Baldur's Gate Classic: The Fields of the Dead

Remove all ads!

I decided to inform you of this mod in progress. The text below is a copy of the Concept page from the site:

---

This is a mod for Baldur's Gate - Tales of the Sword Coast. You will need to have the latest patch installed. As far as I know, it should work with the Original Saga.

It should be compatible with any other mod using WeiDU as the installer and thus it will not be compatible with Dark Side of the Sword Coast.

Aims - Baldur's Gate Classic:

The first aim will be to change the existing game, making it match the official AD&D products as much as possible. When that is not possible, I am going to make up a solution. This will effect the NPCs, monsters, items, spells and rules of the game. Some rules cannot be changed, however, as they are hardcoded and some rules cannot be added to the game.

There are a couple of things which well *not* be changed, such as the movement rates of the various races. Normally dwarves, gnomes and halflings move at half the rate of humans and elves. Changing this would be too annoying.

Secondly, all monsters and NPCs in this game have maximum hit points, or nearly so. Normally one Hit Die means 1-8 HPs and not 8. Well, most PCs have close to maximum hit points and disallowing all monsters to powergame when the party can would be unfair. The game is also fairly easy and lowering their hit points would only make matters worse.

I intend to make the game more difficult overall. This will not be accomplished by giving enemies a better AC and more hit points but rather through improving the AI. NPCs should use their potions and coorperate a lot more. However, a few fights will be made harder to take into consideration the improved abilities of the PCs, most of all the final fight with Sarevok.

So what books am I using? With regard to magic, I use Player's Option - Spells & Magic which I find better than the Complete Wizard's Handbook which in turn is more detailed than the standard Player's Handbook. The combat rules are those found in Player's Option - Combat & Tactics. I might also attempt to add various features from the other handbooks.

Due to the limits of the engine you will not see PC sub-races, kits or fighting styles in this mod.

Aims - The Fields of the Dead:

The second part of this mod is the new areas and all the things they will contain. I want them to be like Tales of the Sword Coast, i.e. new quests which the party can undertake whenever they feel like it. Obviously most of these will be geared towards more powerful PCs.

You will not have to travel to these areas to enjoy all the new items and spells in the game. Generic items will be added to the existing stores. Those that deal with magical goods, such as High Hedge or Sorcerous Sundries, will sell some of the new wizard spells and other magical items such as arrows and potions.

I will not be making new graphics for this mod so all the new areas will consist of reused ones from the various IE games.

---

The mod has its own forums elsewhere, so use them if you wish to say anything about this.

URL: http://echon.cyg.dk/bgmod

[ July 10, 2003, 17:21: Message edited by: Echon ]

 

It sounds great. Hope it will be done soon.

 

Yep, it sounds very good. I hope you will make it good and avoid all the mistakes that DSotSC had - too powerful items, spells that don't have descriptions, NPCs, who don't have any information and areas that are taken from BG1 (it is irritating to go in two Durlag's towers)

 

Thanks a lot, I always appreciate feedback. I am not going to announce any release date as it would be impossible to stick to but I work on it as much as time permits. The more of learn of editing, the more time it seems to take. When I decided I wanted to do it, I estimated I would have it done in about three months. Well, those three months have nearly passed already, hehe.

Oh, and by the way, one of the things I am very concerned with is game balance so you should not be getting your hands on hediously overpowered magical items like those in DSotSC.

[ July 10, 2003, 17:20: Message edited by: Echon ]

 

I agree. I really hated that the Paladin had such Übercharacter stuff while guys like the bard and ranger had almost nothing new good.