Baldur's Gate II Ease of Use Mod Pack Westley Weimer \/ Release 33 \/ https://weidu.org Table of Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. About II. Installation III. Component 1: Infinite Weapon and Potion Stacking Component 2: Infinite Weapon and Potion Stacking (ToB) Component 3: Multi-Class Grand Mastery Component 4: True Grand Mastery Component 5: Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party ..." Component 6: Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes & Dreams Component 7: Wear Magical Armor AND Magic Rings Component 10: Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, ... Component 11: XP Cap Remover Component 12: Multi-Player Kick Out Patch Component 13: Invisible Cloak of Mirroring Animation Component 14: Bottomless Bag of Holding Component 15: Multiple Strongholds (v1.8) Component 16: Bonus Merchants Component 17: Keep Drizzt's Loot, Disable Malchor Harpell Component 18: No Drow Avatars on Party In Underdark Component 19: Imoen ToB Dialogue Fix Component 20: Shapeshifter Rebalancing Component 21: Female Edwina Component 22: Romance: Bug Fixes Component 23: Romance: Ignore Race/Gender Component 24: Romance: Multiple NPCs Concurrently Component 25: Romance: Multiple NPCs Concurrently, Say Anything Component 26: Happy: NPCs Won't Fight Each Other or Leave Component 27: Low Reputation Store Discount Component 28: No Traps or Locks Component 29: Rest Anywhere IV. Thanks V. Deprecated Components VI. Changes About ~~~~~ This is a collection of useful mods that I threw together. Many of them were written by others. You can find the original readmes in the "ease\readmes" folder. Note that this README supercedes those: the individual READMEs cannot be trusted. :-) Note: Some people regard many of these changes (especially those that change game rules like grand-mastery or level tables) as cheats. All of the components are optional. Use your own discretion. Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ BGII is required. ToB is optional. The Ease-of-Use Mod will install correctly over (or without) the Ascension Mod. It should work fine with any WeiDU mod. See the webpage for details. Unzip the main ZIP file into your BGII main directory. This is normally: C:\Program Files\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\ Run (click on) "Setup-Ease.exe". Then choose which components you would like to install. You may always uninstall them later by re-running "Setup-Ease.exe". You do *not* need to start a new game to take advantage of anything you installed. But some of them only help at the beginning. The components should install correctly for international players who have both DIALOG.TLK and DIALOGF.TLK. Infinite Weapon and Potion Stacking ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This allows you to stack up to 9999 of any type of stacking weapon or potion or scroll. This game should not be a quest for inventory management. Infinite Weapon and Potion Stacking (ToB) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As above, but for ToB-only items (e.g., Arrows +3). Multi-Class Grand Mastery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is for players who believe that AD&D's dual-class and multi-class system is inherently broken and that there is no conceptual reason for multi-class characters to be denied grand-mastery. Multi-Class characters can now put more than 2 pips in things. In effect, any character that could ** in anything can now put ***** in that thing. Do not put more then ** in single-weapon, two-handed weapon or sword-and-shield style and do not put moree than *** in dual-wielding. True Grand Mastery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the standard Baldurdash / TeamBG "un-nerfed" grand mastery patch. It gives you the extra half-attack and the to-hit and damage bonus you had in BGI and IWD. Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party ..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Never hear that annoying voice again! From Balrudash. Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes & Dreams ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Karzak and Blucher and aVENGER. If you're replaying the game for the Nth time, these save precious minutes. In general this skips or shortens cut-scenes 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." WARNING: This component is not compatible with the Nalia Romance *OR* the Tashia Romance. Wear Magical Armor AND Magic Rings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Pencil-and-Paper AD&D you can wear magical armor and magical rings (and cloaks, and whatever). Why not in BGII? Note that in penicl-and-paper AD&D only the saving throw bonuses would stack: for the AC bonus you would just take the maximum. If you use this component to wear multiple magical protections the AC bonuses will stack. Thanks to Sebastian Pietsch (and others) for pointing out this detail. Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery, and Arcane, Divine Spell Progression. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Blucher. Follows AD&D wizard and cleric spell progression more closely, fixes some saving throw and thac0 table problems, etc. XP Cap Remover ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Baldurdash. Removes any experience point limit. Multi Player Kick-Out Patch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allows you to ask multi-player created NPCs to "wait here" or "go to the copper coronet" or "go to the pocket plane" when you kick them out. You can pick them back up later. Without this they just disappear forever if you kick them out. Invisible Cloak of Mirroring / Spell Trap ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Turns off that huge glowing white wiffle ball animation for the ToB Cloak of Mirroring and the Spell Trap spell. WARNING: A few (two) people have reported that this causes their game to crash when someone casts spell trap. If that happens, uninstall this component! Bottomless Bag of Holding ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Blucher. The Spellhold Bag of Holding can now hold thousands of items. Note that if you already have the Spellhold Bag of Holding in your game, installing this component will not make it Bottomless until you start a new game. Multiple Strongholds (v1.8) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Sabre and Baldurdash. Any character of any class can get any number of strongholds. Bonus Merchants ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Baldurdash. Addes Jolus and Diedre to the Copper Coronet and Ribald's Mart. Keep Drizzt's Loot, Disable Malchor Harpell ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you kill Drizzt and take his stuff, Malchor Harpell appears and takes it back. This would make more sense in BG1 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 disable the cosmetic drow avatar bit only: the plot remains unchanged. Imoen ToB Dialogue Fix ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Jason Compton. This fixes about 15 places where Imoen had banter dialogue in ToB but you couldn't see it because of a spelling error in the game. Shapeshifter Rebalancing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This makes Shapeshifters less of a joke. You might even be tempted to have Cernd in your party now. Well, let's not go overboard. Anyway, this fixes the bug where the Shapeshifter's paws could be dispelled and then any weapon could be put in their place. That exploit essentially gave you 2 extra attacks with whatever you wanted, plus all the werewolf powers. Shapeshifter abilities now create "symbolic paws". When you wield one you turn into a Werewolf, when you remove it you're human again. No possible exploits, and you may choose whether to put the paw in your on-hand or off-hand. Since your off-hand THAC0 as a pure druid is, shall we say, sub-optimal, I recommend the on-hand. This also fixes a "bug" where attributes of the CRE file for "PC polymorphed into a Werewolf" were not actually given to the PC by the Polymorph opcode. Normal Werewolf: You Were Supposed To Get You Actually Got ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Base Magic Res 20% Magic Res *LOCKED AT* 20% Immunity to Normal Weapons Nothing Paw = 1d12 slashing Paw = 1d6 piercing For the Greater Werewolf ... You Were Supposed To Get You Actually Got ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THAC0 6 Nothing Saves 1/1/1/2/1 Nothing Base Elemental Res 50% Elemental Res *LOCKED AT* 50% Base Magic Res 40% Magic Res *LOCKED AT* 40% Immunity to Normal Weapons Nothing Paw = +3 Weapon Paw = +2 Weapon Paw = 2d8 slashing Paw = 1d6 piercing Regeneration 3 HP / second Nothing To see this for yourself, check out werewodr.cre, weregrdr.cre, brbrp.itm, etc. The "Rebalancing" gives a Greater Werewolf Shapeshifter the +7 HP per Level due to a fighter with 25 CON (before you just got +2). Most importantly, Shapeshifters may now cast spells while in Wolf form. Hey, they're supposed to have dedicated their lives to controlling lycanthropy. I'm sure a little fur won't mess up their communion with nature. Yuan Ti, Githyanki, Sahuagin, they can all cast spells. Why not wolfmen? In addition, the Druid spell choices were a bit weak in some areas, so some Priest-only spells were made Priest-Druid: Sanctuary (sylvan sanctuaries abound), Chant (they got Bless, why not Chant?), Zone of Sweet Air (sounds nature-y to me!), Glyph of Warding (no excuse, but they need a damaging spell here that isn't Call Lightning), Righteous Magic (listen to Jaheira for a while and tell me she's not Righteous ... more importantly, if they're going to tank around they need some extra help). Finally, 99% of all sixth-level druid spell slots go to "Summon Fire Elemental". You can get a 24 hit dice monster with +4 claws that lasts for hours with that spell. It's so much better than the 7th level "Summon Earth Elemental" that it isn't funny. The other 6th-level summons just don't come close. To give you some actual choices, "Conjure Animals" has been changed to summon two 20 HD Greater Bearweres (they're like Greater Wolfweres). However, the duration remains 4 turns. Do you want Fire Elementals forever, or Mighty Big Tanks for a short time? You decide. By the way, I initially coded up a version of the Shapeshifter paws that would not be useable even by Thieves with UAI (this is the intended spirit of the power). However, I'm not the police, so I removed it. If you want to cheat, go for it. Female Edwina (Davide Carte, Wendy Yung) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This patch gives Edwina a female portrait to go with her female soundset and female paper dool. This patch was written by Davide Carte. This version includes Wendy Yung's "Edwina" portrait, a modified version of the original BG2 art (thus it looks seamlessly like part of the original game). You can override the portrait by putting your own Royo4L.bmp and Royo4S.bmp files in the override directory. Romance: Bug Fixes (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This module applies some bug fixes to the romance scripts. It's highly recommended that you at least install this module to fix a few glitches in the original game romance scripts. Romance: Ignore Race/Gender (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The protagonist can have a romance with any romanceable NPC in the party, but must still say the right thing for the romance not to suddenly end. [ You must install the previous Romance component (Bug Fixes) before installing this one. ] Romance: Multiple NPCs Concurrently (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In addition the protagonist can have multiple romances at the same time. The protagonist must still say the right thing. [ You must install the previous Romance component (Ignore Race/Gender) before installing this one. Romance: Multiple NPCs, Say Anything (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the same as Level 3, but now you (the protagonist) can say whatever you want without ending any relationship. [ You must install the previous Romance mod (Multiple NPCs) before installing this one. ] Happy: NPCs Won't Fight Each Other, Leave (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This keeps the NPCs from fighting each other or causing each other to leave the group. In addition, NPCs won't leave if your reputation is too high or low. [ You must install the first Romance component (Bug Fixes) before installing this component. ] *** * Notes on the Romance and Happy components: * We try to be as mod-friendly as possible by doing patching up existing * game scripts. Sometimes that may not be possible (e.g., if your scripts * are too different from the norm because you have installed other mods * or nonstandard fixes), in which case we will replace your scripts on * an as-needed basis with Sabre's original, known-to-work Happy/Romance * scripts. If you're having trouble with a romance or one of the four * primary romance targets (Aerie, Anomen, Jaheira, or Viconia), try * uninstalling and Romance/Happy components, reloading a slightly earlier * saved game and doing it again. As much as we would like it to be * otherwise, these four characters are such an integral portion of the * game that it can be very difficult for independent mods to modify * them without messing each other up. *** Low Reputation Store Discount (Sabre, Richardson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reputation values of 8, 9 , 10, 11, 12 and 13 results in no discounts: items are sold at their original prices. Every point lower or higher then 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. No Traps or Locks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 0 (they can be bashed open by anyone in one blow). All hidden doors have their detect difficulty set to 0 (anyone will detect them by standing around long enough). "Special" traps like the wand traps in Chateau Irenicus or the Monster Summoning Thing in the Guarded Compound remain. Note that since the traps are gone entirely you cannot get XP by disarming them. Note also that some doors that you "should not be able to open early" can now be bashed open early, like the entrance to Harper Hall or the house of Rayic Gethras. Don't do that if it will annoy you. The theory here is to make playing (or soloing) the game without a Thief less painful. Rather than going over a trap and then running back to the inn to heal, or drinking a strength potion and bashing on the lock for minutes until the random number generator decides to like you ... you can just skip it all. Aside from making the game convenient for rogue-less parties, it also makes a small number of battles a bit easier (e.g., the upstairs Guarded Compound traps are gone, so your part can advance toward Koshi and Sion without fear of dispelling). Note that this component should be installed after all other components that replace ARE files (like the Improved Torgal component of Tactics, say) if you want the traps and locks in those areas to be disabled. Finally, note that this component will have no effect on areas you have *already visited* at least once. If you load a saved game after installing it, only areas you have not seen will be changed. If you start a new game, all areas will be affected. Rest Anywhere (Japheth) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This component allows you to rest in any area. Inns and outdoor campsites are no longer required. Section IV. Thanks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Special thanks to the people I blatantly stole these mods from: Gebhard Blucher Kevin Dorner (Baldurdash) Kalthorine Ut Wistan Karzak Sabre ... and to our lovely translators: Antonio Favata Thot Bhasbuto of Clan DLAN Marco Ivezic ... and to the master of diffs: Fred S. Richardson Section V. Deprecated Components ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following components are deprecated: Component 8: Stop NPC Alignment-Reputation Complaints Component 9: All Races/Gender & Concurrent Romances If you have them installed, they will be automatically uninstalled. Install the Sabre/Richardson romance and happy components instead. Section VI. Changes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Release 1: * Initial release. From Release 2: * Added XP Cap Remover * Fix Bullet/Bolt bug in ToB From Release 3: * Added Multi-Player Kickout Patch * Added "invisible cloak of mirroring" * Added Tom's stacking rings and amulets. From Release 4: * Newer WeiDU * GB's bag of holding * Added Mutli-Strongholds. From Release 5: * Upgrade to Multi-Stronghold v1.8. Thanks, Sabre! From Release 6: * Kuo-Toa and Sahuagain bolts now stack. Thanks, J.C. Bengtson. * Fixed a typo that caused Sorc's to lose all spells at level 26. Thanks, Robert Johnston. From Release 7: * Added Bonus Merchants. From Release 8: * Added Malchor Harpell disabler. * Added "no Drow Avatars for Party" tweak. From Release 9: * Added Compton Imoen ToB dialogue fix. Go download Kelsey now! * Upgrade to the newest WeiDU ... From Release 10: * New ImmyFix update from JC. And again. From Release 11: * Added Shapeshifter Rebalancing Section From Release 12: * Fixed a multi-stronghold bug that prevented Evil or Good characters from giving the fake illithium to the church. klaussner pointed out this bug. Note that this will not fix games in which you have already started the Gaal plot. From Release 13: * Fixed a typo, thanks Michel! From Release 14: * Fixed a BHOISIG DLG error. Thanks Michael Helling! * Stacking component now works on Scrolls as well. Thanks, Gorrister. * Shifter Rebalance: Animal Summoning is now much weaker. In particular, the Greater Wearberes are now a 22nd level summon and the default behavior is to summon Normal Weaberes. They have two-thirds the hit-dice and attacks, but most notably their regeneration is much slower. The spell description is not changed because this fix is not finalized -- I encourage comment. * Added Female Edwina. Thanks, Davide. From Release 15: * Added aVENGER's Quick Starter. * Restoration scrolls now stack. Thanks, John Falkenstein. From Release 16: * Happy: Removed all of the "all-romance" parts of the happy scripts, made them more WeiDU-friendly. From Release 17: * Edwina: updated to use Wendy Yung's portrait. It looks just like the original game art and is thus more "seamless". * High: Incorporated Sqweek's fix here so that we don't destroy LUABBR.2DA. From Release 18: * High: fixed a bug that prevented it from installing on SoA-only machines. * Added Gandalf il Grigio's Italian translation. Thanks! * Happy: fixed a bug where all of the scripts were being trashed. Thanks, Dorotea and Fred. From Release 19: * Added Thot's French translation. From Release 20: * Added Bhasbuto's Spanish translation. From Release 21: * Added Sabre/Richardson romance/happy patches, which replace and deprecate the old, buggy happy/romance components. From Release 22: * Sabre/Richardson romance/happy bugfix. Hopefully now it will install for all of those people who had problems with v22. Keep me posted. From Release 23: * Added Marco Ivezic's German translation. Thanks! From Release 24: * Merchants: Now use EXTEND instead of Copying. Thanks, Icelus. Apparently this fixes a compatibility problem with the Unfinished Business mod. * Fred Richardson's "Scribe Scrolls Description" patch. * Sabre/Richardson romance/happy last-ditch bugfix. It should really work now for everyone. * Added the low-rep store discount patch from Sabre. From Release 25: * Fixed a bug where Blucher's THAC0 thing could not be installed if you didn't have ToB. * Added "No Traps or Locks" component. From Release 26: * Added a "No Traps or Locks" warning. * Wow, finally fixed that bug that was preventing the merchants from installing. I hope! From Release 27: * Added Alina's Russian translation. Thanks! * Included Damian Staniszewski's Polish README translation. Thanks! * Included Damian Staniszewski's Polish translation. Thanks! From Release 28: * Added Japh's "Rest Anywhere" From Release 29: * Fixed a problem with the new Polish translation. Thanks, Ali Bongo. * Added Cam's improvements to infinite stacking, bag of holding, and happy.2da. From Release 30: * Added Senyiad's Czech translation. Thanks! From Release 31: * Faster Cut Scenes: Gaelan no longer force talks. The bow and arrows you miss because that running thief is no longer killed before your eyes are added to the table in Chateau Irenicus. * Added bigg's "no traps" fix. * Updated Spanish translation. Thanks, Immortality. * Updated German translation. Thanks, Tanis Eichenblatt. From Release 32: * Area-editing components now use GLOB (thanks, bigg) From Release 33: * Faster Cutscenes no longer overwrites Player1d.bcs.