Icewind Dale 2 : Enhanced Edition (Open Source Community)

[Shillitron]

For those who don't know, there's an open source community Enhanced Edition created for IWD2. (The thing Beamdog said was impossible because they didn't have source code)

I've tried it out and it's pretty amazing, it's actually better than Beamdog's EE.. Lol.

Now.. warning, this comes with ALOT of changes to IWD2 but they are all 100% optional.. so if you just want the better performance and AOE loot / Quality of life, then say No to all Weidu components. I will say though that a lot of the improvements are pretty cool, especially around adding additional feats / spells and improving creature AI.

There's an item overhaul that I'm sorta iffy on. IWD2 items in general were ********, 95% of them are worthless and 5% of them are god tier game ruining.. I dunno how I feel about this EE's interpretation of it though.

Last minor note: The EE leverages LUA injected scripts so the potential for modding IWD2 has gone up quite a bit and if you look at the added feats (all of them based on 3.5E PnP in some way) you can tell they've done a lot of stretching of the IE engine.

Anyways here's the Link:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/8 ... s-released

----

The Enhanced Edition also optionally adds NPC's that can join your party, they are all NPC's from the main story, so between the EE and the IWD2NPC project (below), you can add about 15-20 recruitable NPC's to the game - if you wanted to play IWD2 more as a single character Baldurs Gate game or something.

(The NPC's all have full dialogue, banter , etc)

https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/iwd2npc/

[Acrux]

IWD2 is my most played IE game. I joined the mod's beta initially just to mock it, but parts of it grew on me.

BTW, the ****** who started the project dropped out a few years ago. He mostly worked on the new joinable NPCs from what I can tell.

The fix to sneak attack is the best part of the mod.
Itemization is way over the top.
Most of the class changes are an improvement, but it doesn't follow 3.x rules at all. Under-performing classes from vanilla get a boost, and there are some nice surprises like druids having access to the wildshape casting feat.
New spells are OP.
Skills are much better now and are used in interesting ways.
The addition of Attacks of Opportunity is great.
Enemies have new abilities and the scripting for enemy spellcasters is pretty good.

It is not a "balanced" game in the traditional sense. It follows the logic that the dev for the Fall From Heaven mod for Civ4 (Kael) used - achieving balance by msking everything OP.

[rusty_shackleford]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

[KnightoftheWind]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

Interesting, haven't heard of this one. There is a similar project for BioWare's Aurora engine (KOTOR, Dragon Age) but it hasn't been active in a while. https://github.com/xoreos/xoreos

[rusty_shackleford]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

Interesting, haven't heard of this one. There is a similar project for BioWare's Aurora engine (KOTOR, Dragon Age) but it hasn't been active in a while. https://github.com/xoreos/xoreos

For kotor 1 & 2 there's reone. It's unfinished but actually gets worked on.
https://github.com/seedhartha/reone

[Shillitron]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

THis thing is vapourware. It's been in development for 200 years and breaks mods last I looked at it.

I want something I can play now.

[rusty_shackleford]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

THis thing is vapourware. It's been in development for 200 years and breaks mods last I looked at it.

I want something I can play now.

I'm sorry it breaks your dragon dildo mods, but it works fine for normal people.

[Shillitron]

New spells are OP.

Really?

The ones I saw in the list were all BG2 spells as best I could tell - no?

(They Moved Dimensional Door to be a level 1 spell - lel)


A lot of the feats just look like IWD2 interpreted 3.5E feats.

Like they added ManyShort and Metamagic feats which is great.
But they also added a feat like "SPELL OF POWER" which gives you 5DR to any spell damage and increases the damage of all spells by 20% ..???

I think I'm willing to give a lot of this OP **** a pass because:
A) It's optional
B) IWD2 Heart of Fury is sorta ridiculous sometimes... The goblins in Targos have something like 200 health and +9 to saves and +10 to attack rolls.

[H-H-Holmes]

Why are you ******* stopping us from making spawn points you ****

[Shillitron]

If you're looking for a project to actually contribute to, I'd suggest GemRB instead. IWD2 is the game that still needs a lot of support to be finished.
https://gemrb.org/
https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/blob/mas ... IBUTING.md

THis thing is vapourware. It's been in development for 200 years and breaks mods last I looked at it.

I want something I can play now.

I'm sorry it breaks your dragon dildo mods, but it works fine for normal people.

Dragon Dildo mods for IE games?
You really are a one trick pony for making arguments.

[Acrux]

New spells are OP.

Really?

The ones I saw in the list were all BG2 spells as best I could tell - no?

There are others. The thing that makes the ones that aren't BG2 spells OP is that they ignore spell resistance and have no saving throw. Sometimes they are really similar to a higher level spell that does require a saving throw.

I think most of the feats are great. I really like the way they implemented some kits/prestige classes as feats. I'd like to see more of those. They also did things like requiring really high levels in ranger for some of the advanced archery/two-weapon fighting feats, which is good. Weapon specalization did get a nerf, though, so taking 5 levels of the feat isn't worth it for +3 damage (iirc). But high level fighters are still pretty good since they can get other feats like whirlwind attack.

The "Spell of Power" feat is definitely OP AND it works with Paladin of Mystra's smite. Combine that with the Exploding Smite feat and PoM is way over the top. I don't see why anyone would choose a different Paladin order (extra healing? pfff; guard another? why)

The greater emphasis on focusing on a single-class by moving around class bonuses is a really strong element of the mod. (No more Monk1/Dreadmaster of Bane1/IllusionistX Deep Gnome monks ). For instance, a monk/druid wouldn't get the bonus AC from Wisdom while wildshaped unless there are more Monk than Druid levels. High level rangers and fighters have access to special feats.

Also, I really like the addition of the Knave's Robe that allows some spells to add sneak attack damage.

B) IWD2 Heart of Fury is sorta ridiculous sometimes...

HoF has always been ridiculous. I was never much of a fan of it. This mod was designed around the expectation that in normal mode a 6-man party can get to around level 15 or 16, and then higher levels requires playing on HoF. The randomized loot tables are different for HoF as well. There are some truly ridiculous weapons/items available there.

But, one thing I think is strange is that some of the components allow you to reduce the difficulty of HoF (lower enemy BAB, HP, or saving throws). I think the combination of that AND the better weapons, spells, etc. works at odds with that.

[rusty_shackleford]

The only proper way to enhance IWD2 is to port it back to AD&D 2E.

[Acrux]

You mean the way to improve the BG EEs is to make them more like IWD2? Sure: https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/tweaks/tof/

(That's the SCS dev, btw.)

[Shillitron]

The only proper way to enhance IWD2 is to port it back to AD&D 2E.

Not gonna make it THAC0 bros.

[Acrux]

@Shillitron - I don't know if you saw, but there was a new update over the weekend, a pretty substantial one. One thing I didn't see listed, but I know Olvyn had mentioned changing, was that the lich at the Fields of Slaughter wasn't flagged as undead. I'd actually been waiting on this change to start a new game, as I wanted to try out some of the turn undead updates - enemy clerics can cast it, and the lich necromancer kit is supposed to be vulnerable.

[Shillitron]

@Shillitron - I don't know if you saw, but there was a new update over the weekend, a pretty substantial one. One thing I didn't see listed, but I know Olvyn had mentioned changing, was that the lich at the Fields of Slaughter wasn't flagged as undead. I'd actually been waiting on this change to start a new game, as I wanted to try out some of the turn undead updates - enemy clerics can cast it, and the lich necromancer kit is supposed to be vulnerable.

Almost done my current run but I'll take a look.

NGL - I was planning another run and your Paladin of Mystra comment sounded kinda fun.

[fkirenicus]

For those who don't know, there's an open source community Enhanced Edition created for IWD2. (The thing Beamdog said was impossible because they didn't have source code)

I've tried it out and it's pretty amazing, it's actually better than Beamdog's EE.. Lol.

Now.. warning, this comes with ALOT of changes to IWD2 but they are all 100% optional.. so if you just want the better performance and AOE loot / Quality of life, then say No to all Weidu components. I will say though that a lot of the improvements are pretty cool, especially around adding additional feats / spells and improving creature AI.

There's an item overhaul that I'm sorta iffy on. IWD2 items in general were ********, 95% of them are worthless and 5% of them are god tier game ruining.. I dunno how I feel about this EE's interpretation of it though.

Last minor note: The EE leverages LUA injected scripts so the potential for modding IWD2 has gone up quite a bit and if you look at the added feats (all of them based on 3.5E PnP in some way) you can tell they've done a lot of stretching of the IE engine.

Anyways here's the Link:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/8 ... s-released

----

The Enhanced Edition also optionally adds NPC's that can join your party, they are all NPC's from the main story, so between the EE and the IWD2NPC project (below), you can add about 15-20 recruitable NPC's to the game - if you wanted to play IWD2 more as a single character Baldurs Gate game or something.

(The NPC's all have full dialogue, banter , etc)

https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/iwd2npc/

I'm playing this now, currently using only the (graphics) fixes. Do you know if it is possible (as in: does it work) to install the feats and item revisions, but not character, spell and creature revisions?

[Acrux]

Item revisions, yes. Just install the component called Item Revisions. They would be very overpowered without the others, though.

I actually don't know which component changes the feats. I assume it's Class Revisions.

[Acrux]

@Shillitron - I don't know if you've seen this, but the next update is going to add "action indicators" of what characters are currently doing. It's similar to the indicators in the Beamdog games. The small indicators mean that the character is moving.

I don't know if it's optional. I'm afraid they may have ruined it with this noise on all the time. I think it was asked for because some of the spells that summon weapons might be bugged and will revert to fists when they run out. This seems like an overkill reaction. But a few people who have tried it (using the master) say they are liking it.

[Shillitron]

@Shillitron - I don't know if you've seen this, but the next update is going to add "action indicators" of what characters are currently doing. It's similar to the indicators in the Beamdog games. The small indicators mean that the character is moving.

I don't know if it's optional. I'm afraid they may have ruined it with this noise on all the time. I think it was asked for because some of the spells that summon weapons might be bugged and will revert to fists when they run out. This seems like an overkill reaction. But a few people who have tried it (using the master) say they are liking it.

It would be really weird if this wasn't a customizable option in the installer.... either way time to make back ups of the older version..

[Acrux]

It would be really weird if this wasn't a customizable option in the installer.... either way time to make back ups of the older version..

Yeah, so far they keep all of the old versions on GitHub.

https://github.com/RedChimera/IWD2EE/releases

[rusty_shackleford]

@Shillitron - I don't know if you've seen this, but the next update is going to add "action indicators" of what characters are currently doing. It's similar to the indicators in the Beamdog games. The small indicators mean that the character is moving.

I don't know if it's optional. I'm afraid they may have ruined it with this noise on all the time. I think it was asked for because some of the spells that summon weapons might be bugged and will revert to fists when they run out. This seems like an overkill reaction. But a few people who have tried it (using the master) say they are liking it.

It would be really weird if this wasn't a customizable option in the installer.... either way time to make back ups of the older version..

@55905=~Action Indicators~
@55906=~Enables action indicators above character portraits. These indicators visually represent the action(s) currently being performed by a character.~

[Acrux]

@DagothGeas5 here's our conversation about the IWD2 EE mod.

Just for fun, here's a video of Sawyer setting up a party using the mod. It's pretty old and has had several updates since then.

[DagothGeas5]

@DagothGeas5 here's our conversation about the IWD2 EE mod.

Just for fun, here's a video of Sawyer setting up a party using the mod. It's pretty old and has had several updates since then.

Love this sort of stuff, thank you yet again Acrux

Edit: I realize I even had it marked and read a few of these, I completely forgot.

[Hyborian]

@DagothGeas5 here's our conversation about the IWD2 EE mod.

Just for fun, here's a video of Sawyer setting up a party using the mod. It's pretty old and has had several updates since then.

Sawyer is a streamer now? Did he get fired from Obsidian?

[Kronus]

@DagothGeas5 here's our conversation about the IWD2 EE mod.

Just for fun, here's a video of Sawyer setting up a party using the mod. It's pretty old and has had several updates since then.

Sawyer is a streamer now? Did he get fired from Obsidian?

Nope, though it would definitely be an improvement.

[Acrux]

There have been a couple of big updates over the past week, after almost a year of nothing.

The two biggest features to my mind are:
Prismatic Wall being added as a new spell
Druids can now spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally spells

Also, the action indicators are NOT optional. They are only mildly annoying though. There's probably a way to turn them off in lua, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

https://github.com/RedChimera/IWD2EE

[Acrux]

Absolutely huge update yesterday. It looks like the biggest things are a new Arcane Archer kit (via feat - I like the way they've done those), Snake Blood feat now makes your character a yuan-ti pureblood, rangers can set traps, and Use Magic Device lets rogues and bards use items they normally can't (actually making it have some use!).

It is now possible to skip many cutscenes by pressing ESC.
The components that weaken HoF enemies have been revised. They now only weaken lower-level enemies, while higher-level enemies are instead strengthened beyond vanilla HoF. Each one also has a subcomponent that only strengthens higher-level enemies without weakening lower-level enemies. More details can be found in the readme.
IWD2EE now has a system for adding custom lingering AoEs similar to Web or Stinking Cloud. Teleport Field and Darkness now have new animations and last longer.
The Use Magic Device skill now allows rogues and bards to equip items even if they don't meet the normal requirements, provided their skill is greater than or equal to a threshold stated in the item description.
New feats: Lingering Damage, and Arcane Archer!
The "kit feats" will now display the name of the "kit" in place of the class name on the character record screen, though only for characters created after this update.
The feat Snake Blood now turns the character into a yuan-ti pureblood, essentially serving as a new subrace. Currently I haven't modified any dialogues to recognize this new race (yuan-ti purebloods are pretty good as hiding their true nature), but in the yuan-ti temple in Chapter 5, they will always be treated as wearing the Initiate's Robe even if they aren't.
The feat Opportunist can be taken a second time. The second rank makes it so any attack of opportunity done by the character is automatically a sneak attack (based on the Sneak Attack of Opportunity feat from the Epic Level Handbook).
The feat Mobility can also be taken a second time. The second rank prevents you from provoking any attacks of opportunity due to moving out of an enemy's attack range.
The feats Arterial Strike and Hamstring no longer cost sneak attack damage, though the two feats are still mutually exclusive. Arterial Strike and Crippling Strike now scale up to level 50.
Rogues have gone back to getting a bonus feat every 3 levels after level 10 rather than stopping at level 22.
Traps with a disarm difficulty higher than 100 now can only be disarmed by a character with 8 or more rogue levels.
The difficulty of locks on HoF is now increased by 15 * the chapter count (15 in the prologue, 30 in Chapter 1), as is the detection and disarm difficulty of traps. Every additional 5 difficulty means that the character needs 1 more point in the corresponding skill to unlock/detect/disarm it. This will not affect the plot-critical locks in the Targos docks.
The second rank in Dodge now requires 18 rogue levels.
Improved Sneak Attack now requires 3 rogue levels per rank in the feat (3 rogue levels to take the first rank, 6 rogue levels to take it again, etc.)
Improved Critical now doubles the base critical threat range of the character's weapons, as in 3E. This change is retroactive.
As in 3.5E, Power Attack is now twice as effective if the character is wielding their weapon in two hands.
A character now needs at least 5 barbarian levels for barbarian rage to last a number of additional rounds equal to their Constitution bonus.
As in 3.5E, Barbarians now get Greater Rage at level 11, Tireless Rage at level 17, and Mighty Rage at level 20. Also, their rage will give another +2 to Strength and Constitution and +1 to Will saves for every 4 levels after 20, all the way up to level 48 with +22 to Strength and Constitution (or +25 with 3 ranks in Improved Rage).
A barbarian of 21st-level or higher can now increase their Strength beyond 40. Strength values beyond 40 will not grant higher maximum inventory weight, but will continue to increase attack and damage with applicable weapons, and increase their ability to force open locks.
A monk's Wisdom bonus to AC now cannot exceed the character's monk level. The previous restriction on shapeshifting has been removed.
Sorcerers gain a new ability at level 16, which makes it so when they use one or more metamagic abilities, the new level of the spell is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1 over the original level.
The feat Lingering Song has been replaced with a feat that slightly increases the bonuses granted by the bard songs that affect allies.
The Ballad of Three Heroes (which gives the effects of three other songs simultaneously) has been moved to a ridiculously high level that isn't accessible in most playthroughs; this way, the other songs don't have to be balanced around the possibility of them plus two additional songs being active at the same time, so I can make them stronger.
The buff recording keybindings can now be changed in the keyboard options menu.
Bleeding damage now uses its own damage type, and it now tracks the source, so enemies killed by it will grant experience.
Auril's Blessing is now exclusive to enemy clerics of Auril; druids can no longer learn it.
Effects that create an item in a specific inventory slot (e.g. Caernach's Sickle, Quiver of Plenty, and Flame Blade, Ice Blade and Moonblade when cast as a ranger spell) no longer replace the item that was previously in that slot. Caernach's Sickle and Quiver of Plenty will try to create the item in a different slot, and fail if all slots are already occupied. Flame Blade, Ice Blade, and Moonblade when cast as ranger spells will only create weapons in both hands if there are no weapons (or only conjured weapons) in the ranger's fourth weapon set; otherwise it will create a single weapon in the normal conjured weapon slot.
Phantom Blade now deals 3d8 magic damage per hit, and instead of dealing extra damage against undead, it has the ability to hit ghosts and other incorporeal or ethereal creatures consistently, and can connect even when the wielder is ethereal due to the Blink spell.
Lich Touch now deals 1d8+5 base damage per hit (the amount of damage that a lich's touch deals in 3.5E PnP) rather than 3d10+5. Previously it had been doing almost as much damage as Black Blade of Disaster.
Black Blade of Disaster has been changed to a +6 weapon. Wizards and sorcerers are supposed to have much lower attack bonuses than fighters, so they shouldn't be able to make up for it by creating a +10 weapon while the fighter is using a +5 weapon.
Magic Stone and Pebbles to Boulders are now cast at a ranger's full caster level.
Holy Weapon is now cast at a paladin's full caster level as the description implied.
Quicken Spell is back to increasing the level of the spell by 4 like it's supposed to in PnP.
The width of Prismatic Spray has been greatly increased to match its description.
Holy Smite should correctly deal 1d8 per two levels rather than 1d6.
The extra damage that Rainstorm deals against fire-dwelling creatures has been significantly increased, but it no longer deals that damage against cold-dwelling creatures. Smashing Wave also deals significantly more damage against fire-dwelling creatures.
The Set Natural Snare ability now sets a regular polygonal IE trap that can only be set off by enemies, though it cannot be set while enemies are nearby.
Various items and spells that previously gave a flat bonus to Spell Resistance now set Spell Resistance to a large number instead (effects that add a flat amount of spell resistance are problematic, because they don't do anything unless you already have a lot of spell resistance, but they are way too strong if you do already have a lot of spell resistance). If a character has multiple effects that set Spell Resistance, the highest number is used.
Monk spell resistance no longer stacks with drow/deep gnome spell resistance.
Fixed a longstanding bug where bard songs were lasting way longer than they should have, regardless of whether Lingering Song was installed.
Fixed a bug where various spells bypassed Spell Resistance when they weren't supposed to.
Fixed a bug where certain player equipment animations would glitch out if the character had a transparency effect (e.g. chameleon rings, invisibility, blur, mirror image).
Fixed a bug where the descriptions of shields would be messed up if Minor Damage Resistance for Armor and Shields is installed.
Fixed a bug where disarming traps on the ice doors in Chapter 2 would prevent you from getting experience for figuring out how to open them.
Fixed a bug where the version of Flesh to Stone used by certain traps was uncurable by Stone to Flesh.
Fixed a bug where wielding exclusively an off-hand weapon could crash the game.
Fixed a bug where going back after assigning skills for a human in character generation would result in -2 skill points being available the next time you went to assign skills.
Fixed a bug where the bard spell replacement system couldn't replace a spell with another spell that doesn't have a scroll.
Fixed a bug where a character's equipment would not be transferred to the table correctly before entering the Eight Chambers (though this won't be fixed retroactively in saves where you've already accessed the Eight Chambers area).
Fixed a bug where Rakavik's Bracers were launching 10 times as many missiles as they were supposed to.
Fixed a bug where containers were way easier to bash open than they were supposed to be.
Fixed a bug where you could make an attack of opportunity after you ran away from the enemy rather than the other way around.
Fixed a bug where the effects of grappling would persist even after the grappler was incapacitated.
Fixed a bug where certain summoned creatures had abilities that crashed the game when right-clicked.
Fixed a bug where certain AoE spells wouldn't function in the magma chamber in Dragon's Eye if "Shorten the Dragon's Eye time loop questline to a single battle" was installed.
Fixed a vanilla bug where summoned creatures could potentially attack enemies outside of the party's vision without those enemies fighting back.
The post that disables the traps leading up to the entrance of Dragon's Eye now requires a high DC Search check to spot.
The bluff option to access the final battle early now works correctly. It also no longer involves teleportation since in this case the party is in the same place that they should be to start the final battle.
The Guardian now drops scales that can be used to make light armor.
Various enemies in Chapters 5 and 6 have been made tougher.
Chimeras have been made a lot tougher. Given that they're the signature monster of the Legion, and you don't fight them until Chapter 6 when the party has reached high levels, it's reasonable for these chimeras to be a lot stronger than in PnP (similar to the super powerful owlbears in Pathfinder: Kingmaker).
The NearInfinity fork has been updated.