Epic Endeavours *MOD* *spoilers*

[thebannedone]

If you dont feel like reading all this essential text for whatever reason but still want to get some epic battles into your game and want the element of suprise of not knowing when you stumble into one, then just go and grab the epic.zip attachment from the end and uncompress/unzip it into your BG2 OVERRIDE folder on top of any other mods, but if you wanna have more info about the content of the mod and possible compatibility problems with other mods then continue reading by all means.

This tactical challenge mod of mine will make already existing battles in the game to a whole new level of epicness. Part of it is based on my previous 'Epic Jon and Friends mod', but all the stuff that were in it have been updated and fixed, so those that tried(if anybody did) it, will find the old battles different(atleast somewhat).

So heres what this baby will do to your game:

-Generally there are only two things that have been changed: I fixed more regenerations to creatures who had them broken(i mean broken in the original game without any mods), they are almost all creatures who reside in Watchers Keep. But i also decided to lower the regeneration rates of some of them at the sametime to more humane levels, cause creatures like Demogorgon could regenerate 12+hp when improve hasted in half a second real time(is 1 second game time with 30fps), which i didnt find balanced for most classes, so i lowered the rates to 1hp per sec for most of them(most of these are perma hasted so they actually regenerate 2hp), and 2hp per sec for those who had such a sum originally or more but arent perma hasted or capable of hasting themselves.

The only other thing generally is that i gave Balors vorpal hit a save chance(-2 against death like planetars have), this i did because originally they could vorpal you with a 15% and no save, and that is very bad cause there are only two things in the game that can protect you from a vorpal hit(Hindo's Doom +4 and Avoid Death HLA). Notice though that not all Balors can vorpal. But i also increased the chance to vorpal to 25%, but still i think that is more balanced than getting vorpal hitted on every critical from a Balor with a 15%, when not being able to wield Hindo's or having Avoid Death.

-Okay now the battles that this will upgrade to epicness: First theres the Epic Irenicus which you might have read about in my previous thread. This battle is of course the one you have with him in the Finale at Hell. Mostly what i did compared to the old version is make him even smarter, so i havent beefed up his stats or anything, he just uses his spells with more wisdom...hopefully, also fixed a "bug" in his special ability. If you didnt read about him before then lets just say you wont yourself fighting the grizzly slayer anymore, but the most Epic Mage you have probably ever encountered, who also looks and sounds like Irenicus.

-Then theres the Epic Demogorgon(no they wont be called Epic 'whatever' in the game...who's AI i totally revamped from the old version, his stats remain pretty much the same(hp little lower, regen A LOT lower), but you will find him a lot smarter and deadlier in every aspect, and wont be the wuzzy he was originally or in the 'Ascension' mod, and you actually get to kill him!

-Another oldie is the fight with Cyric's favoureds, except now Cyric Himself wants a piece of that cute bhaalspawn butt of yours. Theres only 3 tweaks really when comparing to the old version, mostly to give him some chance atleast against particular classes, and wont butcher his favoured ones now. Hes a very powerful straightforward melee character...who doesnt like to get hit...but is still quite the pushover for some classes i think.

-Ah the first new epic encounter since the last version is the optional fight with Jarlaxle the leader of Bregan D'aerthe mercenery group. I totally changed him from his old boring plain fighterself, now you will find him the crafty trickster that he really is, and he brought a suprise(probably not so much for the people who have read the books) guest to have fun with you. Both of them can do what you can do with their respective classes pretty much, although they take shortcuts in few turns cause you can enter this battle fully buffed afterall. Visaj the rope fellow, him i did not touch, though a mod like 'Tactics' will of course upgrade his AI. Jarlaxle can be met after obtaining the rope from Visaj in the Underdark city and entering the Liches tower, to fight him you have to get mad and insist on fighting him after you kill the lich and getting teleported back to him when you have the jewels, just telling this if someone wasnt aware of how to actually fight Jarlaxle.

-The second new Epic confrontation is another optional battle, the one with Drizzt Do'Urden and his crew. There will be two extra suprise guests in this battle aswell, so the total size of their party is now um *counts*..7! well okay 8 if you count Guenhwyvar. So what to expect from this fight, well expect a fully equipped party with items similar to what you have at that point, um very high levels(hey its Drizzt for *beep* sake!), and proper saving throws, ac, thac0, resistances, abilities etc. from all of them, well Drizzt has his drow magic resistance as before(didnt touch that), high attack number(didnt touch that), and AC(um almost didnt touch that), so hes the only one with abnormal stats if compared to a chr of similar class,race, level and items of your own. Also they will use just about all the abilities,items and spells in their disposal the same way you would, only the spellcasters cheat with couple of their spells to make them function better. Dont presume for example that if you dont perma kill someone they wont come back to "haunt" you, cause you wont be the only one who can resurrect anymore. So expect to get raped by their awesomeness and you wont be disappointed, expect the opposite and you get a nice suprise quite likely.

-Okay so i still havent endeavoured myself into Weidu installation method, so you have to do with a simple .zip file attachment that i will provide at the end of this post, that you uncompress/unzip to your BG2 OVERRIDE folder(where just about all mods install their content to) and override files when it asks to do so. (Best backup that you can keep when adding mods to your game is to keep a fresh copy of your override folder after installation and official patch.)

If you want to use this with Tactics and Ascension, i recommend installing Tactics first and dont install the Improved Irenicus part, then adding this on top of it, then install Ascension and dont install the Improved Demogorgon from it, or you can add this straight on top of Tactics and Ascension.

The only thing probably that wont work then is that you wont gain bhaalspawn abilities from the challenges.

Okay if you did either you should be good to go without starting a new game, aslong as you havent visited the areas in question in your ongoing game.

If you do install Ascension on top of this then i dont guarantee that the battle with Cyric works properly, since i dont remember if they touched that challenge, and if the script extending method of Weidu works the way i hope it does. Well worst case that would happen in that fight is that you get Cyric against you, but the battle ends without having to kill him, or you wont get him at all, so no big deal really, unless your really looking forward to fighting him.

About compatibility with any other mods i cant guarantee(especially when installing them on top of this), but with logical thinking you can work it out, aslong as your aware if those other mods change these particular fights/individuals somehow, and want this to work, apply this on top of those other mods, but if your unaware or know they do change them, then apply this on top of them, simply cause you want to try it out!

I still havent received any feedback, bug reports etc. from my previous version of this mod, so i really hope this time someone will have the guts to try these battles out(even if you cant have it in freaking WEIDU), and tell me their thoughts about them.

Just dont install this if your NOT looking for extreme difficulty, and when talking about difficulty, remember theres other difficulty settings in the game than just INSANE, but if you can beat these battles on insane difficulty(atleast without cheesing, which you will find hard to do hopefully) then thats awesome!

Oh and this mod wont add any custom content to the game in the form of items or spells(you do get loot but its legit stuff), and is meant to played with the original game items and spells, and should be multiplayer compatible with players who doesnt have it installed if your hosting, so they shouldnt crash out hopefully.

[thebannedone]

Updated! And recommend that one would re-download it if one has already, cause of the lil problem mentioned below.

-Fixed a loop that would happen if you'd perma kill someone(chunked, melted, burned, frozen) or stone them in the Jarlaxle and Drizzt fights, which would cause those people who could resurrect to try resurrecting the perma killed ones in vain until their rods of resurrections would ran out of charges.

-Also fixed couple of other very minor issues.

[thebannedone]

Updated again!

-Tried making Irenicus more balanced, especially against classes with no dispel/breach possibility, so basicly made it easier to get trough his protections, and removed his regeneration. Also added more variation to what creatures he will summon.

-Cut Demogorgon's timestop durations by half, to give a better chance to survive them.

-Fixed a regeneration for one creature in the game (Shambling Mounds, not the one you can summon with the staff of the Woodlands though, since it doesnt have any).

Still eagerly waiting for anykind of feedback, bug reports, ideas etc.

[thebannedone]

Updated again!

-Added some new features to the battle with Irenicus, for example a new epic spell that he uses.

-Balanced and fixed couple of things also in the battle with Irenicus.

-Changed/extended the final cutscene that starts after you defeat Irenicus to a much more nicer one.

[Crenshinibon]

I've tried this mod out and it runs well and can, to a certain extent, support multiplayer games with only the host having it installed.

The fights are improved significantly, though the Jarlaxle fight is newly added, featuring a surprise guest from one of R.A. Salvatore's books.

The fights are improved, granting the enemies abilities close to those of the PCs, and also introducing some new (rather existing but previously unobtainable) items to the game. It is possible to solo almost all of the battles.

[thebannedone]

Updating again cause some technical malfunction had wiped empty the script that Irenicus is using since the last update, and i didnt notice it until today, so if anybody downloaded the mod since the latest update then they *SHOULD* get it again. Also made some small AI tweaks.

[thebannedone]

Hey ya! Its me Imo...nah its just me. Just wondering if anybody has tried any of the modded battles and would like to offer some feedback about them, i would *REALLY* love to hear some opinions/ideas, cause i feel a bit of an itch to mod something again for BG2.

[fable]

Moved at the thread starter's request to the SoA forum.

[thebannedone]

Updating!

-Added new features to the fight with Irenicus, mostly for a party of 2 or more.

-Nerfed Demogorgon by removing his regeneration(still regenerates from constitution), and making him gate in demons less often.

-Fixed some minor bugs/issues

I'll attach another .zip for the mod on this post, one that only has the required files for the modified battles(Hell Irenicus, Drizzt, Jarlaxle, Demogorgon, Cyric), but not the files for the restored/fixed creatures with regeneration. Doing this because there are mods that probably modify those creatures, by appointing them different scripts etc., so this will help with compatibility when installing this mod on top of other mods, and also if someone doesnt want those creatures to regenerate, also doesnt include the faster forging cutscene for Cromwell.