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Sword Coast Stratagems

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Status: Completed

Author: DavidW

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Languages: English, German, Polish, Spanish, French, and Italian

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Sword Coast Stratagems (SCS) is a collection of about 55 mini-mods for BG1Tutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy. SCS is primarily a tactical mod - the idea is to make combat more interesting and tactically challenging, rather than just making it harder by brute-force methods like tripling all the damage rolls. SCS also includes a few ease-of-use features and tweaks.

SCS is primarily a sort of BG1 version of Tactics. It features substantially upgraded general AI (almost all monsters call for help intelligently, choose sensible targets, and use magic items) as well as much better AI for a lot of specific types of creatures (wizards, priests, sirines, basilisks...). It enhances several types of monsters (e.g. spiders and doppelgangers) to be more challenging (hopefully without being ridiculous) and it upgrades the opponents in about 20 of the individual battles, including the end-of-chapter battles in chapters 2-7 and the end-of-quest battles in Tales of the Sword Coast. Basically the idea is to make BG1 rather more tactically challenging, rather than just making it harder by brute-force methods like tripling all the damage rolls. (It's a bit easier than Tactics though, I think!)

SCS also has a few ease-of-use functions, mostly for party-joinable NPCs - NPC pairs (e.g. Khalid and Jaheira) can be broken up without having to kill one of them; NPCs can be sent to inns when they leave the party; you get to choose all NPC weapon proficiencies when they join; you can skip the Candlekeep tutorial and just get the experience and treasure. And it makes a few other miscellaneous tweaks - for instance, it changes the plot a bit on Balduran's Isle, and it moves some NPCs so they are available to join the party rather earlier.

SCS is compatible with BG1Tutu with or without Tales of the Sword Coast. (I believe it's compatible with both the SoA and ToB versions of Tutu but I've only tested it with the ToB version). It seems to be compatible with most other WeiDU mods for Tutu. It isn't compatible with the original version of BG. While SCS was originally designed with a BG-only (i.e., not BGT) install in mind, it now seems to run pretty smoothly on BGT. The range of BGT mods is so huge that it is difficult to give general installation advice; in general, though, SCS should be installed after most BG-content mods but before BG2-content mods, and in particular it should certainly be installed before Big Picture or SCSII. However (for slightly complex reasons) the AI improvements from the Quest Pack need to be installed before SCS (to be precise: before the Durlag's Tower component of SCS).

SCS is broken into about 55 components (each one can be installed independently of the others) in seven categories:

Core Components

  • Detectable Spells
  • Detectable Items
  • Correct various errors on race, class, etc.

Spell Tweaks

  • Make Protection from Normal Missiles affect magical projectiles
  • More consistent Breach spell
  • Antimagic attacks penetrate Improved Invisibility
  • Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach)
  • Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic

Item Tweaks

  • Make elemental arrows more like BG2
  • Replace many magic weapons with fine ones
  • Reintroduce potions of extra-healing

Gameplay Tweaks

  • Standardise spells between BG and BG2
  • Faster bears
  • Allow player to choose NPC proficiencies and skills
  • Allow NPC pairs to separate
  • NPCs go to inns
  • Allow Yeslick to use axes
  • Move NPCs to more convenient locations
  • Improved Shapeshifting
  • Prevent party members from dying irreversibly

Cosmetic and Ease-of-Use tweaks

  • Skip Candlekeep
  • Remove blur effect from displacer cloak
  • Stackable ankheg shells and winterwolf pelts
  • Move Boo out of quick access and into Minsc's pack
  • Ease-of-use player AI
  • Ensure Shar-Teel doesn't die in the original challenge

AI Modifications

  • Smarter general AI
  • Better calls for help
  • Potions for NPCs
  • Smarter Mages
  • Smarter priests
  • Smarter deployment
  • Harder spiders
  • Smarter sirines and dryads
  • Slightly harder carrion crawlers
  • Smarter basilisks

Tactical Challenges

  • Improved doppelgangers
  • Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards
  • Improved Deployment for Parties of Assassins
  • Dark-Side-based kobold upgrade
  • Relocated bounty hunters
  • Improved Ulcaster
  • Improved Balduran's Isle (requires TotSC)
  • Improved Durlag's Tower (requires TotSC)
  • Improved Demon Cultists (requires TotSC)
  • Improved Cloakwood druids
  • Improved Bassilus
  • Improved Drasus party
  • Improved Red Wizards
  • Improved Undercity assassins
  • Improved miscellaneous encounters
  • Tougher end-of-chapter battles
  • Improved final battle (requires TotSC)