High Power Baldur's Gate
Version 1.7
![]()
![]()
![]()
NPC party members do not get these class and kit-based special abilities. Instead, each NPC has their own unique abilities.
![]()
![]()
The NPCs also have other things that make them special. Kivan, for example, has increased vision range, so he can shoot enemies before they see him. Dynaheir counts as six levels higher for purposes of determining the power of her spells, so she can launch four Magic Missiles with one spell at level 1. Khalid is permanently hasted. All the NPCs have cool stuff like this.
The reason these crazy powers don't make the game too easy is because enemies throughout the game now have their own crazy powers. Monsters in High Power Baldur's Gate are far more interesting to fight than they are in the unmodded game. No longer do most enemies just walk up to you and attack you. Instead, each kind of monster has their own tricks that you'll have to adapt to. There will be plenty of surprises.
The same goes for all the minor characters in the game. The mod fleshes out the abilities of each minor character, even giving some individual minor characters their own signature abilities and spells, like "Zordral's Corrosive Breath" or "Ragefast's Duplication." In this mod, characters are just as badass as they claim they are. Zal really is the fastest dart thrower, capable of throwing ten darts per round. That guard in the Cloakwood Mines really is going to give you a world of hurt. And, Quayle, of course, has 25 Intelligence.
Although the enemies you face are much more powerful, I tried to avoid spectacle creep as much as possible. For the most part, this mod doesn't pit the party against monsters generally associated with epic level such as balors or liches. Instead, you will usually be facing the same enemies you would in the normal game, except that this mod makes them much stronger. In version 1.6 I did add a dragon to the game, but it's only a juvenile dragon.
More interesting items!
The magic items in Baldur's Gate 1 are normally pretty boring. Most of the top-tier weapons in the game are +2 weapons with no abilities. This mod does something about that. It modifies a large number of items in the game, including generic +1 and +2 weapons, to make them more interesting and unique.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Additionally, the mod adds a lot of new items to the game. Some of them are original; others were taken from Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, or Planescape Torment. The mod spread cool items throughout the stores in the game so that almost every shop sells something interesting. Although some of the new items are quite powerful, they do not obsolete the original items, since the mod also powers up the original items.
![]()
![]()
![]()
The mod increases the rewards from many quests. Now more quests will reward you with unique items you can't get anywhere else, rather than just a small amount of gold or a weak magic item.
![]()
The mod also places lots of stat-increasing manuals and tomes throughout the game, mainly in the hands of enemies. There are enough of them to get one or two party members to 25 in all stats by the end of the game. Don't worry: having 25 in all stats won't be overpowered in this mod.
More interesting spells!
Some of the spells in Baldur's Gate 1 are useless or almost useless, so this mod makes them better.
![]()
![]()
![]()
And various other things!
I've made a lot of other little changes: I've moved items around, added new encounters here and there, put new monsters into the game, and more.
Additional components
Aside from the main component, which installs most of the changes in the mod, there are currently 26 optional components that tweak things such as spells, rules, and kits. You can find descriptions for all of them below:
[spoiler]
- Make it so that Resist Fear does not remove fear and Remove Fear does not protect against fear
Fear in Baldur's Gate 1 is not a well done mechanic. Since there is a level 1 priest spell that makes the whole party completely immune to it for a whole hour, there is no reason to ever be affected by fear if you have a priest. Not to mention that making immunity to fear this accessible mostly obseletes the unkitted bard song, which is almost entirely meant to prevent fear. This component makes Remove Fear and Resist Fear less powerful by making them only do what their names suggest. This component does not affect the Cavalier's ability.
- Allow the damage from multiple Writhing Fog spells to stack
Normally, if someone gets hit by Writhing Fog, they're immune to other Writhing Fog spells for 1 round. Part of the fun of a Shaman is being able to spam spells over and over, so it's weird that the effects of multiple Writhing Fog spells don't stack. Depending on your playstyle, this component could make the spell more fun to use but possibly also more of a cheese tactic.
- Make the Friends spell set Charisma to 20 rather than increase it
In this mod, I wanted 25 Charisma to be something you'd work hard to get (through stat-increasing tomes). By the end of the game, one of your characters might have 25 Charisma through the use of these tomes. I think that being able to get 24 Charisma right at the start of the game with little effort is anticlimactic.
- Adjust charisma-based store discounts
This component decreases the store discounts for medium Charisma scores but lets the discount keep getting larger past 20 Charisma. Since characters can now get 25 Charisma through means other than Friends, I wanted to give them something for it. The discounts are as follows:
Charisma Discount
11 1%
12 2%
13 3%
14 4%
15 5%
16 7%
17 9%
18 11%
19 13%
20 15%
21 17%
22 19%
23 21%
24 23%
25 25%
(for comparison, in the unmodded game 25% is the largest discount you possible, which you get if you have at least 20 Charisma)
- Give all classes four weapon slots
The extra weapon slots can only be accessed through the inventory screen, but you can still equip weapons in them.
- Remove helmet animations
This component lets you make all helmets invisible, with the exception of nonmagical decorative helmets if you so choose. If you choose to have decorative helmets be visible, there is also a special visible version of the basic horned helmet, which is carried by Ajantis and dropped by most hobgoblins.
- Increase chance to learn spells
I don't know if this component will be everyone's thing, but it's something I prefer personally. I hate the mechanic of failing to learn a spell, because it ruins the satisfaction of obtaining a cool new scroll. The component has two options: either it sets the chance to learn a spell to 100% for all Intelligence scores between 9 and 24 (the chance at 25 Intelligence is 150% as always), or it sets the chance to 150%. There are sometimes some hidden penalties applied to the chance to learn a spell, so even if you supposedly have a 100% chance of success you can still fail.
- Modify Fighting Styles
This component modifies Single Weapon Style, Two-Handed Weapon Style and Sword and Shield Style in an attempt to make them more different from each other. It does not modify Two-Weapon Style. The descriptions are as follows:
TWO-HANDED:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a +1 bonus to damage rolls, a -2 bonus to Speed Factor.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets an additional +2 bonus to damage rolls, a further -2 bonus to Speed Factor, and the ability to score critical hits on a roll of 19 or 20 (instead of just 20) when using a two-handed weapon.
SWORD AND SHIELD:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a -2 bonus to AC against missile weapons.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets a -4 bonus to AC against missile weapons, as well as a -1 bonus to AC against all weapons.
SINGLE-WEAPON:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a -1 bonus to Speed Factor, gets a +1 bonus to hit rolls, and inflicts critical damage on an attack roll of 19 or 20.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets an additional -1 bonus to Speed Factor, gets an additional +1 bonus to hit rolls, and inflicts critical damage on an attack roll between 18 and 20.
- Remove the limit of two proficiency points in a weapon at character creation
Excluding new kits or changes to existing kits by other mods, this only affects the Fighter class and the Archer kit. My reasoning for this is that the main advantage of fighters in Baldur's Gate is the ability to get more than two proficiency points in a weapon. However, since a fighter can only put in two points in a weapon at character creation, they are initially no better at fighting than any other warrior (while those other warriors have cool abilities). This will allow a fighter to be noticably better at wielding a weapon than, say, a paladin, right from the start of the game.
- Give proficiency-based extra attacks per round to non-warriors
This only matters if those non-warriors can get more than one proficiency point in a weapon. I thought it would be nice for swashbucklers to get another 1/2 attack per round, since they don't get as many bonuses in BG1 as they do in ToB.
- Make Assassin Backstab Multiplier Increase Faster
One of the main features of assassins is the fact that their backstab multiplier keeps increasing after 5x. However, since they don't get to 6x or 7x until BG2, this feature is completely meaningless in BG1. This component allows assassins to become noticably better at backstabbing than a normal thief even in BG1. It makes it so that assassins get a multiplier bonus every three levels after 1, rather than than every four levels after 1.
- Make bard songs improve earlier
In BG1, bards are stuck with the same song for the whole game. It would be nice for the song to improve faster. After all, by the end of BG1 in this mod you start facing Throne of Bhaal-tier enemies, so shouldn't your bards have Throne of Bhaal-tier songs? This makes it so that the jester, skald and unkitted bard songs improve at levels 5 and 10, rather than at levels 15 and 20.
- Improve Wizard Slayers
This component does two things: it changes the progressive Magic Resistance gain to +5% per level (so it becomes noticable even in BG1) and makes the on-hit spell failure effect offer a Save vs. Breath at -10.
- Improve Stalkers
This component allows the Stalker to use their three special abilities at level 6 instead of level 12, and it makes them innate abilities rather than spells. Without this component, a Stalker does not get those abilities at all in BG1.
- Improve Beast Masters
The main ability of a Beast Master (which they sacrifice SO MUCH for) is the ability to summon animals. However, they can't summon any animals until level 8. This component lets them summon animals right from the start of the game. The Beast Master is given innate Animal Summoning abilities as he/she gains levels, as shown:
- 1st level: Can cast Animal Summoning I as an innate ability once per day.
- 2nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning I an additional time per day.
- 4th level: Can cast Animal Summoning II as an innate ability once per day.
- 6nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning II an additional time per day.
- 8th level: Can cast Animal Summoning III as an innate ability once per day.
- 10nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning III an additional time per day.
- Improve Shapeshifters
This component only affects the Shapeshifter kit; the normal druid shapeshifting forms are modified automatically to match the abilities those forms normally have. This component does two things: it gives the Shapeshifter access to the Greater Werewolf form at level 10 rather than level 13, and it powers up the Werewolf and Greater Werewolf forms. Here are their desriptions:
Shapeshift: Werewolf
Strength: 18 (if lower than 18)
Dexterity: 18 (if lower than 18)
Constitution: 20 (if lower than 20)
Base Armor Class: 4
Number of Attacks: 3
Attack Damage: 1d6 (slashing), strikes as +2 weapon
- Deals an additional 1d6 slashing damage on a critical hit (will not happen if the critical hit is averted)
Special Abilities:
- Magic Resistance: +20%
- Invisible on transformation
- Backstab Multiplier: 2x
- Regenerate 1 HP per 2 seconds (in addition to regeneration due to Constitution)
Shapeshift: Greater Werewolf
Strength: 21 (if lower than 21)
Dexterity: 21 (if lower than 21)
Constitution: 25 (if lower than 25)
Base Armor Class: -2
Number of Attacks: 4
Attack Damage: 2d6 (slashing), strikes as +3 weapon
- Deals an additional 2d6 slashing damage on a critical hit (will not happen if the critical hit is averted)
Special Abilities:
- Immunity to non-magical weapons
- Magic Resistance: +40%
- Fire Resistance: +50%
- Cold Resistance: +50%
- Acid Resistance: +50%
- Electricity Resistance: +50%
- Invisible on transformation
- Backstab Multiplier: 3x
- Regenerate 1 HP per second (in addition to regeneration due to Constitution)
- Improve Dragon Disciples
This component lets a Dragon Disciple gain additional uses of the breath weapon at levels 6 and 9. I don't like how they normally only get one use of it.
- Improve Monks
Monks aren't great in BG1 normally. Sure, they make up for it by being awesome in BG2, but I don't care about BG2 in this mod. This component mainly gives monks more potential at high level. It changes the monk XP table so that a monk can reach level 9 in BG1, and it gives each monk kit a great ability at level 9. Unkitted Monks get Quivering Palm, Sun Soul Monks get Sun Soulbeam, and Dark Moon Monks get Darkness 15' Radius (it's a different file from the one in Siege of Dragonspear). Dark Moon Monks also now have a x2 backstab multiplier (which doesn't improve) and get Mirror Image at level 8 instead of level 11.
- Make rangers and paladins get spells slightly quicker
One advantage that rangers and paladins have over fighters is that they can cast a couple of divine spells. The problem is that it takes them so long to get these spells that they spend most of the game not having any spells at all. In fact, paladins don't get any spells in BG1 whatsoever! This component allows rangers and paladins to start learning spells earlier, though they still learn spells very slowly. At level 4, they get a single 1st level spell slot. At level 6, they get another. At level 8, they get a 2nd level spell slot. This component overwrites the original tables for ranger and paladin spell slots.
- Allow Kensai to wear gloves
The main advantage of a Kensai is their bonus to hit and damage. However, the fact that they can't wear gauntlets means that their THAC0 and damage are barely any better than a regular Fighter, who can wear the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and get almost the same bonuses. This component allows a Kensai to wear gauntlets. You may also choose to allow them to wear bracers as well (the argument against this is that it would defeat the purpose of their drawback of not being able to wear armor).
- Put a Bag of Holding in the game
This component makes a Bag of Holding obtainable in non-SOD Baldur's Gate 1. The component lets you choose whether to make it easily accessible right at the beginning of the game or to delay it until you can get to Baldur's Gate. It also lets you choose whether the bag can hold a medium number of items or a virtually unlimited number.
- Raise the experience cap
This component lets you set the experience cap for BG1 to whatever you want. Note that although increasing the experience cap won't necessarily make the mod too easy, the mod was heavily designed around the 161000 cap. This component is primarily intended for solo players who would otherwise reach the experience cap too fast.
- Have all player-created characters start with some experience at the beginning of the game
If you want to start the game at a higher level, this component lets you give starting experience to all player-created characters. You get to enter the amount of experience to give, though it cannot take the character past the XP cap. This component will NOT give experience to joinable NPCS (though as usual they will start at a higher level if the protagonist is high level).
Note: With regards to the balance of this component, the early parts of the mod are designed in a way as to be beatable by a low level party but still challenging for a high level party. Even still, starting at max level will definitely make the Nashkel Mines a lot easier. If you want to start at a higher level without changing the difficulty of the early game much, I recommend choosing to start with 2500, 5000, or 10000 experience. Since the party reaches the XP cap very quickly in this mod even if they start with 0 experience, starting with slightly more experience won't matter much in the long run.
- Move the starting locations of Quayle, Eldoth and Tiax to make them accessible at the beginning of the game
This component allows these three characters to join your party early on. Quayle is next to the obelisk in the area between Beregost and the Friendly Arm Inn. Eldoth is in the Red Sheaf Inn. Tiax is near the road in the area just north of Nashkel.
- Allow bard songs to stack
Before the Enhanced Editions prevented bards songs from stacking, I had done multi-bard playthroughs. From my experience, stacking bard songs was powerful but not broken. This component allows songs from multiple bards of the same kit to stack.
- Revise Wisdom bonus spell table
Normally, as your Wisdom goes up you eventually stop receiving bonus spells for lower spell levels. This isn't a problem in the base game since your Wisdom score can only be so high. However, in this mod you can potentially increase your Wisdom up to 25 using tomes, so I wanted to give you a reward for doing so. This component makes it so that you will keep getting bonus divine spells as your Wisdom score reaches epic heights. It overwrites the normal Wisdom bonus spell table.
[/spoiler]
Reasons to try out this mod:
- Since the NPCs all have very different powers, the game can play very differently depending on which NPCs you have in your party.
- The variety of interesting abilities granted to the player characters, as well as the diverse selection of equipment, allow for all sorts of different builds.
- You have great leeway in determining the power level of your party. The mod enables you to change the experience cap and/or have your party start the game at a higher level. The mod has a very flexible difficulty; starting at a higher level will not make the game too easy, but it's still beatable if you start at level 1.
- This mod makes the game feel new and different. You never know what creatures, encounters, or items you'll come across in the next stretch of wilderness. You can't rely as much on prior knowledge of the game.
Lastly, the mod is just plain fun. I made this mod because I was bored with the unmodded game and I wanted to spice it up.
![]()
Tips for playing this mod:
- For the first playthrough, play on Normal difficulty.
- I recommend installing the component that gives additional experience to the PC at the beginning of the game, and setting the experience given to 10000 or 20000.
- When exploring the wilderness, always have a character scout ahead in stealth or invisibility. That way, they will know what enemies are up ahead and your team can prepare for battle without as much metagaming.
- Watch out for doppelgangers. They appear very early in the game in this mod and they deal a lot of damage in melee. If you fight a doppelganger, don't let it get near you.
Compatibility:
This mod is not compatible with Sword Coast Strategems, Item Revisions, or Spell Revisions. New items, NPCs, and creatures from other mods currently are not modified by this mod. However, if you start the game with a custom kit, your character will get the same special abilities as the base class for that kit.
You can download the latest version below:
Download
High Power Baldur's Gate is a big mod for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. It gives a variety of new abilities to party members as well as most other creatures in the game, and makes many changes to items, spells, quests, encounters, and other aspects of the game. The goal of the mod is to make Baldur's Gate 1 feel new and interesting! The main changes: More abilities! In High Power Baldur's Gate, everyone in the game, from fighters to diviners, from kobolds to zombies, has their own abilities that make them different from everybody else. Many of these abilities are very powerful: in this mod, you get to play around with abilities that are normally reserved for high-level characters, like attacking ten times per round, stopping time, getting critical hits on every attack, or casting multiple spells per round. But the mod is balanced such that these abilities don't make the game too easy, so enjoy using them! You get these kinds of abilities right from the beginning of the game. After you create your characters, they get their own set of new abilities. Different classes and different kits have different abilities.
NPC party members do not get these class and kit-based special abilities. Instead, each NPC has their own unique abilities.
The NPCs also have other things that make them special. Kivan, for example, has increased vision range, so he can shoot enemies before they see him. Dynaheir counts as six levels higher for purposes of determining the power of her spells, so she can launch four Magic Missiles with one spell at level 1. Khalid is permanently hasted. All the NPCs have cool stuff like this.
The reason these crazy powers don't make the game too easy is because enemies throughout the game now have their own crazy powers. Monsters in High Power Baldur's Gate are far more interesting to fight than they are in the unmodded game. No longer do most enemies just walk up to you and attack you. Instead, each kind of monster has their own tricks that you'll have to adapt to. There will be plenty of surprises.
The same goes for all the minor characters in the game. The mod fleshes out the abilities of each minor character, even giving some individual minor characters their own signature abilities and spells, like "Zordral's Corrosive Breath" or "Ragefast's Duplication." In this mod, characters are just as badass as they claim they are. Zal really is the fastest dart thrower, capable of throwing ten darts per round. That guard in the Cloakwood Mines really is going to give you a world of hurt. And, Quayle, of course, has 25 Intelligence.
Although the enemies you face are much more powerful, I tried to avoid spectacle creep as much as possible. For the most part, this mod doesn't pit the party against monsters generally associated with epic level such as balors or liches. Instead, you will usually be facing the same enemies you would in the normal game, except that this mod makes them much stronger. In version 1.6 I did add a dragon to the game, but it's only a juvenile dragon.
More interesting items!
The magic items in Baldur's Gate 1 are normally pretty boring. Most of the top-tier weapons in the game are +2 weapons with no abilities. This mod does something about that. It modifies a large number of items in the game, including generic +1 and +2 weapons, to make them more interesting and unique.
Additionally, the mod adds a lot of new items to the game. Some of them are original; others were taken from Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, or Planescape Torment. The mod spread cool items throughout the stores in the game so that almost every shop sells something interesting. Although some of the new items are quite powerful, they do not obsolete the original items, since the mod also powers up the original items.
The mod increases the rewards from many quests. Now more quests will reward you with unique items you can't get anywhere else, rather than just a small amount of gold or a weak magic item.
The mod also places lots of stat-increasing manuals and tomes throughout the game, mainly in the hands of enemies. There are enough of them to get one or two party members to 25 in all stats by the end of the game. Don't worry: having 25 in all stats won't be overpowered in this mod.
More interesting spells!
Some of the spells in Baldur's Gate 1 are useless or almost useless, so this mod makes them better.
And various other things!
I've made a lot of other little changes: I've moved items around, added new encounters here and there, put new monsters into the game, and more.
Additional components
Aside from the main component, which installs most of the changes in the mod, there are currently 26 optional components that tweak things such as spells, rules, and kits. You can find descriptions for all of them below:
[spoiler]
- Make it so that Resist Fear does not remove fear and Remove Fear does not protect against fear
Fear in Baldur's Gate 1 is not a well done mechanic. Since there is a level 1 priest spell that makes the whole party completely immune to it for a whole hour, there is no reason to ever be affected by fear if you have a priest. Not to mention that making immunity to fear this accessible mostly obseletes the unkitted bard song, which is almost entirely meant to prevent fear. This component makes Remove Fear and Resist Fear less powerful by making them only do what their names suggest. This component does not affect the Cavalier's ability.
- Allow the damage from multiple Writhing Fog spells to stack
Normally, if someone gets hit by Writhing Fog, they're immune to other Writhing Fog spells for 1 round. Part of the fun of a Shaman is being able to spam spells over and over, so it's weird that the effects of multiple Writhing Fog spells don't stack. Depending on your playstyle, this component could make the spell more fun to use but possibly also more of a cheese tactic.
- Make the Friends spell set Charisma to 20 rather than increase it
In this mod, I wanted 25 Charisma to be something you'd work hard to get (through stat-increasing tomes). By the end of the game, one of your characters might have 25 Charisma through the use of these tomes. I think that being able to get 24 Charisma right at the start of the game with little effort is anticlimactic.
- Adjust charisma-based store discounts
This component decreases the store discounts for medium Charisma scores but lets the discount keep getting larger past 20 Charisma. Since characters can now get 25 Charisma through means other than Friends, I wanted to give them something for it. The discounts are as follows:
Charisma Discount
11 1%
12 2%
13 3%
14 4%
15 5%
16 7%
17 9%
18 11%
19 13%
20 15%
21 17%
22 19%
23 21%
24 23%
25 25%
(for comparison, in the unmodded game 25% is the largest discount you possible, which you get if you have at least 20 Charisma)
- Give all classes four weapon slots
The extra weapon slots can only be accessed through the inventory screen, but you can still equip weapons in them.
- Remove helmet animations
This component lets you make all helmets invisible, with the exception of nonmagical decorative helmets if you so choose. If you choose to have decorative helmets be visible, there is also a special visible version of the basic horned helmet, which is carried by Ajantis and dropped by most hobgoblins.
- Increase chance to learn spells
I don't know if this component will be everyone's thing, but it's something I prefer personally. I hate the mechanic of failing to learn a spell, because it ruins the satisfaction of obtaining a cool new scroll. The component has two options: either it sets the chance to learn a spell to 100% for all Intelligence scores between 9 and 24 (the chance at 25 Intelligence is 150% as always), or it sets the chance to 150%. There are sometimes some hidden penalties applied to the chance to learn a spell, so even if you supposedly have a 100% chance of success you can still fail.
- Modify Fighting Styles
This component modifies Single Weapon Style, Two-Handed Weapon Style and Sword and Shield Style in an attempt to make them more different from each other. It does not modify Two-Weapon Style. The descriptions are as follows:
TWO-HANDED:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a +1 bonus to damage rolls, a -2 bonus to Speed Factor.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets an additional +2 bonus to damage rolls, a further -2 bonus to Speed Factor, and the ability to score critical hits on a roll of 19 or 20 (instead of just 20) when using a two-handed weapon.
SWORD AND SHIELD:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a -2 bonus to AC against missile weapons.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets a -4 bonus to AC against missile weapons, as well as a -1 bonus to AC against all weapons.
SINGLE-WEAPON:
Proficient (1 slot): The wielder gets a -1 bonus to Speed Factor, gets a +1 bonus to hit rolls, and inflicts critical damage on an attack roll of 19 or 20.
Specialized (2 slots): The wielder gets an additional -1 bonus to Speed Factor, gets an additional +1 bonus to hit rolls, and inflicts critical damage on an attack roll between 18 and 20.
- Remove the limit of two proficiency points in a weapon at character creation
Excluding new kits or changes to existing kits by other mods, this only affects the Fighter class and the Archer kit. My reasoning for this is that the main advantage of fighters in Baldur's Gate is the ability to get more than two proficiency points in a weapon. However, since a fighter can only put in two points in a weapon at character creation, they are initially no better at fighting than any other warrior (while those other warriors have cool abilities). This will allow a fighter to be noticably better at wielding a weapon than, say, a paladin, right from the start of the game.
- Give proficiency-based extra attacks per round to non-warriors
This only matters if those non-warriors can get more than one proficiency point in a weapon. I thought it would be nice for swashbucklers to get another 1/2 attack per round, since they don't get as many bonuses in BG1 as they do in ToB.
- Make Assassin Backstab Multiplier Increase Faster
One of the main features of assassins is the fact that their backstab multiplier keeps increasing after 5x. However, since they don't get to 6x or 7x until BG2, this feature is completely meaningless in BG1. This component allows assassins to become noticably better at backstabbing than a normal thief even in BG1. It makes it so that assassins get a multiplier bonus every three levels after 1, rather than than every four levels after 1.
- Make bard songs improve earlier
In BG1, bards are stuck with the same song for the whole game. It would be nice for the song to improve faster. After all, by the end of BG1 in this mod you start facing Throne of Bhaal-tier enemies, so shouldn't your bards have Throne of Bhaal-tier songs? This makes it so that the jester, skald and unkitted bard songs improve at levels 5 and 10, rather than at levels 15 and 20.
- Improve Wizard Slayers
This component does two things: it changes the progressive Magic Resistance gain to +5% per level (so it becomes noticable even in BG1) and makes the on-hit spell failure effect offer a Save vs. Breath at -10.
- Improve Stalkers
This component allows the Stalker to use their three special abilities at level 6 instead of level 12, and it makes them innate abilities rather than spells. Without this component, a Stalker does not get those abilities at all in BG1.
- Improve Beast Masters
The main ability of a Beast Master (which they sacrifice SO MUCH for) is the ability to summon animals. However, they can't summon any animals until level 8. This component lets them summon animals right from the start of the game. The Beast Master is given innate Animal Summoning abilities as he/she gains levels, as shown:
- 1st level: Can cast Animal Summoning I as an innate ability once per day.
- 2nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning I an additional time per day.
- 4th level: Can cast Animal Summoning II as an innate ability once per day.
- 6nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning II an additional time per day.
- 8th level: Can cast Animal Summoning III as an innate ability once per day.
- 10nd level: Can cast Animal Summoning III an additional time per day.
- Improve Shapeshifters
This component only affects the Shapeshifter kit; the normal druid shapeshifting forms are modified automatically to match the abilities those forms normally have. This component does two things: it gives the Shapeshifter access to the Greater Werewolf form at level 10 rather than level 13, and it powers up the Werewolf and Greater Werewolf forms. Here are their desriptions:
Shapeshift: Werewolf
Strength: 18 (if lower than 18)
Dexterity: 18 (if lower than 18)
Constitution: 20 (if lower than 20)
Base Armor Class: 4
Number of Attacks: 3
Attack Damage: 1d6 (slashing), strikes as +2 weapon
- Deals an additional 1d6 slashing damage on a critical hit (will not happen if the critical hit is averted)
Special Abilities:
- Magic Resistance: +20%
- Invisible on transformation
- Backstab Multiplier: 2x
- Regenerate 1 HP per 2 seconds (in addition to regeneration due to Constitution)
Shapeshift: Greater Werewolf
Strength: 21 (if lower than 21)
Dexterity: 21 (if lower than 21)
Constitution: 25 (if lower than 25)
Base Armor Class: -2
Number of Attacks: 4
Attack Damage: 2d6 (slashing), strikes as +3 weapon
- Deals an additional 2d6 slashing damage on a critical hit (will not happen if the critical hit is averted)
Special Abilities:
- Immunity to non-magical weapons
- Magic Resistance: +40%
- Fire Resistance: +50%
- Cold Resistance: +50%
- Acid Resistance: +50%
- Electricity Resistance: +50%
- Invisible on transformation
- Backstab Multiplier: 3x
- Regenerate 1 HP per second (in addition to regeneration due to Constitution)
- Improve Dragon Disciples
This component lets a Dragon Disciple gain additional uses of the breath weapon at levels 6 and 9. I don't like how they normally only get one use of it.
- Improve Monks
Monks aren't great in BG1 normally. Sure, they make up for it by being awesome in BG2, but I don't care about BG2 in this mod. This component mainly gives monks more potential at high level. It changes the monk XP table so that a monk can reach level 9 in BG1, and it gives each monk kit a great ability at level 9. Unkitted Monks get Quivering Palm, Sun Soul Monks get Sun Soulbeam, and Dark Moon Monks get Darkness 15' Radius (it's a different file from the one in Siege of Dragonspear). Dark Moon Monks also now have a x2 backstab multiplier (which doesn't improve) and get Mirror Image at level 8 instead of level 11.
- Make rangers and paladins get spells slightly quicker
One advantage that rangers and paladins have over fighters is that they can cast a couple of divine spells. The problem is that it takes them so long to get these spells that they spend most of the game not having any spells at all. In fact, paladins don't get any spells in BG1 whatsoever! This component allows rangers and paladins to start learning spells earlier, though they still learn spells very slowly. At level 4, they get a single 1st level spell slot. At level 6, they get another. At level 8, they get a 2nd level spell slot. This component overwrites the original tables for ranger and paladin spell slots.
- Allow Kensai to wear gloves
The main advantage of a Kensai is their bonus to hit and damage. However, the fact that they can't wear gauntlets means that their THAC0 and damage are barely any better than a regular Fighter, who can wear the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and get almost the same bonuses. This component allows a Kensai to wear gauntlets. You may also choose to allow them to wear bracers as well (the argument against this is that it would defeat the purpose of their drawback of not being able to wear armor).
- Put a Bag of Holding in the game
This component makes a Bag of Holding obtainable in non-SOD Baldur's Gate 1. The component lets you choose whether to make it easily accessible right at the beginning of the game or to delay it until you can get to Baldur's Gate. It also lets you choose whether the bag can hold a medium number of items or a virtually unlimited number.
- Raise the experience cap
This component lets you set the experience cap for BG1 to whatever you want. Note that although increasing the experience cap won't necessarily make the mod too easy, the mod was heavily designed around the 161000 cap. This component is primarily intended for solo players who would otherwise reach the experience cap too fast.
- Have all player-created characters start with some experience at the beginning of the game
If you want to start the game at a higher level, this component lets you give starting experience to all player-created characters. You get to enter the amount of experience to give, though it cannot take the character past the XP cap. This component will NOT give experience to joinable NPCS (though as usual they will start at a higher level if the protagonist is high level).
Note: With regards to the balance of this component, the early parts of the mod are designed in a way as to be beatable by a low level party but still challenging for a high level party. Even still, starting at max level will definitely make the Nashkel Mines a lot easier. If you want to start at a higher level without changing the difficulty of the early game much, I recommend choosing to start with 2500, 5000, or 10000 experience. Since the party reaches the XP cap very quickly in this mod even if they start with 0 experience, starting with slightly more experience won't matter much in the long run.
- Move the starting locations of Quayle, Eldoth and Tiax to make them accessible at the beginning of the game
This component allows these three characters to join your party early on. Quayle is next to the obelisk in the area between Beregost and the Friendly Arm Inn. Eldoth is in the Red Sheaf Inn. Tiax is near the road in the area just north of Nashkel.
- Allow bard songs to stack
Before the Enhanced Editions prevented bards songs from stacking, I had done multi-bard playthroughs. From my experience, stacking bard songs was powerful but not broken. This component allows songs from multiple bards of the same kit to stack.
- Revise Wisdom bonus spell table
Normally, as your Wisdom goes up you eventually stop receiving bonus spells for lower spell levels. This isn't a problem in the base game since your Wisdom score can only be so high. However, in this mod you can potentially increase your Wisdom up to 25 using tomes, so I wanted to give you a reward for doing so. This component makes it so that you will keep getting bonus divine spells as your Wisdom score reaches epic heights. It overwrites the normal Wisdom bonus spell table.
[/spoiler]
Reasons to try out this mod:
- Since the NPCs all have very different powers, the game can play very differently depending on which NPCs you have in your party.
- The variety of interesting abilities granted to the player characters, as well as the diverse selection of equipment, allow for all sorts of different builds.
- You have great leeway in determining the power level of your party. The mod enables you to change the experience cap and/or have your party start the game at a higher level. The mod has a very flexible difficulty; starting at a higher level will not make the game too easy, but it's still beatable if you start at level 1.
- This mod makes the game feel new and different. You never know what creatures, encounters, or items you'll come across in the next stretch of wilderness. You can't rely as much on prior knowledge of the game.
Lastly, the mod is just plain fun. I made this mod because I was bored with the unmodded game and I wanted to spice it up.
Tips for playing this mod:
- For the first playthrough, play on Normal difficulty.
- I recommend installing the component that gives additional experience to the PC at the beginning of the game, and setting the experience given to 10000 or 20000.
- When exploring the wilderness, always have a character scout ahead in stealth or invisibility. That way, they will know what enemies are up ahead and your team can prepare for battle without as much metagaming.
- Watch out for doppelgangers. They appear very early in the game in this mod and they deal a lot of damage in melee. If you fight a doppelganger, don't let it get near you.
Compatibility:
This mod is not compatible with Sword Coast Strategems, Item Revisions, or Spell Revisions. New items, NPCs, and creatures from other mods currently are not modified by this mod. However, if you start the game with a custom kit, your character will get the same special abilities as the base class for that kit.
You can download the latest version below: