Bhaalpowers
Addition allows the player to gain new abilities after
completing each challenge in the Abyssal Pocket Plane that
were originally planned; the abilities will appear under the
"special ability" icon and which ones are received
depends on the dialog with the Solar prior to each challenge.
As David Gaider explained: "We originally had planned
out some Bhaalspawn powers that the player would accumulate
after doing the challenges in the pocket plane. It was scrapped
because it was thought that these extra abilities plus all
the high-level abilities would get too confusing. All of the
abilities are still in the game, though, so it was minor scripting
to add them back in for those people who would like to try
them."
As the abilities were originally by designer intention, and
removed only because of possible confusion and not due to
throwing off game balance, they can be called a "tweak."
The most recent (minor) update adds the full descriptions
of the abilities into the ReadMe, as several players were
wondering what the abilities did.
Original
Tougher Demogorgon v2.1 restores the Prince Of Demons
to his originally planned difficulty, before he was "toned
down" for game balance. If you're looking for a challenge,
you might want to give this a try. The update to this patch
provided by David Gaider corrects Demogorgon's "beguiling
gaze" and his domination of any demons the player should
happen to gate in.
Improved Tougher
Illasera greatly increases the difficulty of this first
Throne Of Bhaal encounter, adding to her skills, weapons,
AI and the strength of her group.
David Gaider adds: "It is not very high difficulty..
As a battle right at the beginning of the game shouldn't be..
But it does make Illasera a credible opponent and member of
the Five. She's a ranger/archer now, which was her original
concept before we were forced to make the battle much, much
easier (since people could potentially meet her with a single,
newly-created sorcerer.. And since the fight was unavoidable,
those who couldn't get past it would be quite frustrated.)
This version makes it so that you always meet the tougher
Illasera as well as all her companions, so those who go into
ToB with a weak character might want to stick with the original
version."
Note: If you are soloing with
a newly created character with few abilities, she might prove
overly difficult.
Improved Tougher
Gromnir adds new creatures, AI and abilities to the battle
with Gromnir Il-Khan.
In David Gaider's description: "It's just a little
spruce-up to a fight that I thought was a little boring..
It makes Gromnir a bit more formidable and gives both him
and the other Bhaalspawn with him some extra abilities and
better scripting. I'm told it's of moderate difficulty but
quite fun."
The bug with Gromnir fleeing the scene has been fixed, as
well as the problem caused by the fix file (which may have
been corrupted in transit) where Gromnir just stood around.
Improved
Tougher Yaga Shura improves the size and variety of Yaga
Shura's army, Yaga Shura's toughness and AI.
As David Gaider's put it: "This mod makes the last
fight with Yaga-Shura a bit more of a tussle.. the army spawns
have been increased in number and given better AI (as well
as had some low-level mages and clerics thrown into the mix).
Yaga-Shura himself has been given some better powers and AI,
including his lieutenants.. and his invulnerability slowly
wears off during the course of the battle with him, making
this fight a bit trickier. One caution: a couple of times
crashes were reported soon after Yaga-Shura reappears. I was
not able to verify if this was due to a specific bug or due
to too much graphic overload, but it does seem to be rare
regardless."
Note: if you have to play BG2
on "Minimal" setting, this may be a bit too much
for your system. The update for adds two of the script files
from the Improved Gromnir battle shared by this one which
were changed (and debugged) by David Gaider.
Improved
Tougher Balthazar was created by the request of experienced
players who wanted this battle to be more difficult.
David Gaider elaborates: "Basically, this is just
an optional patch for those people who found Balthazar too
easy. Don't know how much tougher this makes him, but at the
very least it's more fun. Balthazar uses his abilities more
often and teleports across a farther range...and his pupils
that fight with him have been buffed and each given one of
his special abilities." The AR5505.BCS file
has been removed from this update as some people were still
having problems with game continuation post-battle even with
the debugged version; if you have an older version of this
update, simply delete the AR5505.BCS file from your Baldur's
Gate II Override folder.
Improved
Tougher Abazigal adds new creatures, spells and AI into
this battle for high difficulty.
David Gaider's commentary: "Some of the posters were
recommending a multiple-dragon battle, so I added in some
smaller drakes and a purple dragon into the Abazigal fight.
The AI has been tweaked heavily as well, blending in the mobility
of Draconis (whom many thought was tougher than his father).
It's quite the fight, now.. NOT for the faint of heart.. but
I'm told it's quite fun."
Note: if you have to play BG2
on "Minimal" setting, this may be a bit too much
for your system. Dave's v1.1 of this patch changes Abazigal's
AI so that he won't Tail Slap or Shockwave during a Time Stop.
David Gaider's Disclaimer:
While provided by a Bioware employee, these files are
not to be taken as part of the official release of Throne
of Bhaal and should be considered equivalent to a third-party
game addition or modification. BioWare does not guarantee
that these files will work with your copy of the game. They
are being provided solely due to requests for game enhancements,
such as to experience certain game elements before they were
removed or changed for game-balance or other reasons. |