ToB tweaks?

[Guest thelee]

Is anyone working on or thinking about doing some ToB tweaks?

 

Basically, I hate ToB. I mean, I'll play it grudgingly because I feel like I need closure on SoA, but I *hate* ToB. It basically comes down to all the high-level abilities, and how thoroughly they destroy and warp game balance and game play.

 

Example 1. Getting more than 1 or 2 high levels as a cleric (to a lesser extent, the wizard) is utterly useless, as you pretty much pick up the 1 or 2 spells you'll ever use and stick to those. If even that, as generally I just load up all my clerics with Greater Restoration. At least with the wizard, you can also get the "Extra {6,7,8} level spell", so you can actually do something else other than pick up spells you'll never use. Compare this to, say, a Fighter, which can keep on picking up Whirlwind Attack until they're virtually an unstoppable, 10-attack/turn monster for an entire fight.

 

Example 2. Enhanced Bard Song completely negates the Jester's main ability, basically makes the Scald redundant, and arguably makes the Blade's Defensive Spin redundant and useless. Or what about the Bard getting all the traps? It makes you wonder why you bothered to invest in Set Traps for either yourself or Jan (unless you're a Bounty Hunter).

 

Example 3. The Ranger gets "Tracking" (oh my!), whereas the Paladin gets Summon Deva. Where the heck is the balance in that? I'd just load up the Ranger with Whirlwind, whereas Summon Deva is actually something I'd let the Paladin load up on. Not to mention the Paladin's Summon Deva is actually better than a Cleric's, as the Paladin's is a special ability (and so he can pick up an arbitrary number of uses/day), whereas the Cleric's is just a level 7 spell and has to share room with any other level 7 spell he wants to cast.

 

Example 4. Huge distortion in power increases. Going from level 17->18 as a Wizard is *immensely* powerful, as suddenly you can cast Time Stop and Improved Alacrity. With Project Image, you don't even really need any more levels. As such, 18->19 is marginal power increase, 19->20 is even more marginal etc. Whereas a fighter type (or a Thief/Bard picking up traps), going from their max SoA level->1 ToB level is a slight power increase, but unlike the wizard (or cleric), each extra ToB level continues to provide a pay off. Where as a level 27 Wizard isn't that much more powerful than a level 18 Wizard, a level 30 Thief (for example), is way more powerful than a level 21 thief, and you can definitely feel the difference (9 spike traps, heh heh).

 

So I feel like there should be a significant mod for ToB that addresses alot of these issues. Is there one that does this? If not, is it possible to dramatically tweak the high-level abilities? Am I even not alone in thinking this about ToB?

[Wisp]

Rogue Rebalancing already deals extensively with bards and thieves and takes care of issues such as the enhanced bard songs and bards getting traps.

[razlyubleno]

A few options here, really.

 

You could remove HLAs altogether. Or you could install Refinements, which balances the HLAs to a pretty good extent.

 

You could install Spell Revisions to balance the spell system. Or you could just install the component of SCSII that nerfs Greater Restoration, so that your clerics have to be a bit more diverse.

 

Rogue Rebalancing has already been mentioned. You might as well take a look at aTweaks as well, which IIRC gives a few options to balance clones, among other things.

 

razly

[Steve]

DavidW's "The Wheels of Prophecy" also makes TOB more interesting: http://www.gibberlings3.net/wheels/

[thelee]

You could remove HLAs altogether. Or you could install Refinements, which balances the HLAs to a pretty good extent.

 

this

 

where/what is this?

 

also, just glancing at the Rogue Rebalancing mod, yikes! it answers pretty much every gripe i have with the bard set up in BG2.

[razlyubleno]

this

 

where/what is this?

http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/refinements

 

razly