Talents of Faerûn released! (in Beta)

[DavidW]

I'm very pleased to announce the first release of Talents of Faerûn .

Talents of Faerûn (ToF) is a collection of mini-mods for the Enhanced Edition versions of Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, and Icewind Dale. It contains many optional tweaks to various parts of gameplay, focusing on expanding and rebalancing player character abilities. There are about 85 components in all; highlights include:

• A subrace system modeled on Icewind Dale II
• A sphere system for cleric and druid spells, loosely based on pen-and-paper Advanced Dungeons and Dragons but heavily modified to reflect the needs of a computer game, along with about 20 new gods for clerics to worship
• A new character class, the Favored Soul, which spontaneously casts cleric spells (i.e., a clerical-magic version of the Sorcerer or Shaman), along with about 25 kits for that class (one per god)
• Implementation of the pen-and-paper rule that mage specialists must memorize at least one spell from their school at each level, along with the option to automatically add one correct-school spell to their spell book at each level
• A new style of magic, elementalism, and four new mage kits who specialize in each of the four elements, along with significant revisions for elementals themselves
• A new system for sorcerers—bloodlines—which grants a sorcerer additional known spells at the cost of making some spell schools inaccessible
• The option for druids to multi-class as mages, rangers, or thieves
• About 75 multi-classed kits, along with the option to dual-class from a single-classed to a multi-classed kit
• A new proficiency system, very loosely based on 3rd edition D&D, where characters can use all weapons and begin proficient in a group of weapons dependent on their class, and where non-fighters can gain some level of weapon training
• A new high-level ability system for Baldur's Gate II, including about 150 new abilities (some borrowed from classic mods, some original)
• A new 'low-level ability' system, where characters gain a new ability every 3 levels; this is loosely based on Icewind Dale II's feat system.
• A rebalancing of many of the original-game kits to work better in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale
• A number of rule chances to ability scores, inspired by 3rd edition D&D
• A dozen or so new spells, along with a range of tweaks to existing spells

A hidden, common theme in ToF is that most of its changes rely to some extent on the ability to edit the user interface—something that the Enhanced Editions have made possible but which has been exploited to only a limited extent so far. (One major reason I wrote ToF was to build systematic ways to exploit this powerful new modding technique.)

Many components of ToF overlap with other mods, though the implementations are usually different. As always, you should read the documentation carefully and decide what is best for your game.

ToF is in beta. I've tested it a fair amount but it is large and complicated, and it is 100% certain that it contains many bugs, some of which will be serious. Use at own risk - but if you do try it, please do let me know how it goes and report any bugs you find.

Grab it direct here.