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Difficulty mods

DriderDrider Member Posts: 1
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
So I just completed my first run of BG2+TOB on Maxed SCS and Ascension. I was wondering if it gets any harder than this? I was a little bit disappointed in the lack of variety in tactics tbh. Rare you need anything but prot fire+prot magical energy. Acid/cold/lightning all under used.

Is it worth trying to install SCS on top of Tactics? I remember tactics being fine up until Irenicus in hell. I guess it hasn't changed?

Is improved anvil worth a shot? Or is it awful? The reviews are quite mixed.

It seems everyone is running no-reload these days but I'm far to careless for that I think.

Comments

  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,079
    You could always play Icewind Dale and try the Improved Heart of Fury Mode mod.

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/70717/mod-improved-heart-of-fury-mode-version-4-2-0/p1
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited February 2023
    Personally I like anvil a lot. It beings unique monsters, overhauled spells and good enemy AI. It made some classes less viable than before but there are new kits added to overcome that issue. The game is oriented to two pivots, the need do summoning, dispelling and protections, and the need to do a lot of melee damage. Ranged does not get you consistency.

    Note that a lot of the new additions are stacked in favour of the new enemy creatures which can dispel protections on hit or their disabling effects have difficult saves. This you can see as frustrating but since most fights are designed to take more than a few rounds you would quickly understand that creatures are stacked with bonuses for a reason. On the flip side, this also explains why some of the crafting items seem too good on paper, while in essence without a good selection of them you will do very poorly.

    There are so many improvements and difficulty changes that there is no way you can just drop into a long side quest and expect that you can finish it. Often you have to do some minor quests to get xp in order to tackle the long ones. And you have to be prepared to give up some fights until later. This is not a linear mod. This will frustrate some players.

    It is a different style of play that I welcome for myself every 3 or 4 runs. It is definitely not for everyone.


    Hope that helps.
  • MasterGimliMasterGimli Member Posts: 14
    Drider wrote: »
    So I just completed my first run of BG2+TOB on Maxed SCS and Ascension. I was wondering if it gets any harder than this? I was a little bit disappointed in the lack of variety in tactics tbh. Rare you need anything but prot fire+prot magical energy. Acid/cold/lightning all under used.

    This is incredibly disappointing if true. I have only just started BG2 with SCS on maxed settings for the first time and was hoping for something a lot more varied than what you are describing. I also find it surprising as it's not a comment I have heard before and I did research SCS quite a bit before installing it. Could you provide a little more detail of your experience?
  • James_MJames_M Member Posts: 145
    edited March 3
    There is an old mod called Difficulty and Tweaks mod v7 which makes all enemies tougher by giving them a bonus to THAC0/AC/Saves. You can select the bonus amount up to a bonus of 6 points. It works with BG2EE as well. In my mod list I install it after SCS, but I'm not sure if SCS prevents the Difficulty and Tweaks mod from doing its thing anyway. It definitely works without SCS! It works on BG2EE and vanilla BG2.

    Here it is from a 2022 thread:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/5hadm6kryo4b9ak/Diff_Tweak.zip?e=1&dl=0

    Thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19928/release-difficulty-and-tweak-mod-ver-7

    Here's a mod that can reduce the amount of xp you get from monsters or quests, which means it takes you longer to get over-powered!
    https://github.com/Pocket-Plane-Group/D0XPmod/releases


    Post edited by James_M on
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