Enhanced Creatures, Advanced informations Options

[aigleborgne]

Hi,

I will explain in details the purpose of this mod and many informations of its content.

Introduction
When I discovered Baldur's Gate, I found this game really difficult. Not only I was new to the game, but I didn't know anything about D&D.
Hopefully, a friend of mine was a game master in D&D, so I asked him many things about D&D rules, and finally, I bought a rules book. Even with that, I had hard time with the game, but I managed to finish it after 2 months. And it was before the expansion!
Because I had nightmares with Durlag's Tower, and I can't forget whole nights trying to figure how to get through the second floor (with all closed doors).

Well, just to explain that I had some real troubles to beat that game, as many others people I guess.
I replayed it many times, maybe 30 times. Sometimes with a solo or duo party, others with a full party.

After mastering the rules and knowning the game, it was a walk in a park. I was actually "cheating" by preparing combats a screen away from the fight.
Then, I become a true player, and didn't do this anymore (except some places when you are supposed to know there will be a fight).
Even then, the game was easy, and I managed to finish it 4 or 5 times without a single death of my PC (no reloads, no cheats, nothing bad)

Then, I forgot BG to focus on BG2. But some years after, Tutu arose! And it was good to play it again. But I was disapointed by many aspects, and so I decided to correct these.

Playing Baldur's Gate under BG2 engine
Many improvements made in BG2 are not effective in BG.
Now the question is : do we want an exact copy of BG or a better game ?
I want a better game, no doubt for me

Things that need to change:
- Kits : they are a great improvement and add a medium-big power to some classes. Unfortunaly, it affects only the player party. My berserker fighter was nearly a god in BG because he couldn't be stopped. My sorcerer was even better... I would like to fight powerful enemies that would have access to all kits!

- Spells : many BG1 spells are limited in power level, and many others have bugs or missing features. Then, BG2 introduced many new spells that would find a great use in BG1, both for enemies and player's party. The idea is to replace all BG1 spells by BG2's version, and to build a new spellbook for all spellcasters, giving them a better selection. Each caster would have a kit (sorcerer included) and a spellbook related to kit.

- Creatures : many enemies have wrong thac0, hp, saving throws, proef., ... sometimes it makes them weaker, sometimes stronger. I want them to be legal, and use an appropriate equipment. When I see level 7+ enemies wearing things I had when I was level 1, I'm shocked!

- Experience table : I never understood how they built it. I would like to see a consistent table.

- Monsters : most of them are a joke in this game. Some can be hard for lower party. But past level 7, I go through them like a knife in butter. The problem come from their conception. They miss many abilities and many of their stats are inaccurate.

- Overpowered items : Some really are and totaly imbalanced the game. Instead of not using them, I prefer to see tweak version of these items. Some examples: arrow of fireball, arrow of dispelling....

- Scripts : AI scripts are a total mess. This makes all NPC so easy to kill. Spellcasters cast their spells in a script order, doing nothing between cast, and target the nearest target. A tremendious work is needed here.


Enhanced Creatures, what need to be done

(to be continued)

[WizWom]

The Experience table....

In general, it's doubling for each level until "status", then a like amount per level after, with varying starting amounts, and some tweaking for balance (which only Gygax could really explain).

In other words, it's a really crufty historical thing. but I like it better than the 3e/NWN cumulative 1K/level unvarying by class.

ToB added the silliness of making 40th level take 8,000,000 exp, no matter how many exp it took to get to 39th. Except for classes that hadn't made 40th by 8,000,000 exp.