Reddbane

This mod is the latest part of my 3.5 Edition/ Pathfinder style Tweaks Collection, which eventually will be combined into a single installer, once this last part has been play tested to my satisfaction.  Like the rest of the mods in this collection, the purpose of this mod is to bring several balance features and rules introduced by 3^rd edition D&D and Pathfinder into the Infinity Engine with minimally invasive tweaks, rather than a complete engine or rule overhaul, to preserve mod compatibility.

Whereas the previous mods dealt with thac0 and Hit Dice, this mod rebalances the four “Weapon Style” proficiencies to make them conform more closely to how they function in 3.5 and Pathfinder, and moreover, to correct the rather large imbalance between Weapon Styles in BG2, in which investing 2 pips in any other Style than “2 Weapon” was rather useless and situational at best, and Dual Wielding was almost always the optimal build for a Warrior.

The mod is divided into 5 optional Components, which are as follows:

The first component, (3.5 Edition) Weapon Style Rebalance, is the core of the mod, which changes the weapon styles file and resets the test descriptions—I’ll mention this mod is fully compatible with BGEE, BG2EE, and IWDEE.  The changes are as follows, firstly all weapon styles require only two proficiency points to be considered full, including two weapon style.  Secondly, the second proficiency point in any weapon style is significantly more powerful than the first; like the vanilla game almost all classes can place at least one pip in any weapon style, while two proficiency points is generally reserved for the Warrior classes, with certain exceptions (detailed later). Thirdly, the weapon styles are modified as noted:

Two-Handed Weapon Style:

One point: a -1 bonus to to-hit rolls, a +1 bonus to damage rolls, and a -1 bonus to Speed Factor (Speed Factor being essentially equivalent to an initiative bonus from 3^rd edition and later.)

Two points: a -1 bonus to to-hit rolls, a +4 bonus to damage rolls, a -2 bonus to Speed Factor, and a +1 bonus to critical hit rolls (scoring a critical hit upon 19 & 20, rather than just 20.)

A brief explanation, from 3^rd edition onwards using two-handed weapons are most often the best method of maximizing melee damage, especially for high strength characters, since when using a two-handed weapon your Strength damage is multiplied by 1.5, so that, for instance, an 18 Strength Fighter would get a +6 damage bonus when using a two-handed weapon, rather than merely +4.  However, in the IE games (based on 2e rules) High strength generally does not grant that many combat bonuses, unless it is exceptionally high, that is 18+, and is generally more used to limit the types of equipment you can equip.  Moreover, most of your combat bonuses come from specializing (or mastering) in a specific type of weapon (longswords, axes, spears, etc.), and those bonuses do not differentiate between two-handed or one-handed weapons, thus favoring dual wielding.  With this mod, now having two points in Two-Handed Weapons dramatically increases your damage output (+4) making it the best style for Offensive warriors—as it is in 3e, especially during the early game, and especially for warrior classes (like Paladins & Barbarians) who cannot gain damage bonuses from Mastery or Grand Mastery.

Shield-Fighting Style (no longer called “Sword and Shield” to avoid confusion):

One point: a -1 bonus to AC and an additional -1 bonus to AC against missile attacks when using a shield

Two points: a -2 bonus to AC and an additional -2 bonus to AC against missile attacks when using a shield

It’s commonly accepted among IE players that shields tend to be rather unpowered, since even the heaviest (non-magical) shields only grant +1 AC, and it is only worth using the rarer enchanted shields, and often even they are abandoned by the late game, as the extra missile protection can be more easily replicated otherwise.  To say the least, in 3e Shields are much more powerful, as even the non-magical larger shields could grant +2 to +3 AC bonuses, and, moreover, magical shields granted a special unique “Shield” AC bonus that could not be easily obtained otherwise and, further, there is a whole slew of feats that a character can take to make combat with a shield even more powerful.  With this mod, investing in the Shield-Fighting style will make shields much more effective as a defensive tool, granting total AC bonuses rather than just missile AC bonuses, though they still do grant a smaller additional missile AC bonus; even investing a single point as a thief will help mitigate the missile vulnerability of bucklers.  Now using the Shield-Fighting Style is the best style for tanks and otherwise defensive warriors.

Single Weapon Style:

              One point: a -1 bonus to to-hit rolls, a -1 bonus to Speed Factor, and a -1 bonus to AC

Two points: a -2 bonus to to-hit rolls, a -2 bonus to Speed Factor, a -2 bonus to AC, and a +3 bonus to critical hit rolls (scoring a critical hit upon 17 and up, rather than just 20.)

Single weapon style is a bit more complicated to explain, as it is meant to represent a whole bunch of feats, weapons, and prestige class aimed at low strength and high dexterity characters to make them more effective in combat, specifically things like Weapon Finesse (which substitutes Dexterity stat for Strength on melee attack rolls), classes that grant additional defense and attack bonuses for using a single weapon with a free hand, and generally builds the many high critical hit builds.  Single weapon style is now a good defensive style for characters who cannot otherwise equip shields, either for class or strength restrictions, and a good offensive style for who characters who cannot easily obtain damage bonuses otherwise, as you now have a 1/5 change to strike a critical hit.  Single handed style is now (with the addition of another component of this mod) meant to be the route for characters who want specialize in backstabbing, due to the to-hit and crit bonuses.

Two-Weapon Style:

Untrained: a +4 to-hit penalty to the main hand, a +8 to-hit penalty to the offhand, and a -2 damage penalty to the offhand

One point: a +2 to-hit penalty to the main hand, a +4 to-hit penalty to the offhand, and a -2 damage penalty to the offhand

Two points: no penalty to the main hand, a +2 to-hit penalty to the offhand, and a -2 damage penalty to the offhand

Dual wielding is very overpowered in the BG2 engine (in some ways even more so than in AD&D), and was almost always the best offensive style by the late game.  To say the least, Dual wielding was a little bit more balanced, in that it required a very specific build to make it work, and was usually reserved for Rogues and very specific warrior builds.  The biggest changes I’ve made to two-weapon style is that now, like all the other weapon styles, it requires two Proficiency points to make it complete, and now the offhand weapon, regardless of style points, always receives a -2 penalty to damage roles, reflecting the rule in 3e in which an offhand receives of half of its user’s strength bonus.  Also, I’ve changed the Two-Weapon Style test description to better explain to new players exactly what dual wielding does: it grants 1 extra APR; it does not double your APR.

The second (optional) component, Expanded Weapon Styles for non-Warriors, allows Thieves and Bards to invest 2 points in Two-Weapon Style and Single Weapon Style, as per P&P, and allows Mages and Sorcerers to invest 1 point in Single Weapon Style and Two-Handed Weapon Style, also as per P&P.  This is similar to Rogue Rebalancing weapon style component, except it expands style selection even further, thus should be used instead of that component it you are installing both this and Rogue Rebalancing.  (This mod will account for any new Kits you add to the game as well, so long as it is installed after them.)

The third (optional) component, Quarterstaves Cannot Backstab, patches all the Quarterstaves in the game so that they no longer allow backstabs.  This is for balance purposes, to eliminate the problem from the base game where Quarterstaves were illogically the best weapons for backstabbing.  (How does one ‘backstab’ someone with a blunt stick?)  Again, this will account for any new Staves added by mods.

The fourth (optional) component, Rangers Have No Offhand to-hit Penalty, grants all Rangers, kits, etc., an immediate removal of their offhand to-hit penalty at level 1, in accordance with AD&D P&P rules.  Again, accounts for any new kits added by mods.

The fifth (optional) component, Update Montolio's Cloak, is for BG2EE or EET, and updates Montolio's Cloak so that it now removes the offhand damage penalty for it’s user, since now Rangers by default remove their offhand thaco penalty, which is what the cloak originally did.

Thanks to subtledoctor, Mike1072, and everyone else who lent a hand to me.

A mod that changes the Hit Dice of Mages, Sorcerer, Thieves, and Bards to use Pathfinder values:

Mages and Sorcerers use d6

Thieves and Bards use d8

Dragon Disciple use d8

Compatible with all of Beamdog's Enhanced Editions: Baldur's Gate 1, Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate 2.  Partially compatible with Icewind Dale, except for Character Creation flavor text.

The mod is divided into two parts: “Pathfinder Hit Dice” installs all the gameplay files, and “Patch Class Descriptions” which changes the class descriptions.  You can just install the first part if you are worried about a dialog.tlk conflict.

“Pathfinder Hit Dice” gives you three options based on what Hit Roll tweaks you may have made.

1. “Normal Rolls” is for the vanilla game and any game where you have not modded the manner in which HP is granted.  (You get normal rolls with the altered Hit Dice)

2. “Average Rolls” is if you have the “Higher HP on Level Up: Average Rolls” component of Tweaks Anthology installed.  (You are granted the Average roll of the altered Hit Dice)

3. “Maximum Rolls” is if you have the “Higher HP on Level Up: Maximum Rolls” component of Tweaks Anthology installed.  (You are granted the Maximum roll of the altered Hit Dice)

4. "Ideal Average Rolls" is based on a preferred home-rule, where your Hp is the Ideal average (the average roll rounded up).  Basically your health per level is half the die + 1, like a fighter would be 6 ( 10 / 2 + 1 ) per level while a Cleric/Thief would be 5 ( 8 / 2 + 1 ).

Standard weidu mod. Place in game directory and run setup.

Mod Thread

This thread will host a collection of mods based on some my personal tweaks I tend to make to my playthroughs of IE games, based on some changes that were made to Dungeons and Dragons System after 2nd edition, specifically 3.5 and Pathfinder, my two personal favorite iterations of the system.

Here are the planned components:

1.      Thac0 progression based on 3.5 BAB Progression (Finished)

2.      Full Constitution bonuses (17+) for all Classes (Finished)

3.      Pathfinder style (ie higher) hit dice for Rogue and Arcane classes (Finished Except for IWDEE [see below])

(a small note: this is my first weidu mod—in the past I merely modded my own game using nearinfinity—and I’m using this to slowly teach myself higher level modding and weidu.)

1 – 3.5 thac0

I had discussed this topic in depth in an earlier thread several months ago.

The short of it is that 3.5 streamlined attack progression for non-warriors, as well as significantly buffing the attacks of Thieves and Bards, and slightly buffing the attacks of mages.  3.5 (and later Pathfinder, which is based on 3.5) sorted attack progression into three easy to follow groups High, Medium, and Low, all of which is based upon the hit dice of the class.  High is essentially the same as Warrior thac0 progression, with 1 BAB (base attack bonus) for each hit dice or level of the class.  Medium is somewhat similar to Priest Thac0, but less janky, no longer suddenly increasing by 2 every three levels, but instead equaling ¾ of your hit dice (rounded down) only increasing by 1 at certain levels and capping at 15 BAB at level 20.  Another major difference is that Priest and Rogues use the same attack progression, and the old thief attack progression of one ever other level (essentially ½ of hit dice) is called low and reserved on for non-brawling classes such as the Wizard.  What my mod does is to alter thac0 progression to match the smoother and more balanced 3.5 attack balance, with 20 BAB essentially equaling 0 thac0.  Warrior thac0 remained unchanged, but now Thief and Priests reduce their thac0 based upon ¾ of their level gained after level 1, and caps at 5 thac0 (rather than 6 or 8 per P&P) at level 21.

Thus Priests and Rogues thac0 can be calculated at any time based on the equation:

20 - [(Level - 1) X 0.75] = Thac0 rounded up

And now Mages and Sorcerers use the old Rogue progression of 1 thac0 every two levels, capping at 10 (rather than 13) at level 21.

For quick player reference:  3e Style Thac0 Progression.pdf   23.61K   736 downloads

For the most part Warriors and Mages remain the same gameplay wise, but now single class thieves are much more useful in melee, as they are in 3.5, and don’t become underpowered at higher levels, and Assassins backstab it much more likely to hit once you get to the endgame and they get their extra multipliers.

The mod changes very little, only a single file, and is compatible with any mod that does not alter the thac0 table (thus no un-nerfed thac0 table) and should generally be installed after other major tweaks, especially those that extend levels to 50, since those replace the thac0 table.  (My thac0 already goes to 50 so there should be no problems)

My table also includes an entry for Shaman (using the new priest progression), so it is compatible with 2.0 and SOD, but still works with older versions of BGEE 1&2 as well as Icewind Dale EE.

2 – Universal Constitution Bonus, Full HP Bonus for all classes

In 2^nd Edition, and thus Vanilla Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, only Warriors (Fighters, Rangers, Paladins) gain extra HP for a Constitution score above 16.  Thus, barring shorty races, non-warriors (Mages, Priests, Rogues) received almost no benefit for a Con score above 16, and thus a 19 Con Orc Thief was no hardier than a 16 Con Elf thief.  One of the changes made in 3^rd edition was to make so that physical ability scores did not discriminate between classes, thus a High Constitution score was good for any class.  This mod merely makes it so that all classes receives the same bonuses for 17+ Constitution scores. 

All I had to do was make the non-warrior and warrior tables identical in the HPCON.2da; it was so simple I’m surprised no one did it before.  Like the thac0 mod, this mod changes only one file, and thus is compatible with any mod that does not change the files determining the bonuses of Constitution (HPCON.2da), but to be safe you should probably install it after any other major tweak mods.

As above it is compatible with 2.0 and SOD, but still works with older versions of BGEE 1&2 as well as Icewind Dale EE.

3 – Pathfinder Hit Dice

This mod is for people who prefer the changes Pathfinder made to the Hit Dice of Certain classes.  For those who don’t know Rogues and Bards in PF use d8 like priests, and Mages and Sorcerers now use the d6, which thieves used to use.  The way this is implemented in this mod that Thieves and Bards now have a Hit Dice the same as Priests, d8 for the first 9 levels, and +2 for every level afterwards.  Mages and Sorcerers now use d6 for the first 10 levels and +1 afterwards, while the Dragon Disciple uses d8 (combined with Universal Constitution DD get a lot of health, so perhaps be cautious about combing the mods if you think that breaks the Kit).  I’ve also readjusted all the appropriate class multi combos so their Hit Dice reflect the altered classes: for example, a Fighter Thief now has a d9 (half of d10 + half of d8) and a Mage Thief now has a d7 (half d8 + half d6).  If you want to check my math I’ve included a record of all the Hit Die changes:  HPdice New.pdf   19.29K   513 downloads  The mod also alters the class descriptions, but is still compatible with mods that also alter class descriptions (such as Rogue Rebalancing), so long as the leave the phrase “Hit Die: dx” in the description.  Currently this mod is compatible with BGEE, SOD, BG2EE, and partially with IWDEE: in Icewind all the gameplay changes function, but currently the Character Creation Class Descriptions remains the same (working to fix this).

The mod is divided into two parts: “Pathfinder Hit Dice” installs all the gameplay files, and “Patch Class Descriptions” which changes the class descriptions.  You can just install the first part if you are worried about a dialog.tlk conflict.

“Pathfinder Hit Dice” gives you three options based on what Hit Roll tweaks you may have made.

1. “Normal Rolls” is for the vanilla game and any game where you have not modded the manner in which HP is granted.  (You get normal rolls with the altered Hit Dice)

2. “Average Rolls” is if you have the “Higher HP on Level Up: Average Rolls” component of Tweaks Anthology installed.  (You are granted the Average roll of the altered Hit Dice)

3. “Maximum Rolls” is if you have the “Higher HP on Level Up: Maximum Rolls” component of Tweaks Anthology installed.  (You are granted the Maximum roll of the altered Hit Dice)

A small mod that makes it so that all classes (not just warriors) gain the full Hit Point bonus for a Constitution over 16, as in the vanilla game (and 2nd edition) a mage or rogue or cleric with a Con of 19 would have the same HP as a one with a Constitution of 16.  Now Constitution functions closer to how it does in 3rd edition onwards, granting the same bonuses regardless of class.

Compatible with all of Beamdog's Enhanced Editions: Baldur's Gate 1, Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate 2, and Icewind Dale.

Standard weidu mod. Place in game directory and run setup.

Mod Thread

A small mod that changes thac0 progression to match BAB progression rates in 3.5e D&D and Pathfinder. Warriors remain unchanged, but Rogues and Priests thac0 advances at a rate of 3/4 of total level advanced past level 1, capping at 5 thac0 at level 21. Mage's now advance at 1/2 of total level advanced past level 1, capping at 10 thac0 at level 21. Thac0 table extends to level 50.

Compatible with all of Beamdog's Enhanced Editions: Baldur's Gate 1, Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate 2, and Icewind Dale.

Standard weidu mod. Place in game directory and run setup.

Mod Thread