These components seek to remove annoying aspects of the game or to make it easier.
Max HP at Level One
All games
A common house rule for pen-and-paper games, this component will ensure a maximum HP roll for at level one for all characters, e.g. mages get four hit points. It can be used in conjunction with all options in the next component, Higher HP on Level Up.
Higher HP on Level Up
All games
This component provides the player with a choice of four options that will alter HP rolls when characters level up. The component will not affect HPs on level ups when the character has moved beyond die rolls. All of these changes are independent of HP bonuses from constitution or other sources.
- Maximum: This option will ensure that the dice roll will always be the highest available.
- NWN-style: This option will ensure that the range of possible HPs gained will always be in the higher half of the range, i.e. results will always be 4-6 on 1d6, 5-8 for 1d8, etc.
- Average rolls: The rolls will always be the average of the die roll, e.g. 3 or 4 for d6 rolls, 6 or 7 for d12. The component will alternate rounding up and down for successive levels to keep in the average band.
Be warned: without an Enhanced Edition game or TobEx, barbarian characters will interact badly with this component due to their hardcoded nature.
Allow HP Rolls Through Level 20 [Angel]
All games except IWD2
Most classes shift from a HP roll to a fixed (and lower) amount of HP per level around level 9 or 10. This component will allow HP rolls to continue through level 20.
Maximum HP Creatures [the bigg]
All games
This component, based on code from the bigg, will alter creatures to have their theoretical maximum hit points. Creatures will get either a hit point total based on maximum hit dice rolls appropriate to their level, or their current hit point total--whichever is higher. The user has three choices with this component:
- For all creatures in game
- For party-joinable NPCs only: cheating version of this component
- For non-party-joinable NPCs only: difficulty-increasing version of this component
If the game can't have joinable NPCs (IWD, IWD2) only the first option is available.
Identify All Items
All games
Annoyed with having to identify items all the time? Now you don't have to. This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods, save one: an item from Shadows Over Soubar will remain unidentified, as a quest revolves around it being unidentified.
Easy Spell Learning
All games
This component makes it easier for arcane spellcasters to scribe scrolls to their spellbook. The player has a choice between two implementations:
- 100% learn spells: Scribing scrolls is always successful.
- 100% learn spells and no maximum cap: In addition to the above, this implementation removes the limits on the maximum number of spells learned per level.
Make Bags of Holding Bottomless
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG2, IWD (requires HoW), IWD2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2, PsTEE
This component will alter every bag of holding to have unlimited capacity. Scroll cases, ammo belts, gem bags and the regular bags of holding will be changed. This component will not affect what you can place in the bags, just the capacity. This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods. Please note that every time a script checks for an item, it'll have to parse everything you're carrying, so keep this in mind if you begin to experience slowdowns when carrying a lot of items.
Remove Fatigue from Restoration Spells
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG2, BGT, IWD-in-BG2
This component removes the fatigue that occurs when a character casts a Lesser or Greater Restoration spell.
Remove "You Must Gather Your Party..." Sound [Weimer]
BGEE, BG2EE, EET, BG, BG2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2
Disables the sound file played when you try to move less than a full party into or out of a party-required area.
Change Effect of Reputation on Store Prices
All games
Your reputation affects the prices of stores throughout the game; notably prices go down as reputation goes up and this component offers ways to change the mechanic. The original variant, low reputation store discount [Sabre, Richardson, Weimer], is unchanged: reputation values of 8-13 result in no discounts; items are sold at their original prices. Every point lower or higher than 8 or 13, respectively, gives the party a 5% discount. This reaches a maximum of 35% -- meaning that the party will only pay 65% of the item's original price -- at reputation values of 1 and 20.
Three new variants, courtesy of Luiz, remove the effect of reputation on storekeepers outright. The resulting prices can be set to 60%, 80%, or 100% of their listed values in general, but note that storekeepers will retain their original markups and buy discounts.
Increase Ammo Stack Size
All games
This tweak will adjust the maximum number of ammo--bullets, arrows, bolts, darts, throwing axes, throwing hammers, and throwing daggers--in a stack to 40, 80, 120, or unlimited (999). This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods.
Increase Jewelry, Gem, and Miscellaneous Item Stacks (previously known as Increase Jewelry and Gem Stacks
All games
This tweak will adjust the maximum number of gems and jewelry in a stack to 40, 80, 120, or unlimited (999). This component will not affect magical rings or amulets. Bandit scalps, ankheg shells, winter wolf pelts, and a few other miscellaneous items will also be affected by this component. This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods.
Increase Potion Stacking
All games
This tweak will adjust the maximum number of potions in a stack to 40, 80, 120, or unlimited (999). This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods.
Increase Scroll Stacking
All games
This tweak will adjust the maximum number of scrolls in a stack to 40, 80, 120, or unlimited (999). This component will affect all items in the game, including items introduced by mods.
Happy Patch - Alter How Party NPCs Complain About Reputation
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG, BG2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2
This provides many options for party unity. First, the player can control party complaints through one of three options:
- NPCs are never angry about reputation
- NPCs can be angry about reputation but never leave [Salk]
- NPCs are always neutral about reputation [Anomaly]
Please note that installing Virtue with this component will essentially nullify it. Virtue changes happiness to check Virtue instead, so this component will be changed to prevent your party members leaving due to Virtue--but the kicker is that they'll now leave due to reputation.
NPCs Don't Fight
BGEE, BG2EE, EET, BG, BG2, BGT, Tutu
At certain points, stock BG/BG2 characters will get fed up with another and start fights, only ending when one or more of them are dead. This component will simply prevent the fights from starting.
Stop Haer'Dalis-Aerie Romance from Starting
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT
This component will prevent the Haer'Dalis-Aerie romance from starting.
Neutral Characters Make Happy Comments at Mid-Range Reputation [Luiz]
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG, BG2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2
Every joinable NPC has lines they say when they're happy, ambivalent, or upset about the party's reputation. In the original tables, neutral characters could never be happy--even at mid-range reputation values, they would remain ambivalent. This component alters the reputation table so that they are now happy at middle of the road values, so you can now hear lines from neutral NPCs which were previously not available. This component is completely compatible with any variant of the Happy Patch.
Please note that installing Virtue with this component will essentially nullify it.
No Traps or Locks [Weimer]
All games
All floor traps that can be disarmed are removed from the game. All door and container traps are removed from the game. All locked doors and containers have their lockpick difficulty set to zero (they can be bashed open by anyone in one blow) unless they require a key. All hidden doors have their detect difficulty set to zero (anyone will detect them by standing around long enough). "Special" traps remain. Note that since the traps are gone entirely you cannot get XP by disarming them.
Faster Chapter One and Two Cutscenes and Dreams
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT
If you're replaying the game for the Nth time, this component saves precious minutes. In general this skips or shortens cutscenes and dream sequences. You can also speed up your first encounter with Gaelan Bayle by saying (3) "Yes, show me to your home." and then (5) "Very well, I'll be back with the money."
There are two options for this component: the original cutscenes from the Ease-of-Use mod (by Karzak, Blucher, aVENGER, and Weimer), and a non-silly version. The originals featured lines which really broke the fourth wall, such as the PC using lines from Neeber and Irenicus and Imoen leaving happily together after the party escaped to the Promenade.
Invisible Cloak of Mirroring
This component has been folded into the Remove Annoying Visual Effects from Equipped Items component in the cosmetic tweaks section.
Keep Drizzt's Loot, Disable Malchor Harpell [Weimer]
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT
If you kill Drizzt and take his stuff, Malchor Harpell appears and takes it back. This would make more sense in the original Baldur's Gate where his loot was actually powerful. By that point in SoA, Drizzt's loot is mostly worthless and Malchor feels heavy-handed and out of place.
No Drow Avatars On Party In Underdark [Weimer]
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT
Adalon the Silver Dragon normally changes the party to look like drow cosmetically. Unfortunately, the game engine has a number of bugs related to this that cause the PCs to "stutter" and "stop walking" and whatnot (especially if they have regeneration items). This disables the cosmetic drow avatar bit only: the plot remains unchanged.
Disable Romances
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT
This component will prevent the original BioWare/Beamdog romances from starting in BG2(EE). Mod romances will not be affected.
Accelerate/Decelerate Romances
BGEE, BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT; skipped if Disable Romances is installed
This component will adjust the wait time between romance banters (aka love talks) for the original BioWare/Beamdog romances; mod romances are not affected. This will help the player adjust the length of the romance track to their play style. The speed can be adjusted faster or slower by a factor of 5 (20% to 500% of the default timers). Note that this will only affect the timers, not any other special conditions (such as resting, being outside, etc.) that may be required for the romance track to progress. This will also cover the pseudo-romances of the EE NPCs in BGEE.
Romance Cheats [Sabre, Richardson, Weimer]
BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT; skipped if Disable Romances is installed
This component allows greater flexibility with the original BioWare/Beamdog romances. Please note that the multi-romance option may cause stuttering when used in conjunction with a third-party mod romance. The player can choose five parameters:
- Remove gender requirements: i.e. Aerie romances females
- Remove racial requirements: i.e. Anomen will romance a half-orc
- Allow multiple romances: i.e. you can romance Jaheira and Viconia simultaneously
- Nothing kills romances (requires multiple romances): even if you choose the 'wrong' reply in a dialogue or event, the romance will continue
- Start romances for new games in ToB: you can summon one of the romanceable NPCs as if you had romanced them in the SoA part of the game
These should provide 24 different variants of the romance options (12 for non-ToB games). The Start romances for new games in ToB option is based, in part, upon the NPC Flirt Pack's version of same (and used with permission), but will also work in conjunction with the removal of gender and racial requirements and multiple romances. If all you're looking for is to start romances for new ToB games, use the Flirt Pack instead, as they provide a much more expansive treatment.
Rest Anywhere [japheth]
All games
This component allows you to rest in any area. Inns and outdoor campsites are no longer required. You can still be interrupted by monsters or guards; see the next two components if you wish to adjust those as well.
Disable Non-Hostile Rest Spawns
All games
This component will disable non-hostile creatures spawning when you try to rest, such as a guard in town trying to stop you from sleeping in the street.
Alter Hostile Rest Spawns
All games
This component will allow you to alter the frequency of hostile spawns when you try to sleep, e.g. monsters attacking when you try to rest. You can disable them completely, or adjust the frequency up or down: decrease 50%, increase 50%, double frequency, or quadruple frequency.
Sellable Items [icelus]
All games
Originally, this component made previously unsellable staves, clubs, and slings sellable for a single gold piece as well as restoring the Root of the Problem club to its original selling price from BG. It's been expanded to include other unsellable items, as well as introducing a store tweak: stores which buy arrows now buy bolts as well.
Stores Purchase All Item Types
All games
This component will modify merchants and stores to purchase all item types; e.g. Galoomp the Bookkeeper in BG2 will now purchase armor, Oswald in IWD will purchase more than just potions, etc. This especially helps in places like BG's Beregost or IWD's Kuldahar, where you have to cross the map repeatedly to visit multiple merchants to sell your latest loot. Some stores, such as Officer Vai, may have special markups to buy/sell items very close to their actual values. These stores are ignored by this component to avoid creating an exploitable, infinite-money cheat for high reputation/high charisma characters.
Minimum Stats Cheat
All games except IWD, PsT, PsTEE
This component will let you set individual minimum stats for all classes and kits. Minimum stats are a drawback in PnP, but in IE games it will simply re-roll a stat until it meets the minimum--essentially an unnatural boost to your dice rolls at character creation. This component will allow you to select a minimum stat value between 6 and 15 for each of the six stats individually (including no change). Note that at higher minimums, your flexibility in re-distributing the points can become more and more limited. Play around with the range to find minimums that work for you.
Sensible Entrance Points
BG, BG2, BGT, Tutu
This component modifies a number of areas with suboptimal entrance points, e.g. when entering Beregost from the east in a BGT/EET/Tutu/BGEE game the player will now enter closer to the Thunderhammer Smithy. For now most of the changes are on the BG side--BGT only gets the aforementioned Beregost change while the other BG platforms also get changes to the zombie farm, farm north of FAI, shipwreck and lighthouse areas. One big change for BG2 content is a flipped interior map of the Noble Order of the Radiant Heart (this is already standard in BG2EE).
Taerom Makes Additional Ankheg Armor [Icendoan/grogerson]
BGEE, EET, BG, BGT, Tutu
In the standard game, the smith Taerom will buy all the ankheg shells the party has at one time, and will make only one set of Ankheg Armor. After it is completed, he will not even buy ankheg shells. This tweak changes this. He will now buy one shell at a time, and will again buy shells and make additional armor once the first is completed. Cost and time requirements still apply, and he can only make one at a time. Fenten in Baldur's Gate will also buy shells one at a time.
Friendly Random Drops
IWDEE, IWD, IWD-in-BG2
One of IWD's more fun aspects can also be one of its most frustrating: random drops. Various chests and creatures will pick an item from a list of possibilities once you enter their area, making certain powerful and unusual items unavailable in a given game--a common frustration is missing elven chain mail for bards. This component gives players some control over this process by letting them select from one of three options:
- Randomize on reload: This option simply re-picks the random item whenever you reload or revisit an area, so you can stand beside a chest and mash quickload.
- Choose your drop: The random items are replaced with tokens, which can be immediately exchanged for your choice of an item from the original table.
- Exchange with merchants: This component will have the normal random drops when you travel through the world, but adds a merchant in Kuldahar and one in Lonelywood (if HoW is installed). These merchants will allow you to exchange your items for another item in the table--for a commission, of course.
Never Lose Access to Orrick the Gray's Trade Goods
IWD, IWD-in-BG2
This component allows you to ask Orrick to show you his earlier goods, once he's moved on to offering you higher-quality stuff. This functionality is built into IWDEE by default.
Recoverable Ammunition [argent77]
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG (requires TotSC), BG2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2
This tweak allows you to recover some or all unenchanted ammunition after being shot, which includes arrows, bullets and bolts without additional hit effects. For example, normal arrows are included, but Arrows of Slaying are not. The following options are available:
- 25% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 50% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 75% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 100% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 25% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 75% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 100% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
Options containing "vs. enemies only" will only be recoverable when firing at hostile creatures.
Recoverable Throwing Weapons [argent77]
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG (requires TotSC), BG2, BGT, Tutu, IWD-in-BG2
This tweak allows you to recover some or all unenchanted throwing weapons after being thrown, which includes but is not limited to axes, daggers and darts without additional hit effects. For example, normal darts are included, but Darts of Wounding are not. The following options are available:
- 25% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 50% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 75% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 100% chance to recover after a successful hit
- 25% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 75% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
- 100% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only
Options containing "vs. enemies only" will only be recoverable when firing at hostile creatures
Give Every Class/Kit Four Weapon Slots
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET
This component will give every class/kit four weapon slots, like fighters receive. This component is available to vanilla BG2 games via TobEx.
Personalize Automatic Save Names
All Enhanced Edition games, patched to 2.0 or higher
This tweak adds the name of the protagonist to all your saved games that are automatically made by the game (such as autosave, quicksave or chapter saves). That way you can play with different party setups without the danger of your old saves being overwritten (provided the protagonist uses different names).
Death Cam
BGEE, BG2EE, EET
Sometimes in the chaos of battle, you can lose track of the main character and get surprised with the game over screen. This component will give you a chance to view the feedback window by jumping to the main character when he dies, and giving you a full round--six seconds--to view the combat log (including the ability to pause) before the game over screen plays.
Start New Games with Party AI Turned Off
All games except PsT
This component simply turns off the 'Party AI' button for new games. You can still enable it by clicking it.
No Depreciation in Stores
All games
As you sell items to a merchant, they will start to offer less to buy items they already possess. This component will disable this process, so that they will offer the same amount for the first short sword as the 100th you sell.
Make Party Members Less Likely to Die Irreversibly
BGEE, BG2EE, EET, BG2, BGT, Tutu
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 less frequent occurrence. This may be useful in the later stages of the game, when melee opponents often do 30-40 hp damage per blow - that 10 hp safety margin starts to feel slender.
Increase Party Movement Speed and/or Casting Speed Outside of Combat [argent77]
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, BG2 (requires TobEx), BGT (requires TobEx), Tutu (requires TobEx), IWD-in-BG2
This tweak allows your party members and familiars to walk around and/or cast spells at increased speed as long as no hostile creatures are within their visual range. The protagonist will also receive a special ability that can be used to toggle speed bonuses on or off. The following options are available:
- Increase movement speed by 50 percent
- Increase movement speed by 100 percent (same speed as with Boots of Speed)
- Increase movement speed by 150 percent
- Increase movement speed by 50 percent and casting speed
- Increase movement speed by 100 percent and casting speed
- Increase movement speed by 150 percent and casting speed
- Increase casting speed only
Create Interval Saves [argent77]
BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE, EET, PsTEE
This tweak installs a script that automatically saves the game at regular intervals. For games patched to version 2.0 or later the game will be saved to the custom slot "Interval-Save". Games prior to patch 2.0 will use the "Auto-Save" slot instead. The following options are available:
- Save every 15 minutes (one save only)
- Save every 30 minutes (one save only)
- Save every 60 minutes (one save only)
- Save every 120 minutes (one save only)
- Save every 15 minutes (cycle through four saves) -- requires game patch 2.0 or later
- Save every 30 minutes (cycle through four saves) -- requires game patch 2.0 or later
- Save every 60 minutes (cycle through four saves) -- requires game patch 2.0 or later
- Save every 120 minutes (cycle through four saves) -- requires game patch 2.0 or later
- Customize (via cdtweaks.txt)
This option looks for values defined in the configuration file "cdtweaks.txt" and uses them accordingly if available. Defaults to values based on "Save every 30 minutes (one save only)", otherwise.
Interval saves can be toggled on and off with the following Baldur.lua option:
Set it to 0 to deactivate creating interval saves. The option is turned on by default. For games prior to patch 2.0 you have to set a game variable with the following console command instead: C:SetGlobal("A7-IntervalSaveEnabled","GLOBAL",1)
It is also possible to allow creating interval saves during combat with the following Baldur.lua option:
Set it to 1 to allow creation of interval saves during combat. The option is turned off by default. For games prior to patch 2.0 you have to set a game variable with following console command instead: C:SetGlobal("A7-IntervalSaveCombat","GLOBAL",0)
Reset UnderSigil Fog of War
PST, PsTEE
UnderSigil is known as the map for grinding loot and experience. Since monsters are spawned randomly every time the area is revisited, the exploration state of the map can help to keep track of which parts have already been cleared.
This tweak resets the exploration state of UnderSigil every time the party reenters the area. Other changes, such as containers or items, are not affected by the tweak.