pick pockets. I currently have find traps and open locks at 100% and detect illusions at 50%.

Thanks!

 

I have every compatible tactical mod installed, I went to asylum very early with a relatively low lvl party and what's more, I was playing on hard difficulty for increased pain. No wonder I had a hard time during the asylum and whole underdark. (I survived though just barely, AND had to postpone Mind Flayer/Beholder caverns.)

As for thief skills:

I do not think stealth is very useful for a swashbuckler. You can not backstab, so what's the point? I would omit the stealth skills all together. Scouting ahead is not very useful if it is not your very first time around, and even if you need to do so, there are more reliable and safe ways. (invisibility, mislead, sanctuary, etc.)

I have had great fun with pickpocket skill. I sold the most expensive items to an ordinary merchant, stole them back, and then sold them to a fence. Though, thanks to a fix, stealing from fences is forbidden. Thus I do no feel dirty like I stole and sold i countless times like in unpatched/unmodded game. I just sell the stolen equipment once, profitting once, but it really helps! It helps financially to afford Boards of Magick's items and Item Upgrade recipes, among other things.

Also, there are some very hot spots for a pickpocketer...A few merhcants are pickpocketable and they sell very nice things:

SPOILERS! (little)

Copper Coronet
Blade of Roses+3, Mauler's Arm+2, Sleeper, high lvl spell scrolls and more! But he is very difficult to pickpocket!

Mrs Craigmoon (alchemist crone in Bridge District)
I stole all of her potions, in fact...TEN potions of power, ten potions of stone form, a lot of heroism, strength, magic shielding/protection potions, etc. Sure came in handy!

Trademeet Bazaar
Blackblood+3, Belt of Inertial Barrier, that spiffy cloak, also I stole all magical weapons/armor and sold them to a fence for a bonus of 10k+ gold!

Ust Natha Bazaar
Drows sell all sort of powerful magical equipment! Sentinel+4, Dragon's Teeth+3, Staff of Earth+2 plus all sort of potions and high lvl spell scrolls!

But you need an impressive pickpocket score, more than 145+ or you risk getting caught red-handed in most cases. Jan was my main pick-pocketer, Imoen subsituted but only after potion of master thievery, perception, mind focusing, gloves of pickpocketing, luck spell, plus one new wild magic improved luck spell. Even then she failed a lot, but the pain was worth it! If you have 100 pickpockets, you can steal everything with a little boost from potions.

Detect illusions is nice, but %100 percent is enough. It is very useful against pesky SCS II mages, when they cast invisibility when wounded, and go away to drink poions to lick their wounds.

Set traps is also useful. Traps in high levels are very powerful and deadly. Look at thief FAQ for high lvl traps (not HLAs though, regular traps set by a high lvl thief) their damage and effects are powerful! %100 is enough, again.

If you are going to have Imoen (Jan or Nalia until she is saved), she can serve as your lock opener and trap disabler, so your thief can concentrate on pickpocketing, detecting illusions and setting traps.

 

I don't know what is your install, but usually, potions of Master Thievery stack so it is enough for a thief to quaff 4 of those and afterwards loot everythnig he/she sees. Besides, the Potions can be created by a high-level rogue.

I am against selling valuable equipment like Ras, the Cloak of Displacement or the Cloak of Inertial barrier, or the staves of Earth, Fire and Air. A solo thief needs every item he can get his hands on, and even in a party, those items do come in handy in certain(if not most) situations. So selling them is good but only if you pickpocket them afterwards. Same valid for spell scrolls, potions, etc.

BTW, if you haven't talked to the Trademeet genies, you can buy or steal a lot of powerful potions from Ithafeer in the Druid Grove. He too has 10 potions of Power and 10 potions of Stone Form, as well as many potions of Heroism, Oils of speed and Potions of Fire Resistance.

Thanx to his gear, Jan can do pretty much everything(detect illusion, lay traps, disarm/lockpick/pickpocket and even Hide in Shadows) even in the lower levels of experience, especially if you add to his equipment the Mercykiller Ring and the Boots of Stealth plus a little potion boost when needed.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

I just finished my Tutu part of the game. The final fight was way too easy, as always. But I hit my XP cap and had a nice run, so I'm pretty well prepared for BGII.

However, I bought Bioshock yesterday, so that BGII run will have to wait. Bioshock has all my attention now.

 

Not if you have Rogue Rebalance installed, it has a component that prevents stacking of the potion of master Thievery effects.

Spoiler

As a matter of fact it becomes less effective the higher your thiefs level becomes. And as of level 13+ the potion doesn't do anything anymore for your thief when you have RR installed.

 

There's no need for this info to be inside spoiler tags as it's included in the potion's in-game description and clearly outlined in the readme as well. Anyhow, this is how the potions are supposed to work in PnP so that's what you get when you install the PnP variant of that component.

OTOH, you can also choose to retain the default BG2 versions of the thievery potions and only prevent their effects from stacking, in case that's what you prefer. Just pick the other option during the install process and you're all set. Naturally, it's also possible to entirely avoid the "Revised Thievery" component as it's completely optional.

 

I like the RR mod as it rebalanced a bunch of broken things, like the potions. But the mod is a bit high powered, most of the changes and extra items are quite strong, especially in BG1.
However, with SCSII added, I probably won't be complaining.

 

I'd be very interested in getting some additional feedback on the abilities/items which you consider overpowered as I highly appreciate constructive criticism.

However, since we don't want to derail this thread with RR-specific details, you might want to post those comments in the Rogue Rebalancing thread instead.

 

Well, it could be because I was playing with the Hard Times mod, so the RR items were a bit under-inflated compared to the rest of the equipment. I recall buying the Sparkburst bow for only a couple thousand gold, which is dead cheap for a +2 weapon, especially one with extra powers.

As a suggestion, maybe you could add some RR specific encounters, adding some of the stronger weapons to tough bosses.

 

Hmm, I guess the price adjustments of Hard Times don't apply to mod-introduced items then. I'm currently using the PnP values for items with generic enchantment (i.e. Composite Shortbow +2) and a price adjustment based on that for custom items with extra features. As for Sparkburst, I suppose its base price can be increased a bit further.

I currently don't add any encounters to the BG1 portion of the game, though that may be a good idea for some future version of RR. The "Chosen of Cyric encounter" and the "Shadow Thief Improvements" components both offer tactical challenges and new items but they only work in the BG2 portion of the game.

 

No unfortunately. I tend to think Macready wishes as few extra items in BG1 as posible at least when using HardTime

 

True Shaitan, but those extra items did come in handy!

I wouldn't have been able to defeat the TotSC encounters without them. Well, I probably would have, but only being able to hit a Loup Garou with one character is not my idea of fun.

aVENGER, I don't know how much time you're still spending on RR and if you're planning on additions, but if you're interested I could help come up with suitable encounters. I'm no modder, but a fairly decent roleplayer (IMHO).

 

Not much I'm afraid, as my free time is fairly scarce at the moment.

Right now, I'm just doing routine maintenance in form of bugfixes and translation updates. Any major content changes/new additions will have to wait until RR v4.0.