Sword Coast Stratagems: Gameplay Tweaks

Standardise spells between BG and BG2

At the moment, BG1Tutu and BGT are both a bit inconsistent in their use of BG2-only spells (like Stoneskin or Holy Smite). Non-player characters don't have any of these spells, and enemies don't use them, but party sorcerors, clerics and druids have access to them, and party mages can choose them at first level.

This component offers two alternative ways to resolve the inconsistency. The first (available only for BG1Tutu players) blocks player access to all BG2-only spells except for Find Familiar and the various wild-magic spells.

(A version of this component was previously available as part of TutuFix, but turned out to be buggy and to cause occasional crashes. This version works by a different principle, and should (touch wood) be crash-free.)

The second alternative (new as of version 9) reintroduces into BG all of the new wizard spells of fifth level or lower. Some are added to stores, others to treasure caches.

Faster bears

"If you're in the woods, and you run into an angry bear, don't worry about it. Bears can't move very fast, you can outdistance it at a brisk walk".

It's unrealistic that BG bears can't catch up with the party. This component tweaks their movement rate until it's about the same as for humans. This also makes the druid's bear shapeshift less annoying.

This component is identical to the SCSII component of the same name and only one will be installable at a time (this is only relevant for BGT players.)

Allow player to choose NPC proficiencies and skills

At the moment the various NPCs who join your party have their existing proficiencies, thief skills etc. determined for you according to what the designers of BG and/or Tutu had in mind. There's nothing wrong with this, but it can be interesting - especially if you've played several times - to have more flexibility.

This component gives you the chance to select each character's proficiencies from scratch. It does so in a slightly convoluted way (to get around game-engine difficulties): when a new NPC joins your party, they start at level 0. They immediately go up a level, so you get to choose their starting skills. As soon as you've levelled them, they gain enough experience to go up to about the level of the PC, and you can give them any remaining proficiencies.

This differs from the BG2 Tweaks version (which is overwritten) because you get to choose proficiencies even for 1st-level characters. The component only works for the "core" NPCs in BG, not for any NPCs added by someone else's mod (or for BG2 NPCs). It won't work for a given NPC if you install it after you've already entered their area.

Note:the patch takes a few seconds to come into effect. If there's a 3-4 second pause when your character's statistics (hit points, say) aren't right, don't worry about it.

Allow NPC pairs to separate

One of the more frustrating aspects of BG is that many of the more interesting NPCs come in inseparable pairs (Khalid and Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir, etc.) Of course, it's always possible to get round this by leaving one member of a pair in a building or getting them killed, but it does spoil the suspension of disbelief a bit.

This component allows you to separate the pairs. If you kick one member of a pair out of the party, then the other still leaves - but if you speak to one member of a pair and invite them to join up, you get a dialogue option to take them but not their partner.

For technical reasons, this component and the next are combined into a single BGT component, "Better NPC management".

NPCs go to inns

One of the nice features of BG2 is the ability to ask NPCs to meet you somewhere else, rather than just getting them to stand around forlornly. This component introduces this feature for the "core" BG NPCs. You can send them to the Friendly Arm inn, the Elfsong tavern in Baldur's Gate (from chapter 5), the Nashkel Inn (if you've been to Nashkel), or the Jovial Juggler in Beregost (if you've been to Beregost). You can't send them there from Balduran's Isle, the Ice Island, the Candlekeep dungeons, or the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.

To send someone to an inn, first kick them out of the party. Then talk to them - you should be given the opportunity to ask them to go to an inn and await you there.

This component isn't compatible with the similarly-named BG1 NPC component "NPCs wait at inns". Install whichever one you want (you won't be allowed to install more than one). There isn't much difference between the two - the dialogue is handled a bit differently, and this version lets you send people to more inns.

For technical reasons, this component and the next are combined into a single BGT component, "Better NPC management".

Allow Yeslick to use axes

It seems appropriate that Yeslick, who is a dwarven fighter-cleric, ought to be able to use the traditional dwarven weapon; this component allows him to.

(There is a loophole here: due to the way the game engine works, this actually allows all fighter-clerics (not just Yeslick) to use axes. Yeslick is actually the only NPC fighter-cleric in the core game but it might affect third-party NPCs, or your primary character (and, for BGT users, it will affect Anomen). If you want to take advantage of this then be my guest, but it wasn't the intended function of the component.)

Move NPCs to more convenient locations

Many of the BG NPCs are inconveniently located - either at places where you can't get to at all until late in the game (e.g. Baldur's Gate, the Cloakwood), or places where you in principle could get to but realistically wouldn't. This makes it annoying to experiment with varying your party: you have to leave extended gaps in your party until quite late, or unrealistically sneak into later-game areas to act on your Reload Knowledge of where someone is.

This component moves as many as possible of the NPCs to locations where you are likely to run into them fairly early in the game. Obviously it doesn't move all by any means (many have plot-related reasons for their locations).

Note that this component will only work if you start a new game.

BG1 NPC also moves some NPCs. If you've got BG1 NPC installed, this component will only move those NPCs (Shar-Teel and Viconia) whom BG1 NPC leaves alone.

Improved shapeshifting

This component (inspired in part by Wesley Weimer's Shapeshifter Rebalancing component) modifies all of the druid innate shapeshift abilities to be useable instantly (that is, without requiring a six-second cooldown before the next spell can be cast). It does so by creating "symbolic paws": if you equip one, you instantly shapeshift. Other than that, the effects of the shapeshift are largely the same as previously, though some of the ability score and attack bonuses have been tweaked slightly. Note that shapeshifting still blocks spellcasting.

If you have both this component and the "improved priests" component installed, enemy druids will use improved shapeshifting.

Prevent party members from dying irreversibly

This component tries to prevent "chunking", the annoying permanent death of your character when you're reduced below -10 hp. Characters who get reduced to 0 hp or below just die in the usual fashion and can be resurrected. It isn't possible to prevent quite all forms of chunking (massive damage from fire, in particular, still seems to cause chunking fairly reliably), but this component should make it a rarer occurrence.

This component is identical to the equivalent SCSII component.