I hope for Horn of Valhalla item summon to last longer than 1turn. Like if cast boosting spell on it, will be quite wasted due to summon dissappear so fast. So I suggest 5 turn for all version of that item.

Thank you for the offer sadly, I still have many things half-done so I doubt it would be possible to play smoothly without problems.

But worry not. On my todo list there are less than 10 fights that will require more work (with Abazigal and Sendai being the most involving ones) for the upcoming patch and I'm actively working on them.


That's a good suggestion, however don't forget that the creature will get a standard debuff after 1 turn, when Enrage ends

Alright cool, no problem

What do you guys think of Paladins and Paladin kits?

Pally's are ok, with right equipment.

In 6.5 version they were underpowered compared to ranger kits and some fighter kits (my personal favorite as in the DD in particular). Or alternatively, Pallys needed the proper gear to play smooth (6.X JD works great on a pally), then hey are great fun to play - even Keldorn with his very sub-optimal stats.

The "saving grace" for Pallys used to be blessed bracers, as it's an unique quite powerful piece of equipment specifically for them that's not overlapping with any other gear. That plus blessinsgs + proper weapons (= JD) made them quite powerful. And inquisitor was a nice kit, that definitely made 3-5 tough fights much easier or alternatively Undead Hunter with permanent immunities was pretty good.

Then the 7.0 changed things. Many of the fighter kits got comprehensive turbo-boosts (RB & Barbarian in particular) while Pallys didn't get anything, besides nerfed JD (haven't played a pally though at 7.0). And their unique piece of equipment is now usable by Mazzy + Barbarians. Power wise Vagrant, Protector, Berserker, RB, Kensai, Barbarian, DD, Chamooin of Arvoreen and the Wizard Slayer are just way more powerful (imo.). They don't really compare. So is especially the 6.5 Swashbuckler/Hexxat.

Undead Hunter is still viable. So is the inquisitor. Cavalier could be fun to play as mediocre fighter kit that it is but with superpowers vs dragons & demons (don't know what it could be besides immunities to most devastating effects, maybe + hit / damage rolls, a special ability or something).

Hi pekkae!

I generally agree with your comments. I'm glad you liked the bracers - they were fun to see come together into a nice little Ch 6 item.

Do you think the solution is to nerf the other classes or buff paladins? If buffing paladins, what would make them more viable while remaining unique compared to the other classes and say a fighter/cleric or ranger/cleric?

Yea, that's a real nice piece of equipment - especially in 6.X versions where those type of equipment were super rare.

I think with Jacek's improvements the F/C (especially dwarf F/C) will be very powerful & viable option for everyone. It will leave the pally in the dust. And ofcourse especially the "full access to druidic spells" R/C will be a monster. (I'm looking to play that, haha)

But about Pallys. I'm not sure what to do with Keldorn, it seems he's quite difficult to balance out. He used to be quite good with JD, then with the new armour + equipment he was drag to play until he got everything and afterwards it was quite smooth sailing (with 9 APR dual wielding JD + The Truth for example).

If we drop out Sibel + Lady Elowena enchantments from 7.0, then Pally's are better in line with the rest of the fighter kits and are kind'of'ok. It's just that Lady Elowena / Sibel doesn't add anything for Pallys in particular. Easy fix would be to cobble together Carsomyr/Holy Avenger + Damascus Steel Blade. That's a very powerful piece of equipment.

One possibly fun type would be to tweak the Cavalier into having truly powerful abilities against demons & dragons. I think it's in line lore-wise as well, as that's what the Kit is supposed to do. That would be a nice addition, in many ways quite mediocre character power wise but with superpowers against a few very difficult monster types.

Thanks pekkae!

Sibel mod is technically a separate mod, but you're right, there are no nice Paladin-specific items among the recipes of Lady Elowen.

Barbarians? Because Champion of Arvoreen is a Fighter kit and item restrictions are quite rigid in BG games, the item might be usable by pure Fighters, but I had no idea Barbarians also qualified for that

I finally finished Paladin Rebalance mini-component and decided to share it with you:

Lay on hands finally becomes a good ability and no access to it becomes a real penalty to some kits. I like to envision Paladins as knights with a sword and a shield, so they can now use both of those items with greater skill.

Yes, Inquisitors regained their ability to cast spells. That lack of 10PDR from Armor of Faith made them a poor choice for some more hardcore runs and 4th level has some quite nice spells, so they're still at a disadvantage.

Just a tiny change, the kit needed at least a small disadvantage in comparison to non-kitted Paladins. If you have any ideas on how to change the damage/thac- bonuses, it would be great, as the bonuses from spells, abilities and items don't stack with each other and might lead to non-optimal and confusing bonus calculations, so I'd like to switch that to something else, I'm just not sure yet what could it be.

Yes. I think this is really good, as Barbs were in quite the disadvantage before. Without Elowen upgrades Barbs is at a major disadvantage, the DD is just a superior choice (especially in 6.X version where cloak of atonement/SoA is accessible). access to the gauntlets of blessed might improves the situation quite a bit to balance it out, without making Barbs too powerful (they are still at a disadvantage compared to numerous Kits/Classes). But obviuosly then 7.0 + Sibel/Elowen brings nerfed DD + nerfed cloak of atonement + Barb get superpowers, so it's a the other way around now .



Thaks! I appreciate that!

This looks quite nicely balanced, without going OP. The abilities are useful and without Sibel/Elowen, looks like quite nicely in line with the other Kits. The Pally with a sword & shield definitely "looks the part", but I think the problem is that with Elowen/Sibel mod the Damascus Steel Blade is the superior choice for a weapon. Maybe add a Elowen recipe for a Bastard Sword for Pally's still, that combines Purifier +4 (is that still in the game?) + Death of a thouseand cuts + water's edge + holy avenger/carsomyr into a single uber sword for Pallys? And maybe a shield or an amulet? (Say sensate amulet + permanent protection from evil + something that enhances Pally's "natural" abilities...?)



That helps. Though in my games I just skipped AoF (play pally as a 2-handed specialist until JD and then just rock away with DW). I've only ever played Keldorn as an inquisitor and he doesn't make a tank at any point - as lowe hp's, low dex -> low ac and not really proper DR makes sure of that.

To me it looks like the Cavalier is still at disadvantage compared to the other (and isn't probably played that much as a result). Could the Cavalier's abilities vs. Dragon's / Demons be further enhanced? One unique ability would be the ability to neutralize fear/hold/silence/greater malison - that would be quite unique and powerful.

That would also make it a very compelling choice in a necro-less party, as it would have supplementing skill-set to i.e. a Sorceror / Avenger protagonist (or why not a pally protagonist...)

And a few additional notes about possible tweaks:

1) I'm not sure of the "detect evil" is useful skill at all? Could that just be removed?
2) About PfE (possibilities to make the ability actually useful)
- Could the protection from evil be worked so that it's actually useful thing in a fight? (maybe switch pfe to protection from evil 10" with low casting time)
- Or could it not be limited to level 20? so the duration (as it's supposed to be) will last ... vey long?
- If it's a single target spell, with a long duration and maybe becomes non-dispellable at say level 25 (=> the amount of PfE's should be limited (say a level 25 pally gets 6 so it can buff teh entire crew...))
3) maybe insted of 1 remove fear per level per day the pally could have a "remove fear ability", that last for 1 round per level. that keeps "pulsating". so essentially casts remove fear once a turn. affects everything nearby? (that's more useful and sort of the same power wise, I think).

If we have a cavalier, without even equipment upgrades, but with

- Up above rebalancing by Jacek
- PfE tweak: that makes the spell more useful than the current one (with up above changes or something similar)
- Remove Fear tweak: more useful now
- Some further boosts agains dragons / demons
- Gets lay on hands every 15 levels, can't use missile weapons, gets only 1* in staffs and spears

That would actually make for a nice and quite ok balanced character, without being OP at all. (imho of course.)

Oh btw.

I've been toying around in AI image generators (again).

I think there's a fair to good chance, that a trained AI could provide nice maps for the game. It just needs a little bit of proper training / context to do it.

Not sure of those are needed and I of course don't have that much understanding of how big of a process these things are but it looks like a nice way to refresh.

Hmm, was Barb that much worse than DD? I've never played with a DD, so I might be missing something, but Barb immunities that he gets from level 1 are amazing. Actually, I don't even remember any nerfs to DD that were introduced in v7.0, what were they?
And I have good/bad news regarding the Cloak of Atonement - it will be heavily changed in the upcoming patch, but it will still grant access to Shield of Archon or AoF.


Good! That's what I'm aiming for

And what about poor non-kitted Paladin? He's also left behind...


Yeah, DSB is a problematic weapon, but there's only one instance of that weapon, so not everyone can use it at least.

As mentioned before, ideally, I'd want to get rid of that +thac0/dmg bonuses that the kit gets and substitute them with something else, so all ideas are welcome


To my knowledge it's useful in exactly one situation during Paladin Stronghold quest. Oh and you can potentially detect evil characters and kill them without penalties and without staining your consciousness for roleplay purposes.


Those are some really nice ideas, thanks!

Yes. Much worse

6.X> DD reaches lower effective AC (much lower) and has 45% non-dispellable DR (gets to 40% DR in chapter 3), while barbarian gets 20% non-dispellable DR (much later) & much worse AC. Barbarian gets the immunities, but DD gets better saves - it actually has so ridiculous saves that it sort of gets "immunities" as well. DD can quite comfortably run through improved webs in uderdark already, for example.

7.0> DD is nerfed so that it only reaches 40% non dispellable DR (innate + defensive stance). Barbarian gets to non-dispellable 40% with the new armour + innate. And the Sibel/Elowen introduced new equipment mean, that Barb can reach similar low levels of AC while it gets a boost to damage dealing (as it can use the pall bracers). DR is now a superbly useful strategy on a barbarian, but not for the DD. So Barbs now has several advantages over the DD.



Haha, that's good. The 6.X DD with Cloak of Atonement was like a continuous cheatcode, it made things waaay too easy.

Well. But isn't the non-kitted ranger quite behind as well? As well as the non-kitted fighter? In that way I think it's in aligned .




Hmh. Okay. So for Cavalier

How about then removing the dmg+thaco bonuses vs. dragons & demons and introduce an ability, that nullifies the most devastating effects of a dragons/demos (so silence, fear, gives fire resistance or so ... let's say it's an "aura effect", 10" radius, pulsating 2x/round, lasts for 4 rounds). But keep the Cavalier otherwise in line with what was discussed previously. To me, it would look like this achieves the following:

-> the abilities & their usefullness are quite dependant on the party composition. In a Necro party, they are quite useless. But if you are playing a sorceror (or avenger, or a Pally), they are highly useful and almost crucial.
-> the kit isn't very powerful on it's own, it's just like a mediocre fighter kit with one very superpower against quite rare creature types (5 fights or so).
-> if the ability is limited to say 3/4 rounds, it still requires skill & understanding to use; it's not a simple thing that makes dragon fights super easy. You need to be prepared & have a good understanding to properly use it.
-> if heavenly shield + pfe + remove fear modifications are added, can add disadvantages as well. Maybe inrtoduce reduction to 2-handed weapons ability (only 1* on quarterstaff), this is a real limitation that hinders it's effectiveness, as it doesn't make much of a front-line tank at any point. So for parts of the game it will be leaning in 2H wespons (or positioning for those who know how to use it). In addition, if that's an aura effect, that is truly powerful, maybe it can have devastating consequences - if the ability is made super powerful but it then comes at a big disadvantage - say pally gets -9con, fatigue, non-dispellable slow and -5 to thac0, +5 AC after the aura effect runs out or so?

Yup. Maybe it can have one or so? (I don't think anyone has used the 30 or se detect evils it gets in any version of the game , but might be wring of course.



I'm happy I can do something here.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for any further changes to Barbs/DDs. Barb immunities are amazing at the beginning, but you're right, later on you get amazing Saving Throws, so only immunities to no-save effects stay useful (like Level Drain or Imprisonment). Barbs are still much more mobile than DDs, especially if they use their Stance ability, right?


There's a huge difference between those. Paldins can't dual/multiclass, which means that all forms of Paladin should be relatively equal in general power, as there's no possibility for a powerful combo with some other class or kit. Luckily I got some ideas from our discussions here


Thanks, the more ideas to choose from, the better

what about an ability to finish dragon and fiends of more quickly.
for example dealing extra energy damage for a short period of time or countering bleeding and slow effect.
giving him some resistance against slashing which comes from most demons would be nice or lets say u can choose which enemy u face and get resistance like the valygar kit.

OR if we say chavalier is a special shield user, then lets make him tanky comparable to dd at the cost of weapons restrictions like not pierce weapons or only slash weapons

u can also see this paladin as the tank/support and use anomen as a npc for that.
as a tank support damage reduction has to be in or spells which enhances the ac of himself or the group. i could imagine that a short duration spells like the ice dust potion could work for him. to protect against the breath weapons or the triple horrild wilting. lets say a 20 percent damage reduction boost for 3 seconds .

OR make him offensiv like a planetar. with blades curling around him and insta kill abitliy like a vorpal attack against demons like mariliths or rakhshasa. if vorpal effect is to strong lets make them get bleeding effect which hinder them to cast protection from magical weapons.

Yes. Barb is much more agile. But especially the 6.5 DD is amazing, as the defensice stance helps with saving throws + it gets the DD that +25% non-dispellable DR. So the DD doesn't need much to stay afloat vs. say Ancient Golem (assuming you can start the fight with -31 effective AC vs crushing. Just a little bit of regen/healing needed and it can completely rock the encounter. While a 6.5 barbarian has no chance and needs constant help. It also means that the DD doesn't really need "hardiness" so it can just choose something else for HLA's, while Barbs needs to invest in Hardiness'es.

Right, Pally's cant dual class. Maybe that should be taken into account. But I'm having a little hard time trying to figure uot how

Thanks for the ideas, I think I now have enough to work with for all Paladins apart from Blackguard, which might be rewoked at some later point.

I don't think that the game will allow for a true P/X multi/dualclass. Many things regarding classes are hardcoded and can be changed only with Eeex, which is a Windows-only thing.


Ok, here's another teaser of what's to come:



I hope you'll like the kit and will give it a try. Since it's a Beast Master I wanted to almost exclusively focus on the kit's bond with animals. It should also synergize well with Druids and their summons, if you decide to pick both.

Looks really interesting, great work!

What party would you recommend to get the most out of all the changes?

I suggest new item (that would be obtainable prespellhold and +4):
Mace of Disruption +4
-Double dmg vs undead

Crafted from Mace of Disruption +2 and permanency scroll and 50k gold.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Mace_of...f_Disruption_+2

That's a tough question. There will be many changes, but I think that all, or at least most of my rerowked classes/kits are still weaker than the staples of IA, which are Auramaster/Necro/Vagrant protagonist/RB/Kensai/DD. So I think that players will have to balance between new stuff and battle-tested old kits in order to pass the mod

But if you were feeling really advanturous, then maybe something like:
1. Beast Master protagonist with IATweaks components that grant access to Vagrant items and quests (though you won't be able to use FoDW)
2. Abjurer
3. Assassin Halfling
4. Auramaster
5. Priest of Tempus
6. some powerful melee kit like a RB, Kensai or DD
This party is probably very suboptimal, but it should encourage you to use as many of the new/reworked aspects as you can to survive I also hope that Abjurer + Auramaster will be a powerful combination, especially on higher levels. There are 2 fully reworked kits: BM and Assassin, that should be a breath of fresh air.

or:
1. Shaman protagonist
2. Priest of Talos/Viconia
3. Cavalier
4. Edwin
5. Illusionist/Fighter (or a B=>M, as faster spell progression might be required)
6. some powerful melee kit like a RB, Kensai or DD
There are no "fully" reworked characters here, but all 5 get at least some improvements.


I'd love to see players experimenting and can't wait to read some journals/smaller posts with detailed info of their adventures, but because IA is very difficult and there will be many things changed, I think I should encourage some degree of caution:)


The game definitely needs a good mace recipe, thanks for pointing that out! Mace of Disruption seems like an obvious choice here too.

Hm. From my part I always have quite an easy time with dragons, if I have a necro PC (or alternatively Cernd works ok here as well, a little bit). If I don't, they become quite a lot more difficult.

I'm not sure if a necro-lead party needs to have easier time with dragon fights? And if the part isn't led by a Necro, then the difficulty comes from dragon's abilities (mostly silence, fear, lowering of resistances etc), right?

Ha. This looks like a very nice addition to my personal favorite "party type" in general, which is the "max summons" party. Even without these addons, that particular party type is strong enough to blow through the entire game, but this makes that type even stronger. The only downside is that this overlaps a little bit with Vagrant armour-wise.

Are any of the existing NPC's going to be turned into a beastmaster? I think it would fit Minsc the best, probably. Valygar would be a nice choice here as well, if only because the armour works nicely on a beastmaster. But still probably Minsc.

So....

Necro (PC)
Valygar the Vagrant
Minsc the Beastmaster
Jaheira the Avenger
Sibel the S/C
Cernd the Auramaster

=> This crew should have all of the best possible summons in the game and ample capability for buffing them, without that much overlap weapons wise or some akward combinations like having multiple same class/kit characters in a party. Cernd will be crucial as the -5 version of the Auramaster can keep the summons alive, even vs the supreme golem.



A new mace would definitely be needed, as the existing are quite terrible . There's a few nice templated in the game though that could be improved, like the mace of disruption that Dequ proposed.

I can't guarantee that the Dragons will be much tougher, but if you decide to install Controversial Changes component, then the gap between Necro and non-Necro protagonist should be a bit smaller when facing Dragons. And ofc you can skip Cavaliers if you have Necro protagonist


I view Beastmasters as an alternative to Vagrants, their summons might be worse in general, but they have an endless supply of them and if properly buffed, even the summons should be able to pack a punch. With Animal Fortitude and Unified Minds your Smilodon can have 216HP and 75% physical resistances, which should help greatly with its survivability.

Some new kit choices should be added to IATweaks, but I'll do that last, when I'm finished with everything else, but I agree that Minsc andd Valygar are probably the best choice here, though Valygar won't be able to use his katana and Minsc his sword...


Conjurers were also buffed