Morgoth

Am I wrong, or once you enter Baldur's gate city, unless you lockpick private properties, there is not much to explore? I think I checked most of them, and only one had content (thieves inside the house actually stealing stuff), while the rest was just generic npcs asking you to go away. The only house I've lockpicked was the one where Abela the Nymph was detained. So, if you are a good character, what is left to explore?

Two months of down. Kinda unexpected. And sad.

Namely the comparison is between BG:EE, Skills and abilities and Artisan's tweaks. Bg tables redone.docx

Camdawg, I saw now that you had answered me. Thanks a lot. I admit that if you were to ask me about all these things, the better troll handling is the one I care about the most. It's sad that it can't be improved. There are a lot of mods around that touch the troll falling into the ground, so I think it's not an "issue" felt only by me that the system is far from perfect.

I didn't realize that. The readme of the mod makes no mention of this difference (talking only about Lowres mod and highres mod). I had thought there were some more videos that weren't converted by Beamdog and were removed outright from the game. And that you left the player the choice to only sub the movies redone by Beamdog, or all of them (the second option).

Thanks to you both. Another report. I'm playing with ~BGEECLASSICMOVIES/BGEECLASSICMOVIES.TP2~ #0 #1 // Restore BG1 movies to BG:EE -> Add missing movies: v2.3.0 I think the author is @Sam. I'm getting two beamdog videos rather than the original: - friendly arm inn video; - davaeorn's mine drowning video. Suggestions?

This is a file comparing the skills: https://easyupload.io/dejin8 I don't know if you're interested copying it into the readme, but you are welcome to do so (that's what I was looking for when checking the styles). I was a bit surprised, because I didn't notice before, that you removed the critical on two-handed weapon style. I guess you went for it due to the 1.5x bonus to strength damage? So, critical hits vs consistent damage, and consistent damage surely takes the crown.

Great. I'm looking forward to scales of balance new version.

hey Jastey/CamDawg, or any other admin. Would it be possible to move this topic to Theorycraft section?

Took the post from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/9v86r7/how_important_are_weapon_proficiency_points/. I will copy the post. Question: The thing that always makes me nervous is that some melee classes, like Fighter>Mage, can get five points, but some others, like Paladin, can only get two points. Do the three extra weapon proficiency points make a huge difference? Is it noticeable? Answer (written by Xiathorn): Let's do the maths! At 1 PP, i.e. the max for thieves, you're getting 1APR with no bonuses. At 2 PP you're getting 1.5 APR with -1 THAC0 and +2 Damage. At 5 PP you're getting 2 APR with -3 THAC0 and +5 Damage. A non-magical Longsword is 1D8 damage. With 18/51 STR, you're getting -2 THAC0 and +3 Damage. Let's do the numbers for a level 1 'warrior' type, where it is impossible to have more than Specialised anyway. We'll assume we're hitting stuff with 6AC, as that's not unreasonable for the part of the game. 1PP : 1x 1D8 +3, 18 THAC0. 40% hit chance. On average, you will do 2.8 damage per round. 2PP : 1.5x 1D8 + 5, 17 THAC0. 45% hit chance. On average, you will do 6.075 damage per round. That's a huge difference. Now let's look at level 9, the earliest you can get 5-pip (unless you do some dual fuckery like Fighter->Thief). At level 7, warrior types get an extra 0.5 APR. We will assume you have a +2 weapon by this point, and are hitting stuff with 2AC. We will also assume you haven't yet got 19 STR. 1PP : 1.5APR 1D8 + 5, 10 THAC0, 60% hit chance. 8.1 damage per round. 2PP : 2 APR 1D8 + 7, 9 THAC0, 65% hit chance. 14.3 damage per round. 5PP : 2.5 APR, 1D8 + 10, 7 THAC0, 75% hit chance. 26.25 damage per round. As you can see, this is a huge jump - almost double damage. The lower the enemy AC (i.e. the better armour they have), the more pronounced this becomes. Against an enemy with -10AC, the 2PP would do 1.1 damage per round while the 5PP would do 3.5 But what happens when we hit level 13? This is where things get a bit more balanced. We will assume that you have picked up the Strength tome by now and have 19 STR, which maens -3 Thac0 and +7 damage. Let's also assume we're up to a +3 weapon now. Let's hit a -4 AC enemy. 1PP : 2APR 1D8 + 10, 5 THAC0. 55% hit chance. 15.4 damage per round. 2PP : 2.5 APR, 1D8 + 12, 4 THAC0. 60% hit chance. 24 damage per round. 5PP : 3APR, 1D8 + 15, 2 THAC0. 70% hit chance. 39.9 damage per round. As you can see, that's still a big difference, but the gap has closed a little bit due to the better strength meaning Thac0 is less important, and 2.5/3 is bigger than 2/2.5 What if you're hitting something that's got crap armour? Let's assume a 95% hit chance (1 is always a miss). 1PP : 26.6 DPR 2PP : 38 DPR 5PP : 54.15 DPR As you can see, even in these circumstances the 5PP will get an extra 40% damage output. Because of the extra 0.5 APR, it scales with other bonuses in a way that other PPs (3 & 4) do not. Let's say we've got 25 Strength for shits and giggles: 1PP : 2APR 1D8 + 17 1 THAC0. 75% hit chance. 31.5 DPR. 2PP : 2.5APR 1D8 + 19, 0 THAC0. 80% hit chance. 46 DPR. 5PP : 3APR 1D8 + 22, -2 THAC0, 90% hit chance. 70.2 DPR. Now, is that enough of a bonus? Let's explore a more real-world, very late game example. We will be using Foebane with Belm under IH, at level 21+ with critical strike. Bear in mind that this would require 5 pips in Bastard Swords, which is unlikely as most Bastard Swords suck until ToB. We will also have 22 Strength from a belt. Critical strike means every single attack is a hit, negating the Thac0 bonus from GM. It also eliminates dice rolls because they're always a critical hit. 1PP : 6APR 2D4 + 15. 276 DPR, 24HP healed. Belm hits for 80. Total of 356 DPR. 2PP : 7APR 2D4 + 17. 350 DPR, 28HP healed. Belm hits for 80. Total of 430 DPR. 5PP : 8APR 2D4 + 20. 448 DPR, 32HP healed. Belm hits for 80. Total of 528 DPR. I cannot think of a single thing in the game that can stand a single round of a 22-Strength warrior under IH and critical strike with Belm. Proficiencies don't even matter. 356 Damage will kill anything. TL;DR 5PP matters more in the early game, but is only accessible from level 9 onwards. Once you get to HLA, it stops being important because you can grind up anything anyway. It also makes it much harder to switch weapon types. Your Paladin will have the same number of proficiency points, but they'll be better spread. Your Paladin can therefore use more weapons depending on the situation - Holy Avenger, then Foebane, then FoA, etc.

Thank you, I will.

I was checking the component Update Weapon Fighting Styles (2H Weapons, 1H Weapons, Sword & Shield). You are making me reconsider not going two weapon style for once, at least in BG1. But still, in BG2, I feel like the two weapon style is still superior to all the other style in BG2. Can anything at all be done for this? I doubt it. In the readme, it would be cool to have a table comparison between the weapon styles in: [Classic BG] [BG:EE] and [Skills and Abilities].

The component ~SCALES_OF_BALANCE/SCALES_OF_BALANCE.TP2~ #0 #160 // STO - Saving Throw Overhaul: v5.40 seems to mess up with the wand of summoning, by making it so that I always roll a save vs breath when using it. If it succeeds, no monsters get summoned. If it fails, monsters get summoned.

How would I check which mod did that? Edit 1 : Bubb helped me with the following suggestion: Copy and rename one of your setup-*.exe files to weidu.exe, open a cmd window in that folder, and run the following command: weidu.exe --change-log WAND10.ITM Results: Mods affecting WAND10.ITM: 00000: /* created or unbiffed */ ~AYDEN/SETUP-AYDEN.TP2~ 0 6 // Ayden Project: Wands for Thievesv2.6.19 00001: ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ 0 2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Optionsv16 00002: ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ 0 2420 // Loosen Equipment Restrictions for Cleric Multi- and Dual-Classesv16 00003: ~SCALES_OF_BALANCE/SCALES_OF_BALANCE.TP2~ 0 160 // STO - Saving Throw Overhaulv5.40 Edit 2: Unluckily enough, I cannot detect which mod did what, given that I had thought for a moment that the issue was Scales of Balance, but turns out that in over 100 tries, even if I used the correct backup file from scale, the save vs breath succeeded and I didn't get any monster. The files are here, if there is a good soul wishing to check: WAND10.00002.ITM WAND10.00003.ITM change-log.txt WAND10.00001.ITM

Thanks a lot Jmerry. I'm having another bug. Whenever I use the "wand of monster summoning", two things may happen: - creatures get summoned or - I get a "save vs breath weapon" and nothing gets summoned at all. Suggestions?

Another question: I don't have a steal button at carnival shops with imoen (namely, the scroll shopkeeper). Does anyone know if it's normal? https://imgur.com/a/rsFL8Aw

Thanks a lot Jmerry. Every post you write is always insightful and full of knowledge. Whenever I open a topic knowing that you posted inside, I feel happier. Take some good energy. Edit: Chitown Willie, I saw your post just now because when opening the topic, it went straight to Jmerry's post. Thanks a lot to you too.

Got it.

Playing BG1 + SoD. As soon as I got out of Candlekeep, I didn't let Imoen join and just fled. I levelled up to level 6, and now that I've got 36904 xp points, I went to retrieve Imoen. You may imagine my surprise that, even if Imoen never joined me, she is level 2 with 1304 xp. Why I got the level 2 version, rather than level 6? This is my weidu:

In the Nashkel carnival, there is an encounter where you meet a bloodlusted mage named Zordral that plans to kill a witch near him. In the answers, even if you are alone, <charname> uses "we", rather than "I". https://imgur.com/a/9zcD4Ym

Started as ranger. My weidu: Started today. Firebead gives 300 gold if you click on him 28 times. If you read on the .net, it's 30 times. Not true. Using BG EE, 2.6. Got 345 xp before leaving Candlekeep. I didn't kill anyone (apart from the bandits) and did all the quests.

First of all, thanks to you both for helping. I admit this step (<<you'll need to modify them to point to where you extracted PS BAM_x64.exe (instead of the uncompiled AHK version), and modify the BAM filenames and paths as necessary>>) leaves me a little scared I would not be able to do it. I will try to do it later,

I've played with fair fights a few playthroughs with no issues. The risky one is the one that removes items on npcs. And I'm trying that one for the first time.

Question: there is a component inside Oversight that makes the equalizer a bow. See readme here: How good would that be as an endgame weapon?

For anyone wondering, there is a cool component inside tweaks and tricks named "Fair fights". Readme here: https://github.com/BGforgeNet/bg2-tweaks-and-tricks/blob/master/docs/gameplay.md#fair-fights While there is a "safe" component, there is also a risky component that does the following: Quite a few creatures in the game are wearing items that grant them various protections and buffs such as Globe of Minor Invulnerability, Speed, etc (Kahrk being one notorious example, but there's more). Presumably, the developers' intention was to compensate for the lacking AI. However, nowadays there are many AI-enhancing mods, such as SCS (which lets enemies pre-buff, too). With powerful AI, having extra free protections seems unjustified and plain unfair. This removes all such items from all creatures. This is a power user component as it hasn't been thouroughly tested. You've been warned. Note, though, that some items are actually needed to progress in the game, as you can see from the code (e.g Aldeth: https://github.com/BGforgeNet/bg2-tweaks-and-tricks/blob/master/tnt/components/fair_fights/mages.tpa). So if you have any suggestions on the technical execution or have anything to report by playing the game, posts here in this topic would be welcome. I'm starting my playthrough with the "risky" component above, hopefully, on sunday.