House rules to reignite the fire
StopTouchingMe
Member Posts: 9
Hi all,
I've been playing this game on and off for 20 years, and am still enjoying it ! Lately though, i've been struggling to find rules and mods to spark the same emotions as when i first started, since I know the game so well. You know, the "oh shit a wolf can kill me !" or the "I hope that bastard has good loot !".
I finally find a setup that is truly thrilling again, and am having an absolute blast. I figured i'll share it here, since others probably encountered the same challenge.
First off, I play convenience reloads LoB+SCS+ascension. On top of that, i found a few house rules that really add the old bg flavor :
- Double damage taken activated
- Monster increase in number and respawn every 16h.
- SCS has all max annoying settings for the whole saga (including the infamous "every eligible npc has HLA")
- Item randomizer (big change. No more "i'll just rush that item and then autowin every battle)
- npc project (adds a few nice items, but overall doesn't change the balance too much)
- No recharging wands and trinkets
- No summons spells, trinkets, or wands (this is huge if, like me, you would just summon 5 skeletons and clear the map. Really nice change). I can only cast summoning spells from charmed npc.
- I play with convenience reloads : no party member death reloads, no combat reloads, no learning spell reload, but stuff like mod bugs or Melicamp dying makes kill my thunder so i reload. Also if a key canon npc gets chunked - namely Imoen, jaheira, minsc - (annoying that no mods prevents that), I finish the fight, then reload and kill him properly at the start of the fight and win it again with the rest of the party.
- Every party member has the same bag of holding, potion case, ammo belt and scroll case. Since they are connected, it makes micro management far less tedious. I shave 500 gp off my total for every item. (BAG31, BAG03_, BAG06_, BAG05)
- no xp cap
- Angelo mod
- No weather. I've already died with random lighting time and again !
I'm a powergamer but i also like the flavor play, so i'm playing a canon party customized into builds that make sense to me, with stats i did roll :
- Fire-edge, human Kensai 18 > Mage (yeah this is gonna be tough to build) but for now, throwing daggers, the claw, boots of avoidance FTW
- Imoen, human priest of tyr > mage (acclamation is nice for minsc "oh shit" button)
- Minsc, dwarf dwarven defender with twinkle and shield.
- Jaheira, human berserker > druid
- any thief
- Dynaheir, human skald
- Angelo, human kensai > thief
- Sarevok, tbd
I died 3 times before reaching 32k exp, so this is my fourth run, heading for the bandit camp. Montaron and shar-teel got chunked, safana is in the middle of a thousand hobgoblins elite and wandering sirens since i looted the cave under invisibility so thieves are in short supply. If your last playthrough left you a bit bored, try this setup and let me know what you think !
I've been playing this game on and off for 20 years, and am still enjoying it ! Lately though, i've been struggling to find rules and mods to spark the same emotions as when i first started, since I know the game so well. You know, the "oh shit a wolf can kill me !" or the "I hope that bastard has good loot !".
I finally find a setup that is truly thrilling again, and am having an absolute blast. I figured i'll share it here, since others probably encountered the same challenge.
First off, I play convenience reloads LoB+SCS+ascension. On top of that, i found a few house rules that really add the old bg flavor :
- Double damage taken activated
- Monster increase in number and respawn every 16h.
- SCS has all max annoying settings for the whole saga (including the infamous "every eligible npc has HLA")
- Item randomizer (big change. No more "i'll just rush that item and then autowin every battle)
- npc project (adds a few nice items, but overall doesn't change the balance too much)
- No recharging wands and trinkets
- No summons spells, trinkets, or wands (this is huge if, like me, you would just summon 5 skeletons and clear the map. Really nice change). I can only cast summoning spells from charmed npc.
- I play with convenience reloads : no party member death reloads, no combat reloads, no learning spell reload, but stuff like mod bugs or Melicamp dying makes kill my thunder so i reload. Also if a key canon npc gets chunked - namely Imoen, jaheira, minsc - (annoying that no mods prevents that), I finish the fight, then reload and kill him properly at the start of the fight and win it again with the rest of the party.
- Every party member has the same bag of holding, potion case, ammo belt and scroll case. Since they are connected, it makes micro management far less tedious. I shave 500 gp off my total for every item. (BAG31, BAG03_, BAG06_, BAG05)
- no xp cap
- Angelo mod
- No weather. I've already died with random lighting time and again !
I'm a powergamer but i also like the flavor play, so i'm playing a canon party customized into builds that make sense to me, with stats i did roll :
- Fire-edge, human Kensai 18 > Mage (yeah this is gonna be tough to build) but for now, throwing daggers, the claw, boots of avoidance FTW
- Imoen, human priest of tyr > mage (acclamation is nice for minsc "oh shit" button)
- Minsc, dwarf dwarven defender with twinkle and shield.
- Jaheira, human berserker > druid
- any thief
- Dynaheir, human skald
- Angelo, human kensai > thief
- Sarevok, tbd
I died 3 times before reaching 32k exp, so this is my fourth run, heading for the bandit camp. Montaron and shar-teel got chunked, safana is in the middle of a thousand hobgoblins elite and wandering sirens since i looted the cave under invisibility so thieves are in short supply. If your last playthrough left you a bit bored, try this setup and let me know what you think !
2
Comments
I recommend you try out the mod High Power Baldur's Gate. It seems to be just what you're looking for. It's intended to revive the thrill of playing the game for the first time, and it makes even simple encounters with things like wolves quite dangerous.
I don't know though. I read the description but it looks like a lot of tweaks i'm not comfortable with. Looks like a different game to me.
But i got the right kind of thrill with my setup. Got down to 2hp because of a misclick vs mulahey, and i got barely made it alive when i got crit for 80 damage while kitting a berserker ogre. I did find the dagger of venom on droth to equip jaheira, so pretty sweet so far.
There is a component of Tweaks Anthology that makes chunking far less likely to occur.