Spell Revisions BG2
Spell Revisions is a Baldur's Gate 2 mod for BioWare's cRPG of 2000-2001, Baldur's Gate 2. Spell Revisions is most notable for its revision of Baldur's Gate arcane spells and divine spells. Some spells are made more useful, some are nerfed and some are removed and replaced with others. cf. BG2 Best Spells.
For example, Spell Revisions strengthens circles 1-3 Monster Summoning Spells BG2. In addition, we now have access to circles 4-8 Monster Summoning spells. In addition to that, several summoned monsters are scripted to cast spells, move about and activate abilities. In short, SR makes MS spells and animal summoning spells more useful. And fun. Especially if we remove the summon cap with Ding0's Tweak Pack or Tweaks Anthology.
Spell Revisions should be paired with Item Revisions.
Note that Spell Revisions changes BG2 itemization (spell properties and spell scroll locations) as well as AD&D 2nd Edition rules. SR is not for purists or casuals. SR is for players that are trying to balance BG2 or make BG2 more interesting to play.
However, mere revisions are not enough to tame Mage BG2 and other spellcasters. What spellcasters need -- both arcane and divine, but mostly arcane -- is a massive nerfing of their repertoires. Not just the odd OP spell but rather entire spell schools -- or rather spell types -- need to be removed from BG2 if we want to even the playing field as it pertains to wizard vs warrior. This COULD be done, it would make for a better cRPG if done correctly, but it would of course be a non-trivial undertaking.
The wizard and the warrior would still be fundamentally different, but the wizard would be unable to instantly OWN the warrior. Instead, the wizard can only wear the warrior down, just as the warrior can only wear the wizard down (by dispersing Mirror Image and chewing through Stoneskin). Other than that -- and this is just an example -- the wizard only has its meatshields (summons and gates) -- which in this example would be completely revamped to give wizards more to work with -- but all meatshields would be able to be dealt with by mundane means; that is, a big stick.
The wizard CANNOT become impervious to damage or inscrutable to targeting through long-duration or easily re-castable wards and illusions. In addition, the wizard cannot insta-kill, immobilize or otherwise divide & conquer, but rather only buff, debuff and inflict magic, elemental and para-elemental damage. That is how the playing field can be evened -- by getting rid of cheesy I WIN buttons.
In SR on the original BG2 (pristine installation), some scroll icon graphics (the bitmap) do NOT display at all when in vendor or character inventories (only their selection bounding boxes are displayed). The icons properly appear in spellbooks, though, and the scrolls can still be read, scribed and used in the normal manner.
Spell Revisions should be installed AFTER IWDification, not before. Spell Revisions is only about 90% compatible with IWDification if Spell Revisions is installed before IWDification. If IWDification is installed after SR, IWDification will (in some cases) overwrite SR spells. In addition, attempting to cast IWDification Monster Summoning spells crashes the game.
On the other hand, SR overwrites IWD spells if installed after IWDification. But at least we have the SR summoning spells with lots of other IWD spells, and casting them doesn't crash the game. One oddity is that we will have two different Monster Summoning VII spells, each with their own summon: one at 7th (SR) and one at 9th (IWDification). But all other IWD MS spells are overwritten because they share the same ID and circle.
Let me be clear: In terms of design, Spell Revisions summoning spells are far superior to IWDification or SCS BG2 summoning spells. Thus, I recommend prioritizing SR over any IWD employment.
- Spell Revisions core component
- Deva BG2 and Planetar BG2 Animations
- Mirror Image Fix
- Dispel Magic Fix
- Update Spellbooks of Joinable NPCs (Baldur's Gate companions)
- Revised Warrior HLAs (BG2 HLAs)
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