Modifiying spell/day

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I'm thinking of trying something different in my second run through of Baldur's Gate. When I was first starting out, I tried playing a pure mage. Unfortunetly, I quickly got frustrated at the lack of spells a low-level mage has. Even my later expereince with Dynaheir had the problem of running out of spells too soon in the mines (both Naskel and Cloakwood)
Since the game caps you around 7th level (4th level spells), I was thinking of editing the .2da file to give my wizards twice the spells of normal 2E 2&D rules. I realize that most people will say this will unbalance the spellslingers, but the point is to have fun with them. Besides, it always seemed to me that spellcasters in D&D rules had very little magic (and hence endurance) for a class with such pathetic fighting abilities. When you think of Wizards, you don't expect them to be limited to only one spell a day, but to be able to cast tons of spells before being exhausted.

I have a question about the game engine though, is there enough room in the character files for a worst case scenario of a Cleric/Mage with max exp and both the Ring of Wizardry and the Ring of Holyness, or would doing so crash the game? I already found the .2da with the help of some googling and a couple of programs called infinity explorer and Near Infinity; modifiying it seems simple enough, but I can't find any info on how much space is available for spell slots in the character files, especially when stored in in-game memory. I'll probably give the clerics and bards some more spells as well.

 

There is maximum space for 9 spellslots in the magebook. you can add more, but you will not be able to see them. wich means that for radical changes in your spellbook you need ot remove all, and then start planning and clicking the ones you want from head.

Example, a Specialist Wizard at level 9 would have 5 first level spells (from memory, might be subject to fault) with one ring of wizardry he would doulbe this to 10 spells at level 1 spells. This means that you will see 9 spells in the book, and not the last one.

This got insane with the unpatched version where there is 2 rings of wizardry in the game 20 level 1 spells was certainlly nothing to sneeze at. Heck back in unpatched there was never really any problem with mage staying power either. Specialist wizard, level 2 had 3 level 1 spells, add on the hidden ring of wizardry and you had 6 spells. enough to cause some carnage in every fight.

If you want to edit the number of spells for wizards etc, just use a program that can extract .2da files (NearInfinity or WinBiff for example) and extract teh default.bif file, should be some files named something like "splran.2da" etc, that should be the spellcasting for rangers, shoudl be similar files starting with same letters for all the other classes as well. you can edit with notepad, .2da is just a normal text file.

Another alternative, is to use BG1TUTU, that way you can paly sorcerer isntead of wizard, you get less spells, but you do get to use them often enough.

Or just do as eveyone else does. start as human with some class you think is fun, cleric, fighter, thief etc. and then reaching level 3 or 5 or such dualclass. by then you shoul dhave a team of level 4-5's that can beat up big monsters so you will level up from level 1 wizard to level 4 with no problem.

 

What I was concerned with was if I gave each spell level say 9 spells, that once I got the Ring of Wizardry and could memorize 18 spells each that it would cause the game to crash or misbehave due to running out of space to store the spells. Especially if I had a multiclassed character such as a cleric/mage. I didn't know that the Ring of Wizardry would stack since I only found one. I don't have Tales of the Sword Coast.

 

I don't think that it would crash, but because of the GUI you might only see and be able to choose the first twelve slots of every spell type and level.

 

Pick up Edwin instead of being a mage yourself. Equip him with the two rings of wizardary and you should have more than enough first level spells to make you happy. I believe you get 20 or so.

 

I belive one of my wizards (with dark side of teh swoard cost isntalled (added a mage robe or something that doubled level 1 spells AGAIN)) i was closer to 40 spells a day of level 1.

no crash, just a big big big pain when you want to change the number of some spells. Example if you removed 5 sleep and magic missles to add on more identify's. the indentify spells was located at slot 35-40 WAY out of screen. so to remove those i had to remove all the other spells so i could start memorising new from scratch.

Really, 9 of each spells is just boring. add on one or two of each spell level would still make it much more interesting. without unbalancing it to much. (Level 3 wizard have 2x level1 spells,and 1x level 2 spell. inrease to 4 and 3 respectivelly. aprox what a sorcerer would have.)

 

Why do you ever want to wear a ring of wizardry or holiness if you get the number of spells you want by editing your files ?

I'd also use an XPCapRemover. It doesn't change game mechanics(level5 spells are described in the manual after all) and spells are more powerful when cast by a level 10 cleric/mage.

 

Because wearing a ring of wizardary is not hacking the game files were editing your file is. That's why. Some of us actually enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played.

 

¨Personally, i think this is a flaw in the magic system of D&D in general. the entire memorisation, and number of magic available at any one given day is anoying. both in P&P and in CRPG. But thats how they are buildt, and we wil just have to live with it.

3E improove da bit on this by giving you lots of cantrips to cast around. the main point of these was to ahve some crappy spells to throw araound just to have lots of spells, they are s useless for most situations that a sling does more damag and effect that the frost ray for example